A look back at the Bantams' five previous promotions.

1995-96

The foundations for City's Premier-ship promotion came in 1995-96 when they won promotion from the Second Division on that never to be forgotten day at Wembley when they beat Notts County 2-0 in the play-off final, cheered on by 30,000 of their own fans.

City had replaced manager Lennie Lawrence with Chris Kamara in mid-season and looked like missing out on their play-off ambitions in early March, but they edged into sixth place after winning nine and losing only three of their last 13 matches.

They clinched their place in the play-offs with a tension filled 3-2 win at Hull to earn themselves a play-off semi-final against third place Blackpool.

Unfortunately, they flopped in the home leg in front of a near capacity crowd of 14,273 and were beaten 2-0 to set up a daunting task in the second leg at Blackpool three days later.

Fortunately, City rose to the occasion magnificently at Bloomfield Road, pulling a goal back four minutes before half time before scoring twice more in the second half for a 3-0 win to go through 3-2 on aggregate.

City's goalscoring heroes on that memorable night were Carl Shutt, Des Hamilton and Mark Stallard.

That victory sparked unprecedented interest in Bradford with people clamouring for tickets, scarves, hats and shirts for City's first ever appearance at Wembley.

City fans who dominated the crowd of 39,972 saw Hamilton give the side a seventh minute lead and Stallard made sure of victory with their second goal 16 minutes from the end to unleash some memorable celebrations which culminated with a civic reception the following day.

1984-85

By far the most outstanding achievement was winning the old Third Division Championship in 1985 - master-minded by shrewd player manager Trevor Cherry and his inspirational assistant Terry Yorath.

It ended a barren run of 48 years in the lower divisions of the league and heralded a brighter modern era.

The championship triumph was all the more remarkable, coming just two years after City's future hung in the balance during an anxious summer when the club went into liquidation.

They were rescued by Stafford Heginbotham and Jack Tordoff with receiver Peter Flesher who later joined the board playing a key role behind the scenes.

The foundations for promotion were laid the season before, when, after winning only one of their first 15 matches, City embarked on a club record run of ten consecutive wins and eventually finished a creditable seventh.

By this time, Cherry had assembled a team of ambitious young players like Stuart McCall, Greg Abbott, Chris Withe, Mark Ellis and Don Goodman.

The experience was provided by captain Peter Jackson, goalkeeper Eric McManus, Terry Gray, Joe Cooke, the legendary Bobby Campbell, John Hawley and of course Cherry, himself.

Two significant signings were made in the 1984 close season, defender Dave Evans from Halifax Town to partner Jackson and winger John Hendrie from Coventry, surely one of City's best ever free transfer signings.

City took over at the top of the table by beating Millwall 3-1 at home at the end of November and they never lost their place at the summit.

Such was their consistency that they lost only five of their last 32 matches and they achieved promotion with a 4-0 win at Cambridge with four matches left to play.

Then, after losing their next two matches against Bournemouth (away) and Reading (home) they made sure of the championship with a 2-0 win at Bolton on May Bank Holiday Monday with goals from McCall and leading scorer Campbell.

The championship trophy was presented at Valley Parade before City's last home match the following season.

However, less than an hour after Jackson had led his team-mates round the pitch in a lap of honour, City's moment of triumph turned to tragedy when the main stand was burned down just before half time and 56 people lost their lives - a dreadful human tragedy that put football firmly in its place.

1981-82

Player manager Roy McFarland's only complete season at Valley Parade heralded the start of the vastly more successful modern era.

City badly needed some star quality to lift a mid-table side and the former England and Derby County centre half, shrewdly assisted by Mick Jones provided it with virtually an unchanged squad.

The commanding McFarland was an inspiration to the lesser players around him and City set a promotion pace virtually from the start.

After taking only one point from their first two fixtures they equalled a club record of nine consecutive wins before losing at home to their championship rivals Sheffield United.

The Sheffield club won the Fourth Division title by five points, but City were worthy runners-up as they finished with 91 points, ending the season with an unbeaten run of six matches - four wins and two draws.

City owed much to their strike force of Bobby Campbell and David McNiven who scored 24 and 19 league goals respectively.

Other senior players, like full backs Ces Podd and Garry Watson, Peter Jackson and Joe Cooke, returning to the club from Oxford, Les Chapman, Mick Wood and David Staniforth made significant contributions along with youngsters like Barry Gallagher and Peter Jackson.

Gallagher, the club's penalty expert, was third leading scorer with 16 goals in an outstanding season.

1976-77

After five years in the Fourth Division, City but went up in 1976-77 under the guidance of manager Bobby Kennedy, who saw his side clinch promotion with a 1-1 draw at home to Bournemouth in the penultimate match of the campaign.

City had led the table in November, but although they could not maintain that lofty position they comfortably secured fourth position with a team led by Rod Johnson and including such stalwarts as Joe Cooke, goalkeeper Peter Downsborough, Ian Cooper, John Middleton, David Fretwell, Ces Podd, Gerry Ingram and Terry Dolan while striker Bernie Wright was a significant late season signing.

1968-69

City went up to the Third Division by securing fourth place in 1968-9 under manager Jimmy Wheeler after a thrilling second-half-of-season which saw them lose only one of their last 23 matches.

Promotion looked to be light years away when City lost 1-0 at home to Workington on December 28, leaving them in 16th place.

However, such was their consistent record from then onwards that they went 21 matches unbeaten.

And their next defeat did not come until May 5 at Brentford.

That left them needing to win in their last match of the season at promotion rivals Darlington to clinch a place in the Third Division.

City went a goal down, but goals by their Bradford-born strikers, Bobby Ham and Bruce Bannister and own goal gave them a 3-1 win and a night to remember for the huge band of City fans in the 11,851 crowd.

It was a winner-takes-all affair for Darlington knew that they too would have gained promotion had they won. But defeat left them trailing in fifth place.

That season, City possessed a vastly experienced squad. It contained men like goalkeepers Pat Liney and John Roberts, full backs Denis Atkins and Ian Cooper, defenders Barry Swallow and Tom Hallett, wingers John Hall and Peter Middleton and, strikers Ham, Bannister, Tony Leighton and Charlie Rackstraw.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.