Two cities united as Wetherall goal saves Bantams
IT was an occasion when David Wetherall was hero of the hour for most of West Yorkshire.
Twenty years ago today, ‘that’ goal he scored for Bradford City to seal their Great Escape mission against Liverpool at Valley Parade was also celebrated wildly by supporters of the team who the Bantams love to hate – Leeds United.
City’s cherished 1-0 Premier League win on May 14, 2000 had huge ramifications for their neighbours who qualified for the Champions League thanks to exWhites defender Wetherall – and his old mates were quick to express their gratitude from afar.
It also would have longer-term consequences, but more of that later.
Needing a win in their final game against West Ham to secure third spot, Leeds were held to a 0-0 draw at Upton Park.
Three points for Gerald Houllier’s Reds at Bradford would have seen them claim that prized European berth ahead of Leeds, but that is where Wetherall came in.
Wetherall, who left Elland Road to join City the previous summer, told The Yorkshire Post:
“From a Bradford point of view, it was the culmination of a long season’s work.
“Then I found myself taking phone calls from the Leeds United team bus on the way back and some friends on there who were my team-mates 12 months earlier.
“Seeing the role our result played in helping Leeds qualify for the Champions League was another real positive for me.
“It was all on Gary Kelly’s phone and it was brilliant they all thought of me and gave me a call.
“The two things just came together – helping Bradford survive and obviously, I’d had a really positive eight years from my perspective at Leeds before, so to have a positive effect on Leeds’s season as well was icing on the cake.”
For those of a claret-and-amber persuasion, the only thing that mattered was the sight of Wetherall’s
thumping 12th-minute header – which flew past the motionless Sander Westerveld at the Bradford End following Gunnar Halle’s inch-perfect free-kick.
It was a true ‘where were you when’ moment for all City fans.
The next 78 minutes were ones of unremitting tension for home supporters, with Bradford and rivals Wimbledon pitted in a twoway fight to avoid relegation.
With Wetherall imperious at the back and unflagging commitment arriving from all those in home jerseys, City magnificently held on, with the Dons being the ones destined for the drop after a 2-0 loss at Southampton.
In the process, City delivered the equivalent of a collective Vsign to all the knockers who had derided their prospects of safety and labelled them as the footballing equivalent of Dad’s Army.
Critic-in-chief was Sky TV pundit Rodney Marsh, who pledged to have his head shaved for charity at Valley Parade if Bradford survived – he duly obliged at the start of the following season.
Wetherall said: “I wasn’t going to give him that much credence to say it bothered me that much...
“It was just one of those things, but it was nice to see him have his hair shaved, I know that.
“In the media, they had a field day with us, didn’t they. I was one of the youngest in the team at 28 and people were calling us ‘Dad’s Army’ and the like. But I think,
looking back, that experience the team had made sure that when we lost a game or a few games on the bounce, we didn’t get too down.
“The thing I remember about the build up before the Liverpool game is the approach of Paul Jewell. He just took the pressure off us and said we could be proud of our efforts through the season.
“It was kind of a relaxed approach; he knew he didn’t have to build us up and it was just getting us relaxed for as long as possible.”
On whether he still watches reruns of his feted goal, he quipped: “No more than twice a day! I‘ve seen it a lot of times and enjoy seeing it. But I don’t religiously watch it every week or month.
“Gunnar tells me it was all about the cross, but I am not so sure... Looking back, I was really pleased with the goal and proud of it for the quality, I suppose.
There was a good bit of pace on the cross from Gunnar and I met it really well and it happened to fly in just the right direction.”
Sadly, the postscript to Wetherall’s goal was fateful for all the wrong reasons for City and Leeds.
City infamously embarked on a lavish spending spree, later proclaimed by then-chairman Geoffrey Richmond as ‘six weeks of madness’.
They entered administration
two years later and plummeted down the divisions.
At Leeds, chairman Peter Ridsdale ‘lived the dream’ on the back of that Champions League qualification, an era that ended in tears and financial meltdown.
“Julian Rhodes has mentioned it to me loads of times,” Wetherall added.
“Look what happened to Bradford after they stayed up and Leeds overspent after qualifying for the Champions League.
“It also cost Liverpool a fortune because they didn’t get in the Champions League and look at what happened to Wimbledon after they got relegated.”
36
The number of points which were enough to keep Bradford City in the Premier League back on May 14, 2000.