The patience of those Scousers who have come to appreciate that Liverpool's transformation can be both painful and protracted is at last being met with its reward.
A hard-earned but well-merited victory over a team of spirit rather than guile lifts Liverpool to sixth place in the Premiership with the promise of better things to come. But, there is still much work to be done before Anfield's French revolution is complete.
Football may no longer be a game for the romantics but there was a swagger about the Bradford manager Paul Jewell as he wandered down his own memory lane. When he wore the clothes of a younger, thinner man, Jewell was a reserve team striker at Liverpool for five ultimately unrewarding years.
The boy has become a man and last night it was with understandable pride that he brought Bradford to Anfield for a first league appearance in 77 years. Waiting there for the Yorkshire side was a player who has contributed only marginally more to the Liverpool cause than did Jewell himself.
Dietmar Hamann has endured wretched ill-fortune since his arrival on Merseyside but last night he returned for only his fourth senior start of the campaign.
Predictably Gerard Houllier resisted the temptation to recall Michael Owen but he still expects to be fit enough to face Scotland in the European Championship play-off on Saturday week.
"The manager decided to give my hamstring another week of strengthening before our big game against Derby County on Saturday and then the even bigger one the following weekend," said Owen.
"We have located the problem, which is around the pelvic area. My hamstrings are doing some of the work which my pelvis should be doing; I am over-loading them."
Bradford were whipped to shreds in the opening few minutes, Liverpool punching holes in their defence with such regularity that embarrassment beckoned. But Liverpool still find defending an elusive art and, 13 minutes in, Bradford were in front and Jewell was beaming.
Lee Mills knocked Stuart McCall's pass into the path of Dean Windass, who swept a fine rising drive beyond Sander Westerveld.
It took Liverpool eight minutes to regain their poise and, having done so, they also restored the status quo. It was a fine goal, Titi Camara planting the sweetest of shots just inside a post after collecting Steve Staunton's long pass and turning David Wetherall.
Bradford's tackling was becoming increasingly agricultural and, when the discipline goes in such circumstances, there is usually a price to be paid.
Three minutes before the interval Patrik Berger's dart forwards into the area was ended by Wetherall's desperate lunge. Jamie Redknapp converted a largely uncontested penalty.
Strangely, only after Bradford's play had surrendered some of its unnecessarily frantic pace did they shape as if to recover. They looked tired and their more experienced players began to look their age but they plugged away in the belief that Liverpool retain the capacity for self-destruction.
They almost hauled themselves level after 53 minutes, Robbie Blake collecting, running and shooting well, only to be denied by Westerveld.
Bradford's brave resistance was, however, all but ended 10 minutes from the end when Vegard Heggem climaxed a mazy run with a low shot just 90 seconds after his introduction as a substitute.
LIVERPOOL: Westerveld, Staunton, Henchoz, Hyypia, Song, Smicer (Meijer 82), Redknapp (Carragher 72), Hamann, Berger, Thompson (Heggem 77), Camara. Subs Not Used: Murphy, Nielsen. Booked: Carragher. Goals: Camara 21, Redknapp 42 (pen), Heggem 80.
BRADFORD: Clarke, Wetherall, Halle (Lawrence 68), O'Brien, Sharpe, Windass, McCall, Redfearn (Rankin 78), Saunders, Mills, Blake. Subs Not Used: Myers, Prudhoe, Dreyer. Booked: Redfearn, Wetherall, Windass. Goal: Windass 12.
Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).
