‘I screamed the house down at the draw’: Bradford’s Andy Cook on facing Newcastle.

After returning from an ACL injury, a lifelong Newcastle supporter who rose through the ranks to become a goalscoring Bradford hero can realise a dream in the Carabao Cup.

Bradford City fans were ecstatic last month when the League One leaders were granted a Carabao Cup third-round fixture at Newcastle United, the holders. However, there was one individual in particular whose self-proclaimed screaming might have been heard all over the northeast.

Bradford hadn’t made the trip up the A1 since their days as a Premier League club, and when they last met Newcastle in December 2000, Andy Cook was a 10-year-old Newcastle fan who had grown up idolising Alan Shearer.

On Wednesday, Cook, 34, will finally realise a childhood ambition of playing at St James’ Park, which he thought had passed him by. “I screamed the house down when that draw came out,” Cook admits with a chuckle.

“My missus was downstairs watching the draw, and I was upstairs, and I believe my TV was ahead of hers because she heard me screaming and rushed upstairs to see if I was okay.

We couldn’t believe it when we realised that Newcastle was away.” Cook’s path to this point has not been straightforward.

He was released from Middlesbrough’s scholarship scheme at the age of 16 before signing for Carlisle.

He never made a first-team appearance there and spent the first decade of his career in non-league, playing for teams like Workington and Barrow. “Growing up locally, this was your dream,” Cook says of his desire to be a footballer.

“You had always hoped to play at St James’ at some point. Did I think I’d have the chance given how my career has gone? Probably not.

You never consider that when you’re playing as low as I was. So to have the opportunity to accomplish it is truly a dream come true.” Despite not making his Football League debut until the age of 27, Cook is currently Bradford’s fourth-highest goalscorer and a modern-day Valley Parade icon.

Just as he grew up dreaming of emulating Shearer, there are now young fans vying to be the next Cook, which is not lost on him.

“You see all the young kids with your name on the shirt and sometimes I have to pinch myself and believe this is real,” according to him.

“It’s strange because I’m just a regular boy from the northeast. When I return home, I’m just the same old me, but here it’s really different. “Playing for Bradford City is an honour.”

This could be due, in part, to the very real possibility of Cook’s career being abruptly terminated.

On New Year’s Day, he received an anterior cruciate ligament injury, causing him to miss Bradford’s promotion-winning season and be sidelined for nine months. He returned this month, scoring twice in the EFL Trophy victory over Grimsby Town.

What is Cook’s goal now? To cap off the worst year of his career, he made a fairytale appearance at the stadium where he sometimes sits as a fan. “I cried when I got the news it was my ACL,” recalls the man. I’d never experienced an injury like this in my career, but it strengthened me.

I know he’s a different beast, but Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] had his ACL surgery at age 38 and came back.

My first thinking was, ‘I’m 34; can I do it?’ I’ve been through hell and back with it, but this draw feels like the end of that chapter and why it was so important to never give up on anything.

Cook had to sacrifice his tickets to watch Newcastle win the Carabao Cup at Wembley Stadium in March due to the injury and following operation, but he was present for their defeat to Manchester United in the 2023 final.

If he is fortunate enough to play on Wednesday, all of his sorrow and heartache will be relieved. Graham Alexander’s side also arrives at St James’ Park in jubilant mood, having risen to the top of the third division for the first time in more than 20 years following promotion last season, and with 5,000 travelling supporters cheering them on.

The Bantams have seen their fair share of cup upsets in recent years, reaching the final of this competition as a League Two club in 2013.

These are wonderful times for the Yorkshire club, and, just as Cook’s recollections of the great Newcastle teams of the 1990s revolved around their talismanic No 9, he is now central to their triumph after overcoming adversity.

But the real issue is, if he scores on Wednesday and potentially ends his beloved club’s Carabao Cup campaign, would he celebrate?

“Oh aye,” he says. “I was having a laugh with my mates and I said if I was ever lucky enough to be on that pitch, I would come straight to the corner where our seats usually are and give it some.”

Will he attempt to gain Shearer’s attention regardless? “Nah, his box is too high up!”

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