THE first thing that struck young City fan Wendy Michallat was the colour everywhere.

It was when she realised that football was not played in black and white.

Continuing our series of My First Game, we kick off with her memories from January 3, 1977 and a 4-1 win over Workington Town.

Winger Don Hutchins scored two of the goals – one direct from a corner.

“It was in danger of being called off because of the icy conditions and the T&A was reporting that the City players would wear special studs to keep them upright,” she recalled.

“In the end, the match went ahead, much to my relief. I had so been looking forward to it.

“Dad got us tickets in the main stand, in F block I think, overlooking the Bradford End.

“The grass was green and, of course, the players were playing in colour. I had only ever seen them in black & white print in the T&A and Saturday Sports.

“There were lots of flat caps and clouds of pipe smoke in what must have been a very small crowd, but which seemed very noisy to me.

“I was beside myself with joy at seeing my scrapbook heroes for the first time and Dad was happy too.

“I don’t think he had been back to Valley Parade since the 1950s and his teenage years. We had Bovril and a sausage roll and froze our feet off.

“I think it has to go down as one of my happiest childhood memories.”

David Jackson’s first experience of football was 10 years later in the last game of the season away to West Brom.

City were 2-0 down and a man down by the time he arrived at the ground after the supporters’ coach broke down on the way. But it did get better.

He said: “I can’t remember exactly, but we ended the game with nine men. Ron Futcher and John Hendrie scored in the last five minutes to make the game 2-2!

“There were limbs in the away end, which was full of City fans, and a few police horses courtesy of the West Midlands Police. My brother Paul got dragged off the top of the fence.”

There was also a red card in Keith Cooper’s first game – a pre-season friendly against Huddersfield in August 1989 in the Yorkshire and Humberside Cup.

“I was nine years old and very excited,” he said. “The score was 1-1, Town had a man sent off and we scored from a penalty.

“I can’t remember who took it, probably Jimmy Quinn, or maybe Mark Leonard or Greg Abbott. But I thought, this was great - two goals, a penalty, a sending off, the match had it all.

“Sadly, that was the high point of that season for me! Going to games on and off, it took me something like nine games to see us win, including a humbling 3-2 defeat to then bottom club Hull - a young Dean Windass getting the winner for them - and a pathetic 3-0 defeat in a cup replay against Charlton on a freezing January night, where I distinctly remember Paul Jewell squandering an open goal when he got the ball stuck underneath his feet.

“City got relegated that season to what is now League One, and I finally saw us win during the following season, 2-1 against Wigan, Sean McCarthy getting the winner in the last minute!”

Jo Golton’s first City game was in the season after the fire, a 1-0 “home” defeat to Grimsby at Elland Road.

She said: “My friend passed me playing outside and shouted, ‘Do you want to go to a football match?’

“I said yes and have been hooked ever since. It was the first and only game when I wore a skirt!”

For Julie Ralph, her first match also turned out to be the last one.

She looks back at the one time she “relented” and joined her late husband Peter at Valley Parade. She quickly decided it wasn’t for her.

“It was November, freezing and I got a cold pint of lager stuck in my hand,” she said. “Not being into football, I hadn’t a club what was going on.

“I spent the entire match shivering, swearing that it was Pete’s domain and I’d stay at home and look after the dogs in future. So that was my first and last match.

“But Pete always attended. He loved Bradford City through thick and thin.

“He always talked about his last match when City beat Aldershot 2-0. I have his unused ticket to see Walsall on November 28, 2015, which he kept.

“Even in his ICU bed he complained, because he wasn’t able to go with Shipley Bantams.

“He loved City and it kept him going when he was feeling down.

“Pete’s final journey was in his City shirt and scarf to Take Me Home (Midland Road). He would have loved that.

“He isn’t here to see the season cancelled, I can’t imagine what he would say.

“It was watching football on the TV in his last years that kept him going.”