Colin Todd recalls turmoil of 2004 pre-season for Bantams

The warm-up programme is a means to an end, a six-week fitness blast dotted with games that don’t really matter apart from breaking up the training routine.

Like a runner preparing for a marathon, the boring prep routes have got to be done if you are to conquer the challenge ahead.

One pre-season blurs into another; few, if any, friendlies stick in the memory. The less eventful, the better.

But that was not the case for City 20 years ago. The pre-season of 2004 was notable – if only for the fact that the team were still there.

Plunged into their second administration in three years since the February, there were genuine fears the Bantams would not pull through.

Colin Todd had been appointed manager, stepping up from his role as number two after Bryan Robson walked away following relegation from the second tier.

The vastly-experienced Todd was left with the proverbial “bare bones” as players slipped away in the financial turmoil.

There were more journalists than players to greet his first day at pre-season.

It was an unenviable scenario but one that the former England international had gone through earlier in his management career. That knowledge from 1986 would help.

“I’d had something like that when I was at Middlesbrough,” said Todd. “So when it happened, I knew what it was all about.

“We went into admin with Middlesbrough and it was only the Friday before the season started the next day that everything was finalised.

“It was a similar scenario with Bradford. The only difference was we didn’t lose any players at Middlesbrough.

“They were all still behind us whereas at Bradford we started off with only about half a dozen players.

“There wasn’t a lot to work with and it was just a case as the manager of hoping for the best – and to be fair we did extremely well.”

Colin Todd on the touchline at Hartlepool in the opening game (Image: Newsquest)

Todd was helped by the amount of know-how among the few who remained to kick off pre-season with the likes of David Wetherall and Dean Windass.

There was a blind faith with the group, not knowing what kind of squad could be built over the summer.

It was the same with the fans who had fought so hard to keep their club alive. A crowd of over 1,000 saw a 5-0 win at Harrogate in the first friendly; a milestone moment that showed football was still going on.

Looking back now, Todd felt City proved a lot of people wrong.

“We just had to knuckle down in pre-season and get on with it. I didn’t want any players being negative and moping about.

“Once we got the green light, it was probably more of a relief for them than for me.

“I kept in touch with Julian (Rhodes) every day. He didn’t want the club to go under and I knew in the bottom of my heart that he wouldn’t let it happen.

“Credit to him that he got it going again and the season panned out well.

“A lot of people in management might have walked away in that situation.

“All the pundits had us down for relegation but I put together a good squad.

“The players we brought in gave us a good mix and we played in a fashion that was very positive.”

There was a certain irony for Todd that the season began at Hartlepool – the same venue it had for Middlesbrough’s first “home” game 18 years earlier when the Ayresome Park gates had been padlocked.

Five wins on the bounce in the October catapulted City into second and saw Todd crowned manager of the month.

An unlikely top-six finish looked on the cards for most of the season but they faded towards the end in 11th spot – six points short of the play-offs.

Todd recalled: “I look back at that season with pride considering where we’d come from. We made a lot of people sit up with how close we came to the play-offs.

“Julian backed me with a little bit of money but I think he was very surprised. I’m sure his major concern was dropping out of that division.

“I don’t think we ran out of steam, just that we made bad decisions at times and that cost us.

“We were putting a lot of teams on the back foot but there were one or two games that we should have won and didn’t.

“It was a good dressing and they all got on well.

“Windass scored a lot of goals, Wetherall and Mark Bower played every game, (Nicky) Summerbee did well on the wing, Schuey (Steve Schumacher) went on to have a good career, (Paul) Henderson had a great season in goal and went on to Leicester.

“I got Symesy (Michael Symes) out of Everton and he did okay. Owen Morrison, the little winger from Ireland, had something about him and young Tom Kearney did well.

“I don’t know how the supporters looked upon it. I’m sure they were pleased we did so well after everything but were no doubt disappointed like us all that we couldn’t finish in the play-offs.

Dean Windass, right, finished with 27 goals in League One (Image: Newsquest)

Windass enjoyed the most prolific season of his career with 27 league goals in 39 games to share League One’s golden boot with Hull’s Stuart Elliott.

Todd added: “I told him not to go out the box. I wanted him to stay in the final third at all times.

“I didn’t mind him missing opportunities. What I didn’t want was him not to be in the box to have that opportunity.

“He took that on board and that’s why he scored a lot more because he was always in there. It was a tremendous effort.

“We talk about that season, and from where that football club were to where we went was unbelievable.

“We were disappointed in the end not to make the play-offs but I still look back at it now after all these years with a great sense of pride.”