DENNIS Wise has never looked the type to dish out any favours.

It’s no coincidence that his name is associated with those awkward golf putts, “a nasty little five footer.”

Maybe it’s his Millwall and Leeds past that colour opinion.

Certainly looking through Bradford City eyes, he has done nothing to ease the ongoing nightmare that is 2018.

He couldn’t even lighten the load on Monday night by pulling out ball number five in the FA Cup first round draw.

Nope, Wise chose to pick Aldershot as his home team before Dion Dublin completed the woeful one-two by selecting City.

Rewind nine months and Wise was again on home duty, opposite Rio Ferdinand, for last season’s fourth round. “Number 11 … will play number 15.”

Yeovil Town, City’s conquerors from two days before, were handed the money-maker that is a visit from Manchester United and all the associated media hullaballoo.

Mention the Y word even now and it is guaranteed to send shivers down the collective spine at Valley Parade.

The game widely seen as the catalyst for the months of unending misery that has followed.

Wise’s part two days later just poked a wasps’ nest with an almighty stick. The lost revenue of missing out on United coming to town was a big black mark that was never erased from Stuart McCall’s slate.

For the owners, there was no bigger opportunity missed – an open goal three yards out to pot a windfall blown against a team at the other end of League Two.

It gnawed away at Edin Rahic throughout the rest of last season and the chairman brought it up again in a meeting with the Supporters Trust 11 days ago.

According to the Trust’s notes of their discussions, “despite large offers being made to bring proven players into the club, this lost revenue may have impacted on the funds available for key targets.”

Whether you believe City’s intentions for striker Kieffer Moore were serious or not – and there was an offer made – the FA Cup exit became a convenient get-out clause. “Obviously, we would have had the cash but now ….”

The finger was pointed at McCall’s Huish Park horror show and the subsequent losing run in the league just confirmed the manager’s guilty charge.

The failures in the January window were broadly blamed on the cup exit; the lack of backing that McCall had been promised if City were still in the play-off hunt explained away as the subsequent lottery prize instead afforded to Yeovil.

Of course, it is nothing new for the size of the City war-chest to be dependant on a cup run.

Nobody will ever forget the Chelsea-bashing heroics in the 2015 charge to the quarter-finals. But let’s remember that the likes of Filipe Morais, a Stamford Bridge scorer, and Ben Williams were still living off month-to-month deals until City extended their FA Cup progress.

Julian Rhodes and Mark Lawn reminded their managers before every season that a decent cup run – or selling a player – was always factored into the budget.

David Hopkin has been told there will be the money available in the transfer window for the “three or four experienced players” that he is desperate to introduce to his threadbare options.

But obviously the prospect of an FA Cup windfall could seriously enhance that amount – particularly in a year when the prize pot has been doubled.

For making it as far as the third round again, City would trouser £90,000 – a win in the last 64 is then worth a further £135,500.

That’s decent dosh to kick off a month that is already threatening to be make-or-break for the club’s immediate fortunes.

But Hopkin would have hoped for a less awkward first hurdle to clear.

City will hardly be stuffing their pockets from the 40 per cent cut of the shared gate money at Aldershot.

The Shots currently draw the seventh highest crowds in the National League with an average of 1,829 watching home games.

But even that amount all paying the top adult price of £20 to sit down would see the Bantams pick up only around £14,500.

League survival remains the obvious priority in these parlous times but the FA Cup can go some way to easing that. City cannot afford to be Wise after the event again.