How Bradford snatched promotion on the final day of the League Two season
Saturday, May 3, 2025 will be forever etched in Bradford City folklore – the day when six years of frustration, near-misses, and false dawns finally gave way to unbridled joy in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.
With seconds remaining at Valley Parade and Bradford’s automatic promotion hopes slipping away, Antoni Sarcevic redirected George Lapslie’s shot into the bottom corner to secure a 1-0 victory over Fleetwood Town.
What followed was pandemonium – thousands of fans flooding onto the pitch in scenes of raw emotion that spoke volumes about what this moment meant to a city starved of footballing success.
It meant that the Bantams avoided the rigamarole of the play-offs and can sit back and assess the Wimbledon vs Walsall odds with a degree of ease knowing their place in the third tier is secure.
For a club of Bradford’s stature, the six-year residency in League Two has been nothing short of purgatory. Valley Parade regularly hosts crowds of 18,000 – attendances that would be respectable in the Championship, let alone the fourth tier. These fans have witnessed countless failed attempts to escape the division’s gravitational pull.
The list of managers who tried and failed reads like a study in different approaches to the same problem: Gary Bowyer’s steady hand, Stuart McCall’s club-legend status, the youthful promise of Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars, Derek Adams’ promotion-winning CV, and even the Premier League pedigree of Mark Hughes. All different avenues, all ultimately dead ends.
The play-offs had become a particular source of trauma. The Bantams had flirted with them repeatedly, only to either fall short of qualifying or suffer heartbreak within them. The psychological weight of these failures had begun to feel like a curse that the club simply couldn’t break.
Many thought the years would continue being spent evaluating the League 2 odds and that it would just never end. But here they are, promoted.
Heading into the final day, Bradford sat third, knowing they needed to match or better Walsall’s result at Crewe to secure automatic promotion. As tension gripped Valley Parade, news filtered through that Walsall had taken the lead, ratcheting up the pressure.
Despite dominating possession, Bradford struggled to create clear-cut chances. When Sarcevic inexplicably fired over from close range late on, it appeared the play-off lottery would be their fate once again. But in the dying seconds, the “promotion specialist” – now with an incredible eight career promotions to his name – stuck out a leg to divert Lapslie’s mishit shot into the net.
What followed was unprecedented – thousands of fans flooding the pitch before the match had even ended, forcing a 15-minute delay before the final whistle could eventually be blown.
The significance of this promotion extends beyond football. The year 2025 marks Bradford’s tenure as UK City of Culture and the 40th anniversary of the Valley Parade fire disaster. This sporting triumph has become a symbol of civic pride and resilience.
The next few days later were equally chaotic, for all the right reasons. The streets of west Yorkshire came alive as thousands lined the route of an open-top bus parade. Amber flares filled Centenary Square as fans and players alike celebrated not just a promotion, but the end of a painful chapter in the club’s history.
For the first time since 1999, Bradford City had secured automatic promotion. After six long years in the fourth tier, the club’s trajectory finally matches the ambition of its remarkable fan base.
