Whatever the outcome of Saturday’s game, Bradford City have treated us all to a fantastic journey this season.
The team, under the inspirational leadership of manager Phil Parkinson, has enjoyed unprecedented success for a side in the lowest tier of the Football League.
If anybody had said at the start of the season that the Bantams would play twice at Wembley, they would have been dismissed as mad.
And yet here we are, on the eve of the club’s second trip to the hallowed home of English football.
This is the one that really matters to the City fans, though. Everyone enjoyed the thrills and the spills of the cup run, but that was a one-off rollercoaster ride, with the experience ultimately mattering almost as much as the result.
Tomorrow’s game, though, means everything to the club and its supporters. It will take City closer to where a club with their fantastic support deserves to be, closer to the level their sought-after manager should be working on, and closer to where the performances of many of their players this season deserve to take them.
This time, no one believes that win or lose, it doesn’t matter. It does.
There is no doubt that City deserve to be in League One after their achievements this season. But what it comes down to now is a one-off battle on the pitch, and the individual strength, courage and skill of the players.
What is certain is that Parkinson’s men won’t let anyone down, and will fight to the last.
Let us hope that is enough to see City prevail and win the promotion they thoroughly deserve.
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