Fleetwood Town manager Pete Wild didn’t want his players to return to the field after a pitch invasion following the 90+6 minute winner that sealed Bradford City’s promotion.
In a recent interview with Bradford City’s man of the moment Antoni Sarcevic on the Greatness On Demand Podcast, the number 10 discussed how the events unfolded.
Bradford City’s Promotion – THE Goal
THE goal is what it will forever be known as. Antoni Sarcevic’s* last gasp winner in front of The Kop which sent Valley Parade into pure ecstasy and which ultimately earned Bradford City promotion to League One.
Moments after the ball trickled over the line, City’s fans justifiably ran onto the pitch in pure elation.
Not one fan knew what to do with themselves, understandably. These moments are extremely rare in football and you can never preempt how you’ll act if it ever happens.
“That’s the moment! That’s the moment!” screamed Jamie Raynor on BBC Radio Leeds as the ball went in. With the nature of the goal, I’m surprised he could find the words to put it into context. Raynor’s clearly a natural.
Moments after the goal, some Bradford City fans made their way over to the Fleetwood Town players, shouting at them and goading them. This is what happens in football. I’d have been surprised if nothing was said to the players if I’m being completely honest.
However, opposition manager Pete Wild was having none of it and nearly put a stop to Bradford City’s promotion party
How Pete Wild tried to spoil Bradford City’s promotion party
“But don’t get involved with the oppositions players. Our players have been confronted and I’ve been confronted.
“It’s just disappointing because it doesn’t need to happen. It really got to me”.
He later went on to say that it was ‘farciscal’ to play another minute of football. Which suggests that he wanted full-time whistle to be blown so they could get back on their bus to the west coast.
No, there’s more to it, as explained by Antoni Sarcevic on the Greatness On Demand podcast.
“Fleetwoods gaffer (Pete Wild) was saying, ‘my players aren’t coming back out, ones been assaulted (they weren’t), they’re going to assault us (that wouldn’t have happened)'”.
“So Graham Alexander was raging and one of the staff members at City was going off it saying to Wild: ‘Get this sorted. Get this game finished’. Apparently Pete Wild was refusing to re-enter the field”.
Dean Windass, also on the podcast, stated that if he was the Fleetwood manager he’d have just told the ref to blow the final whistle. This seems a much more normal reaction as opposed to spitting your dummy out.
Fleetwood had nothing to play for, and for them it was a nothing situation. Why try and spoil a promotion party like that. Especially after seeing how much it meant to everyone in the stadium.
Was this all pure jealousy from Pete Wild? Perhaps.
