Today I'm going back 40 years to 1981 and York City's visit to Valley Parade to play Bradford City in League Division Four.
This programme cover always feels a little poignant to me. The image of Valley Parade shown was clearly created long before the terrible fire disaster took place four years later in 1985 and yet it is resonant of smoke rising above the stands at Valley Parade. For those of you who are perhaps too young to remember, on 11th May 1985, at a match which was supposed to be a celebration of Bradford City's promotion to League Division 2, a fire was accidentally started by a discarded cigarette and the resulting inferno claimed the lives of 56 people. What made it so much worse was that the club had been warned about the risk of exactly this eventuality occurring but they chose to delay doing anything about it. I can personally recall sitting in the main stand, another Archibald Leitch creation, looking down at the wooden floor beneath my feet and, between the planks that made up the flooring, it was possible to see piles of accumulated rubbish in the void below. One discarded cigarette fell into the void and ignited that rubbish and the fire quickly spread. Witnesses spoke of a flash and soon the wooden stand and roof were were ablaze. In order to escape the flames and the thick choking smoke, occupants of the stand either went forwards and onto the pitch or attempted to evacuate by going to the back of the stand and out the way they had entered. Fortunately Bradford City had no pitch side fences in front of the main stand otherwise the death toll would have been in the hundreds but those who chose to try to exit the stand the way they came in were not so lucky. The exits were locked shut and there were no stewards on hand to open them. One or two of these exits were smashed open but many perished underneath that stand. Over 200 people were treated for burns.
It would take the subsequent Hillsborough disaster in 1989 to spell the end for perimeter fencing around football pitches but the Bradford City fire did force major changes to football grounds up and down the country with numerous old stands being condemned as no longer fit for purpose. I often get asked which are the best and worst football grounds in the top 92 English and Welsh club grounds and, back in the early 1980's I distinctly recall my answer regarding the worst as being Valley Parade. Since the fire disaster however, Valley Parade, along with almost every other stadium in the top 92, has received a major makeover and is no longer anything like it was on that fateful day in May 1985.
The match itself was something of a disaster for York who lost 6-2 to a Roy McFarland's Bantams side which included hattrick hero Bobby Campbell, David McNiven, Ces Podd, Peter Jackson and Stuart McCall. This game was the start of a nine match winning streak for Bradford City which was only ended by Sheffield United who were to become champions at the end of the season. Bradford City certainly gave Sheffield United a run for their money and ended up finishing second and were comfortably promoted. York for their part finished 17th that season, four points clear of the re-election places. The arrival of Denis Smith and better days were just around the corner.
CRB Match No. 123
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