By Jim Brown
In the 1932-33 season goal machine Clarrie Bourton, despite close and often heavy marking, continued where he had left off in the previous campaign and topped the Football League’s scorers again with 41 goals. Lake (18) and Lauderdale (14) again supported him as City notched 106 goals, a total only bettered by Division One champions Arsenal. Away form however was still inconsistent and the team finished in sixth place, eighteen points adrift of champions Brentford. In the modern day game that would have been good enough to qualify for the play-offs and with Bourton so prolific it would have been difficult to bet against City winning promotion via that route.
The first half of the season was frustrating with too many goals being conceded and after on Boxing Day, after a 3-5 defeat at Bristol City, the Bantams were 18th in the table. Four wins out of five with 20 goals scored turned the season around and later run of six wins in seven lifted the team into the top six but they were too far behind the leading pack.
Attendances increased just slightly to an average of 12,479, only bettered by Brentford in the division, with the highest crowd 18,909 for the opening home game against Brentford. The most exciting match of the season, a Thursday afternoon clash with Norwich in February, which ended 5-3 to the visitors, was watched by the smallest crowd, 6,016.
The performance of the season was probably the 7-0 home win over QPR with the Bantams netting all seven goals in a thrilling second half. With almost an hour gone Rangers were keeping City’s prolific attack in check but then a goalkeeping error saw City take the lead through Richards. The visitors defence fell apart and City’s forwards ran through almost as they pleased. Billy Lake was irrepressible and scored a nine-minute hat-trick, Bourton added two more with Lauderdale also scoring.
Storer was building a powerful side and that season introduced several young players who would form the team that would ultimately win the club promotion. Amongst them were goalkeeper Bill Morgan, wing-halves Harry Boileau and Billy Frith, and a young commanding centre-half from Birmingham called George Mason.
In January 1933 Bourton again started a hot scoring streak and scored in nine successive games. Only a blank day at Gillingham spoiled a record which saw him score in 14 out of 15 consecutive games.
