West Yorkshire

News in Shorts – Around the West Yorkshire Clubs 06.08.15

Bradford City

News from the website

City add Cracknell and Leigh

Bradford City have been quick to add some youngsters to their playing squad ahead of the season’s kickoff come the Saturday. The Bantams have added young keeper Joe Cracknell on a five-month deal, the youngster having featured in a number of the clubs friendlies this pre-season. Cracknell was a feature and product of Hull City’s academy but was released at the end of last season after featuring for the Tigers in their academy and reserve fixtures. Talking about the youngster’s arrival at Valley Parade, boss Phil Parkinson said, “Joe has impressed us over pre-season and he has earned himself this contract. Hopefully he can keep improving and become a good prospect for us.

The Bantams also acted quickly to snap up young left-back Greg Leigh on a one-year contract following the completion of a successful trial at the club. The former Manchester City youngster, released from The Etihad at the end of last season, becomes the Bantams’ ninth signing as they prepare for the new campaign. The former Blues product spent last season on loan at League One Crewe Alexandra, where he got a lot of game time for the Railwaymen. Speaking of Gregory, boss Phil Parkinson said, “He has real power and pace, and he played a large number of games in League 1 last season for Crewe at a young age. He may have to go out on loan for a month or so if he doesn’t force his way into our team but we are confident he is a player who will improve.”

News in print

Bradford will be looking to take advantage of packed houses after the success of their season ticket sales reports Richard Sutcliffe of The Yorkshire Post. In an ‘off-the-record’ report from a League One manager after a game last season the YP report the manager as saying, “This is a bear-pit of a place. The Bradford fans make such a racket and were in our faces from the moment the players came out of the tunnel.” This was last season and now City are buoyed by the news that 18,000 season tickets have been sold that should guarantee a bigger wall of sound with Bradford City hoping that ‘walk ups’ on the day taking the hoped-for number up to around 20,000 for each home game. This sentiment is picked up on by manager Phil Parkinson who says, “The support we have is fantastic, the two chairmen have done a great job in reducing ticket prices to get as many people as possible in the stadium but for the people of Bradford to get behind us in such huge numbers is still pretty amazing.” Parkinson feels that in a division where teams have a bigger financial advantage than the Bantams, that turning Valley Parade into a place away teams don’t like to visit could be the advantage that they can play on.

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