Why Bradford City v Bolton Wanderers is set to break a record on Thursday | OneFootball

Bradford City have already broken their play-off attendance record at Valley Parade ahead of Thursday night's clash with Bolton Wanderers

After a tense first leg on Saturday, Bradford City and Bolton Wanderers are set to do battle at Valley Parade on Thursday night to see who will progress to the League One play-off final.

The Trotters come into the second leg with a slender one-goal advantage, after Brighton anf Hove Albion loanee Amario Cozier-Duberry's 10th goal of the campaign in all competitions, midway through the second half, was all that separated the two sides.

Bradford will head into things with full belief that they could overturn that deficit, though, especially at home, where they've hardly been beaten over the last season and a half.

Indeed, the Bantams won 11 of their 13 League Two home games in 2025 to power them over the line and secure automatic promotion, and in League One this season, Graham Alexander's side won 15 of their 23 games at Valley Parade. Only the division's top two had a better record in front of their home fans.

That's mainly due to the sheer amount of noise that Bradford can generate inside the famous ground. The clichéd twelfth man is always out in full force in that part of West Yorkshire, and it will need to be once more on Thursday night if their dreams of back-to-back promotions are to stay alive.

Bradford City set to break play-off attendance record vs Bolton Wanderers on Thursday

On Sunday night, Bradford posted an update on the number of tickets they have sold for Thursday's play-off semi-final second leg, and it's already set to break a record.

At the time, 20,707 tickets were sold, which is the most for a play-off game at Valley Parade, eclipsing the third-tier semi-final matchup against Millwall in 2016, and just overtaking the 20,575 who were in attendance for the Bantams' last home play-off game against Carlisle United in the 2022/23 League Two postseason.

In an update on Wednesday afternoon, Bradford were able to reconfigure the stadium to be able to sell more home tickets, which indicates a home sell-out.

And with Bolton fans doing their part, too, the final attendance numbers may end up being closer to the 24,840 capacity that Valley Parade currently holds, which would really create a big atmosphere that the game ultimately warrants.

Bradford drew 1-1 with Millwall in 2015 and beat Carlisle 1-0 in 2023. In both instances, defeats in the away legs stopped the Bantams from heading to Wembley. Graham Alexander will be hoping that this Thursday won't follow a similar story.

It's all set for a play-off classic between Bradford City and Bolton Wanderers

Of the six play-off semi-final ties across all three EFL divisions, Bradford and Bolton arguably had the most intrigue surrounding them. It definitely had the most eyes on it out of the two in League One.

Both have followings that wouldn't look out of place in the Premier League, but the expectations on each side are arguably the polar opposites.

This is Bradford's first season in the third tier since 2018/19, and after six years in League Two, pre-season hopes were to just solidify themselves in League One.

Meanwhile, Bolton has been one of the top dogs in the third tier for several years now, and this is their third crack at going up through the play-offs in the last four seasons. Arguably, with former League One winner Steven Schumacher at the helm and a good squad, they were aiming pre-season for automatic promotion.

So, the pressure is on Bolton's shoulders more than Bradford's, but that doesn't mean that Bantams fans aren't dreaming of Wembley, and there'll be 20,000 loud home fans ready to get behind their side this Thursday.

Nothing could separate the two sides at Valley Parade a little over two weeks ago, but what will the result be when the stakes are much higher?