Paul Jewell was today holding a double celebration after landing the First Division manager of the month award on the eve of his first anniversary as Bradford City boss.

His honour comes after an outstanding December when the Bantams won four of their five matches and drew the other one.

It was a wonderful ways to celebrate his first 12 months in charge at Valley Parade and Jewell said: "I am obviously delighted, but I think it is an award for the club, my assistant Chris Hutchings, the coaching staff and the players, the chairman and the supporters. It is a team effort on and off the field.

"You don't get awards unless the team are doing well so full credit to the players."

Football League director of communications Peter Rowe said: "We looked at all the managers in contention of which Paul Jewell was one.

"The others were Trevor Francis at Birmingham and Colin Todd at Bolton, but on Paul's results in December it took us less than ten seconds to decide he was the winner."

City's bounced back in style in December after losing successive matches against Huddersfield Town away and QPR at home.

They faced tricky away matches at Oxford and Swindon after those defeats, but beat Oxford 1-0 and Swindon 4-1 before overcoming Wolves 2-1 at Valley Parade on the last Saturday before Christmas.

They then drew 0-0 at Bolton on Boxing Day before beating Tranmere Rovers 2-0 at home two days later to give themselves 13 points from a possible 15 in December and they went into the New Year fourth in the table.

For good measure, Jewell ended his first six months in charge with more success as City beat Grimsby Town 2-1 in Saturday's FA Cup third round tie at Valley Parade to set up a glamorous fourth round tie at Newcastle.

It is 12 months ago tomorrow since he became City's caretaker manager after Chris Kamara was sacked.

Three weeks later he was confirmed as manager to the end of the season and then he was given a two year contract.

The club's decision to give Jewell a contract was opposed by many supporters, but the 34-year-old manager has proved his critics wrong.

After losing three of their first four matches, fourth placed City are now in a position where they can mount a serious promotion challenge in the second half of the season.

Other divisional awards were Mel Machin (Bournemouth (Division Two) and Kevin Ratcliffe (Chester) Division Three.

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