Bradford City

Bradford City are indisputably the largest club to currently occupy the basement, with an average crowd last season of 11,423 and having graced the Premier League as recently as 2001. However, they are where they are and they would have been disappointed with last season's 14th-place finish. They are managed by former England-for-a-day boss Peter Taylor.

Bradford City were formed in 1903, achieving election to the Second Division of the Football League before they'd even played a game or found a ground. In 1908 the club won the Division Two title, and three years later they won the FA Cup, beating Newcastle United after a replay. That FA Cup run saw the Bantams set their attendance record of 39,146 in the quarter-final against Burnley, which remains the longest-standing record crowd.

That was as good as it got for City as they dropped back through the League, although they did punctuate their decline with the Third Division (North) title in 1929. Their next triumph was in 1985, when Bradford City won the Third Division in the same season that Oxford won the Second. However, the promotion party turned into tragedy when a fire in the main stand at Valley Parade turned into an inferno that claimed 56 lives.

Life in Division Two was fairly good for Bradford, and they came within touching distance of the top flight in 1988, when Middlesbrough beat them in the play-off semi-finals. However, two years later they were back in the third tier where they stayed until they won the play-offs in 1996, the same season that Oxford pipped Blackpool for automatic promotion in second place. Three seasons later, as Oxford went down Bradford won promotion to the Premier League, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 on the final day of the season to seal second place. They survived their first season in the top flight by beating Liverpool in the last game, but they were relegated the next season. The collapse of ITV Digital saw City enter administration in May 2002 although they managed to avoid relegation the following season. They appointed Bryan Robson as manager, with former Oxford defender Colin Todd as his assistant, but their financial problems continued and they re-entered administration in February 2004, and they were relegated to Division Three at the end of the season, when Todd became manager. That summer City were within ten minutes of being closed down before the administrators saved the day. Todd was sacked in February 2007, but it wasn't enough and City were relegated to the Fourth Division at the end of the season.

Bradford City's home colours are claret and amber stripes, with an away strip of all black. Valley Parade (officially named the Coral Windows Stadium, but we really can't bring ourselves to call it that) has an all-seated capacity of 25,136 with away fans seated in the corner of the Betrescue (Midland Road) stand, down the side of the pitch. Provisional prices for this season are