Can a West Yorkshire triple be achieved? Hear what Stuart Rayner has to say.
There is plenty of promotion hope in West Yorkshire this season, with Bradford City, Huddersfield Town and Leeds United all setting their eyes on that goal.
Stuart Rayner, the Yorkshire Post’s chief football writer since 2019, said he believed Bradford was most likely of the three to get promoted.
“I think they have the most momentum of the lot,” he said. “Walsall above them are looking shaky.
“Leeds look the second best and Huddersfield are relying on quite a few things really.”
All three teams have a likely chance of promotion this year with Bradford City and Leeds United sat first and second in their respective leagues whilst Huddersfield lie sixth in a playoff spot.
Huddersfield would also have to go through the playoffs to gain promotion.
Rayner says: “It will be more difficult for Huddersfield, their only route up is by the playoffs and you can certainly never take anything for granted with that, there is some pretty stiff competition from Birmingham down to the top 10 and Town still have all of the teams in the playoff places to play.”
Although Huddersfield may look the least likely to gain promotion, they have just sacked their manager and most recently beat Crawley Town 5-1 at home.
Previously with Michael Duff they had failed to score in any of their home games in 2025 and now have the chance to pick up some momentum especially with Charlton at the weekend who sit fourth, five points above the terriers.
Leeds united “have the tools” according to Rayner and I am not sure many people will dispute that. They have sat at the top of the table for most of the season and their team is probably the strongest in the league. Players like Ao Tanaka, Manor Soloman, Junior Firpo and Danniel James look a class above in The Championship. With an easy run to the end of the season there is no reason why Leeds United cannot win the title, although both Sheffield United and Burnley do not seem to be slipping up.
Bradford City have been nearly unstoppable since the turn of the year, and it is no surprise that Rayner also sees them as the favourites of the three. Setting records has been no issue for The Bantams this season setting a new league record attendance at the weekend with 23,381 fans showing up to see them blow away Colchester 4-1 at the weekend. Despite suffering many injuries including Andy Cook for the season each player has played a big part.
On Bradford’s injury situation, Rayner said: Rayner also had this to say on injury situation at Bradford “When they lost Andy Cook to injury that could have ruined their season.” He stated.
“They managed to cope with the loss of Antoni Sarcevic and Alexander Pattison”. As well as being “really impressed” in how Bradford have utilised their big squad.
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