Home fans numbered a smidgen under the 7,000 mark on Monday afternoon as the Blue Army ignored the lower than expected temperatures to cheer their team on through what turned out to be a very entertaining encounter between two good teams.
“It’s great to give them a win and I’m also going to give credit to the Bradford fans for turning up in their numbers,” manager Paul Simpson commented. “They were fantastic and the two sets of supporters helped to create the atmosphere.
“I’m glad our fans stayed to the end and that they had the win to cheer about. It’s brilliant that we can get that number, and what we have to do is make sure we do the next two away games properly so that the next time we’re here, on January 14, we get another good crowd to watch it.
“Bigger crowds coming through the gates only strengthens what we’re doing. That’s what we’ve got to keep doing, keep making it get better.
“The biggest challenge we’ve got at the moment is the lack of training facilities. As a football club we need to make those better, and we need to improve everything going on in the football club.
“Days like Monday help. Being fourth in the table, albeit only after 22 games, certainly helps. We’ve got to keep driving the club on. All I will say is from the day I got the phonecall to come back in February, the board of directors have been absolutely fantastic with me.
“There’s been no interference from them, if I’ve gone and said I would like to do this and it’s going to cost X, or double X, they’ve backed me with that. There’ll come a point where we run out and we haven’t got any more, I accept that as well.
“They have to do what’s right for the sake of this football club and hopefully I’ll be able to keep making the right decisions.”
“I think people can see that we are trying to move forward,” he added. “Credit to the players, the staff, the supporters for all rallying round and getting behind us, but I want even more of that.
“It’s brilliant to play in front of a crowd like this. I want our numbers to turn up because it helps, it helps me in January or in the summer to go to the board and say look, I want to do this, and we’ve got this fanbase to back it.
“Getting down to the total basics of football clubs, we need people coming through the turnstiles, we need sponsorship, we also need a real wealthy ownership group and we need all those things to work together.
“The fans are doing the job, the players are getting results which keeps them coming back in. I just hope once we get to the next home game we’re sat in a good position, ready to go and push on again.”
The festive three points took the Blues to the first slot outside the automatic places with still just the four league defeats against their name.
“I’d much rather be fourth than second bottom, as it was when I came in,” he said. “It’s been a really good time since February.
“I keep saying it though, we won’t be judged after 22. We’ve got to keep going. We have to keep pushing on. My first target is 42 points, that’s still the number I’m looking at. The sooner we get to 42 the better, and then we can start looking at what else might be achievable.
“But I’m certainly happy right now. I had a wonderful Christmas Day at home, a really good Boxing Day in terms of a result, so I’m looking forward to Crewe now.
“I think I’m as delighted as I’m sure all the supporters are with this situation. We talk about the number that Bradford City had supporting their team, I’m quite sure we’ll get brilliant support on the road at Crewe as well.
“It’s really satisfying. We have come a long way, since I came back in February, the players have done absolutely brilliant, the staff have all worked extremely hard.
“The big thing I want, though, is to make sure we keep it going at Crewe, and then to keep it going at Doncaster.
“Then we have a two-week break where we see whether or not we can make a few little adjustments to the squad, and we’ll look forward to the next home game and hopefully we’ll encourage a few more to keep coming back.”
