Marked for Harry Ibbitson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Feb 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad8 Feb 2027
44 days out for Josh Andrews after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bradford City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Everything agreed with AZ, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Sullay Kaikai has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Bradford City have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and Bradford City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Cheltenham Town to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bradford City and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match6 Feb 2027
Cardiff City left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Will Smallbone was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jenson Gaitley damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Josh Andrews breaks a bone — 73 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Lee Evans: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bradford City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Bradford City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Brentford, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bradford City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bradford City have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bobby Pointon commits to Bradford City for another 4 years.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match9 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Stevenage, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Josh Andrews out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bradford City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Cheltenham Town to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bradford City and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Will Swan and Bradford City agree another 4 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Nobody at Bradford City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Doncaster Rovers next, and one man in the Bradford City dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tommy Leigh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gullit Peña falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bradford City, and 3 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Sam Walker gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Port Vale in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say George Lapslie is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bradford City. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
George Lapslie knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Lapslie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Port Vale
Position 19 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Andy Cook is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match17 Oct 2026
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Reece Welch commits to Bradford City for another 4 years.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Cheltenham Town to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bradford City and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Will Swan stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.60 on the card, and the Bradford City support went home talking about one name.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gullit Peña in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bradford City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jayden Luker falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jacob Stewart chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cameron Walters
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cheltenham Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Myles Roberts and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Bolton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cheltenham Town told Romeo Akachukwu something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Sep 2026
Cambridge United are out and Bradford City go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Luton Town left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I watch every Bradford City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cheltenham Town runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
De Lucca does not fit this one
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Leyton Orient next, and one man in the Bradford City dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
George Lapslie has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bradford City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Will Swan
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andreas Weimann and Cheltenham Town agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Cheltenham Town asked and Leyton Orient said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Alfie Marriott arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Bradford City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Romeo Akachukwu is in the works
Cheltenham Town have made the call to Southampton. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Jack Ruddy is in the works
Cheltenham Town have made the call to Norwich City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Andreas Weimann stands down from international duty
“26 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 35 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Cheltenham Town.