Few Bantams’ fans will have travelled 38,400 miles and spent £4,000 cheering on their team since January.

But come Saturday, May 18, Bradford City fire survivor Philip Ideson will be able to make that claim.

The 34-year-old flew from his home in California to watch Phil Parkinson’s men slay Aston Villa 3-1 in the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg in January and returned to the UK for the club’s Wembley final against Premier League Swansea in February.

And now, less than three months later, he will be making the journey once more for Bantams’ League Two play-off final against Northampton – while his wife Beth, 33, who is heavily pregnant with their first child, waits at home in Orange County.

“My heart definitely ruled my head this time with the cost of coming over again, and also the fact that my wife is 30 weeks pregnant,” said Philip, who will arrive in the UK on the Thursday before the final and fly home on the Sunday afterwards.

“However, once again, it was my wife who was the one that told me I should go because you only live once.

“I had planned not to go. The win at Burton was fantastic because we had made it to the final, but tinged with some sadness that I wouldn’t be able to go.

“But a couple of days of contemplating the fact that City were going to be at Wembley without me made me realise that I had to be there.”

Mr Ideson, who moved to the US from Skipton in 2005, will begin his journey on the Wednesday before the final, travelling from Los Angeles to Manchester, arriving Thursday morning, heading back again at 7am Sunday morning.

The dad-to-be, who fled the stadium blaze which claimed the life of 56 fans in 1985, said: “I will stay at home in Skipton, and we are driving down to Wembley and back on the day.

“I never thought of London as a weekend destination from LA.

“I don’t yet have the excitement or anticipation as I did for the League Cup final.

“Maybe that is because we had the thrill of the build-up and being at Wembley only a few weeks ago.

“I hope this works to our advantage and the players feel the same so we can just focus on the game. This is definitely more important than the League Cup.

“I feel that we have to be favourites for the game – Northampton have been on pretty poor form, but as we have found out time after time this year, you never really know.

“I'm hopeful. When we beat Burton I felt that we would beat Northampton because it was our fate – but as the game gets closer I am getting more nervous.”