For fans of lower league clubs, the domestic cups can offer a reprieve from the long slog of a league campaign, with the hope of a glamour tie against one of the game’s big hitters providing the highlight of the season.
The chance of actually progressing through the rounds and reaching Wembley, however, is supposed to be out of reach.
Occasionally we see a second-tier side reach the final of the League Cup; Cardiff in 2012, Birmingham in 2001, Tranmere in 2000. Aston Villa are the only third-tier team to have made the final. A team from the fourth tier of English football had never made the League Cup final (with the exception of Rochdale in 1962, when most of the big clubs didn’t participate).
Enter Bradford City.
Despite the stadium’s size and the city’s population combined with it being Bradford’s only professional club, the Bantams have long underachieved. From the end of the Second World War up to 1996, Bradford had played just five seasons in England’s second tier, and none in the top flight.
The club had a brief foray in the Premier League between 1999 and 2001, but were relegated after two seasons, with severe financial mismanagement seeing the Bantams fall into the fourth tier, where they’d spent five years without even reaching the play-offs come the 2012/13 campaign.
Under Phil Parkinson who took over early in the previous season – albeit without much improvement on the pitch – Bradford started the campaign promisingly.
Stephen Darby, Rory McArdle and James Meredith would join Andrew Davies to create a new-look back four, but it was the addition of veteran midfielder Gary Jones, dropping down from League One Rochdale, who was the biggest signing of them all.
While the League Cup is often little more than an inconvenience for EFL sides, trudging out on a weeknight for a competition that even the fans aren’t overly bothered about, Bradford went to League One Notts County in the first round of the 2012/13 edition, taking the game to extra time and winning via a solitary James Hanson goal.
While there was at least the chance of drawing a Premier League side in the second round, the Bantams drew Championship Watford away. Again, hardly an appetising trip on a Tuesday night, but Bradford rewarded their travelling fans with two late goals from Kyel Reid and Garry Thompson to upset the odds once again and earn a tie in the third round – where the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal would enter.
Alas, Bradford drew fellow League Two side Burton at home, but at least this was a tie Parkinson’s men were fancied to win.
Bradford, however, found themselves 2-0 down within half an hour before two more late goals, this time from Nahki Wells, forced extra time, with Stephen Darby scoring the winner.
It was the first time Bradford had reached the last 16 of either the FA Cup or League Cup since 1997, and the first time they’d got to the fourth round of the League Cup since 1989; uncharted territory for a whole generation of Bradford fans.
In the hat with Premier League clubs for a third time, Bradford waited to see if they’d finally earnt their reward. Would it be Manchester United? Liverpool? Arsenal?
After three wins, two away from home to clubs in higher divisions, Bradford were again denied the glamour tie they craved, trudging across the Pennines to face Wigan Athletic.
The 2012/13 season would see two fairytale cup stories; one of them involved Wigan, who’d win the FA Cup, beating Manchester City in the final. Such glory seemed a million miles away on the night of 30 October 2012, however.
As one might expect, the Premier League side, despite the nine changes made by Roberto Martinez, dominated proceedings and created more than enough chances to win the tie, but cheered on by 5,000 travelling fans, Bradford forced extra-time and then a penalty shoot-out, going a perfect four from four to knock Wigan out.
Finally, Bradford would get their glamour tie, bringing Arsenal to Valley Parade. The cup run had been one fans would remember fondly, but it would come to a long-overdue end now… right?
Any chance Bradford had of upsetting the odds once again surely relied upon Arsene Wenger underestimating the League Two club and fielding a heavily rotated side. Even with a second string outfit, the Gunners would be favoured to go through. As it happened, Wenger named a team you’d fancy to beat most Premier League sides: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere, Podolski, Coquelin, Gervinho.
This was an Arsenal side who went 4-0 down to Reading in the previous round, fighting back to force extra-time with two goals at the death. With the game level at 5-5, the Gunners scored two more goals in in the 121st and 123rd minutes to win 7-5. Although Theo Walcott – who scored a hat-trick that night – was absent, it was not a team short of creativity and firepower.
In front of a packed Valley Parade that hadn’t hosted a Premier League side since their relegation from the top flight more than a decade ago, a new generation would get a taste of what things used to be like in West Yorkshire.
The pace and trickery of Wells would give Bradford a free-kick near the far corner flag; set pieces were always going to be Bradford’s best chance of success and so it proved. A dangerous outswinger from Jones was glanced to the back post, finding a wide-open Thompson who reacted quickly, volleying goalwards with Szczesny powerless to do anything but palm the ball into the roof of the net.
Bradford City 1-0 Arsenal.
Arsenal dominated from there, with Gervinho missing an open goal from three yards out, and Thomas Vermaelen eventually converting at the back post to score a late equaliser. Bradford had led for 72 minutes, but were heading to extra-time once more. A Santi Cazorla long-range effort that struck the bar was as close as Arsenal were to a winner, with penalties required to decide the tie.
Bradford converted their first two penalties; Arsenal converted neither of theirs. Saves from Darby and Ritchie’s efforts saw Arsenal back in the tie, but Vermaelen struck the post with the fifth and final penalty, and Bradford were heading to the semi-finals.
The story will probably be about the penalty shoot-out, but I want it to be about the performance over the 120 minutes. We've taken Arsenal three minutes away from beating them in normal time.
It's great night for the city of Bradford. It's not sunk in yet for the players and myself, the enormity of what we've just done.
- Phil Parkinson to the BBC after Bradford's win over Arsenal
We’ve all heard the idiom ‘jumping the shark’, which is usually used to describe a television programme that’s gone too far or gone on too long; moving beyond the boundaries it set itself and veering towards fantasy.
Even the scriptwriters for Mike Bassett: England Manager stopped the Three Lions from winning the World Cup, with the climax being England miraculously getting out of the group stage, eventually falling to a heroic semi-final defeat; any more than that would’ve been too fanciful, too implausible, too Hollywood.
The scriptwriters for Bradford City’s 2012/13 season, however, fancied pushing the boat out that bit more.
Now in the semi-finals, Bradford would face a two-legged tie with Aston Villa.
Wells would give Bradford a first-half lead from another set piece, with Matt Duke, hero against Wigan and Arsenal, in fine form again.
Incredibly, for all of the visitors’ pressure, Bradford would double their lead with centre-back McArdle glancing home a second.
Villa got back into the tie through Andi Weimann, but Bradford would respond by scoring a late third via a Carl McHugh bullet header to give them a two-goal lead to take to Villa Park.
I'd say they're still the favourites, but if Aston Villa eventually get to Wembley, we'll make sure they really earn it. We got the message on to the lads when the whistle went - be calm, let's not get carried away, because we don't want to give anything to Villa to think we've done it already, because we haven't, but what I will say is we've got ourselves a great chance.
- Phil Parkinson to the BBC after Bradford's first-leg win over Aston Villa
Back in familiar territory for the second leg, Christian Benteke got Villa within one before James Hanson rose highest to restore Bradford’s two-goal cushion. A late Weimann goal would see Villa win on the night, but it was Bradford booking their tickets to Wembley.
Whether it was the occasion, the bigger pitch, the neutral venue, luck simply running out or a combination of the four, Bradford were outclassed at Wembley by Swansea. The set pieces that took them to the final didn’t arrive, and Duke, who’d arguably been Bradford’s most important player in the run to the final, gave a penalty away and was sent off shortly before the hour mark, with the Swans running out 5-0 winners.
Regardless of the result, Bradford had created history in reaching the final as a League Two club, as well as memories that would last a lifetime, with stories to be passed down to generations who’ll likely never see such a feat.
It also meant attentions could turn back to the league, where the Bantams’ form had taken a hit during their incredible run, winning just two games in 10 between their victory over Arsenal to the League Cup final, falling out of the play-offs and down to 11th in the table.
But Parkinson’s men would lose two of their final 14 games after the League Cup final to sneak into the play-offs.
Twice trailing Burton by two goals in the first leg at Valley Parade, as they had in the League Cup earlier in the season, Bradford fought back to 3-2, eventually winning the two-legged tie 5-4 thanks to a 3-1 win at Burton, going back to Wembley for a second time in three months.
Play-off finals are so often packed with tension and drama, but compared to what they’d been through against Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa, the meeting with Northampton was almost anti-climactic, leading 3-0 inside half an hour to as good as secure promotion by half-time.
For the first time since 1999, Bradford City earned promotion and for the first time in six years, would be back in League One.
And while promotion is typically the highlight of any club’s season, for Bradford City in 2012/13, it will always be their unforgettable run to Wembley.
Manager: Phil Parkinson
Top goalscorer: Nahki Wells (18 league; 26 all competitions)
Player of the Year: Gary Jones
Achievements: League Cup runners-up, League Two play-off final winners