By Jason McKeown

Once again, that final step of getting to a Wembley final proved to be one Bradford City couldn’t quite take. But against considerable odds, they turned what seemed to be a forgone conclusion into a knife-edge outcome. Birmingham City will go to Wembley, which is a headline we all expected to read. But they haven’t got there by easily swatting the Bantams aside. They only just squeezed through, after receiving a real scare by the underdogs. The heavy favourites were left to sweat right to the end. And that is to City’s huge credit.

It was a night to agonise. To ponder what ifs. To contemplate if onlys. But more than anything, it was a night to feel pride – huge pride – in Bradford City and the fight they displayed. The players, manager and supporters came together to put on a real show of defiance in trying to hold back the inevitable power of opponents operating with very different financial parameters. And though the Bantams ultimately did not succeed, they gave a really good account of themselves and will emerge even more emboldened about the path they’re on.

Because what City did was refuse to lie down and accept the role of lambs to the slaughter. A sell out St Andrews crowd had turned up expecting to celebrate the rebirth of their club, and of confirming their first trip to the national stadium since they memorably defeated Arsenal in the League Cup Final 14 years ago. Birmingham have had a rough decade and fallen sharply, but with rich American backers they are resurgent and conquering all who stand in their way. Their success is deriving from a transfer budget that is ludicrously high for League One – it’s reported they spent £25 million last summer. Really, if no one in the division above can stop them, then what chance did City have here?

But after their own troubled few years, this current Bradford City team rewound the clock back a decade themselves, and they demonstrated the type of bold defiance that saw them upset higher league clubs as a matter of habit between 2012-2015. They stood tall in this pressure cooker and showed that, like the home side, they have a much higher ceiling than their current divisional status suggests. City made sure it was no walk in the park for Birmingham, and came desperately close to at least taking the tie to the lottery of penalties.

Nearly, but not quite. With the clock ticking past the 87th minute, Lyndon Dykes broke City hearts with a late, devastating winning goal that sent Birmingham to the final. It hurt. It absolutely did. But the Bantams had given their fans at least one moment of magic when Bobby Pointon had tapped home Antoni Sarcevic’s cross to equalise and spark scenes of away end jubilation. “It could have gone our way,” rued Graham Alexander at the end, and he’s absolutely right. “I thought the discipline my players showed, the trust in each other, the faith in what we do, was superb. It looked like it was going to go to penalties, but unfortunately they’ve had that moment of quality in the box.”

Birmingham did indeed have that moment. And maybe you can argue that City didn’t quite show enough quality themselves in the final third. That they ran out of steam at the end. But really, it would be unnecessarily cruel to be critical of anything the Bantams produced here, especially with evidently depleted ranks. Against their toughest opponents faced all season, the fact we can feel disappointed to fall narrowly short shows just how well the players performed.

Because Birmingham have been colossal this season. Their recent FA Cup loss to Premier League Newcastle United was their first since November. It’s one of only two home defeats they’ve experienced this season – the other also coming against Premier League opposition, Fulham, in the League Cup. All in all, they’ve won 17 of their last 21 games, during which they’ve scored 36 goals and kept 12 clean sheets. They’re nine points clear at the top of League One, with a game in hand, and on track to amass 109 points.

Birmingham – and their fans – are taking this trophy seriously, and as brilliantly as Bradford City have performed in this competition again this season, this always looked like the worst semi final draw they could have faced. You had to hope that the occasion and the expectation might get to the Birmingham players given they are, at heart, still lower league footballers. That the attempts from the club’s powers-that-be to turn an EFL Trophy semi final into a Super Bowl occasion – with lightshows, pumping music and pyrotechnics pre-match – might backfire. Perhaps it did. But not by enough to prevent Birmingham’s quality ultimately counting.

Still, this was never the thrashing you feared. The pattern was set early. Birmingham bossing possession. Passing forwards, backwards, to the left, to the right. They were patient – arguably too patient – but found space in the final third difficult to unearth. City kept everyone behind the ball and held a solid out of possession shape, but when they did eventually win it back, there was just no outlet up front to work the ball up to and set up a base camp for the rest of the team to get forward. And so it started all over again. Birmingham had 83% possession in first 15 minutes, completing 129 passes to City’s 28.

But even so, this didn’t become the one-sided affair that it threatened to be. City’s organisation and discipline subdued the occasion and quietened the home atmosphere. They limited Birmingham’s threat on goal. They made the first half a boring, stop-start watch. And in doing so they muffled Birmingham’s menace. Home manager Chris Davies could not hide his frustration at City’s time-wasting attempts, as they did everything they could to slow down the tempo. It was, to be honest, slightly discomforting to watch such basic, game-stifling tactics that if we were up against at Valley Parade would have us screaming at our opponents in frustration. But given the gulf in resources between the two sides, really it was fair enough from City.

It took 23 minutes for Birmingham to create a decent chance. That came when Ben Davies sent Jay Stansfield through from an angle, and his powerful low shot flew wide of Sam Walker’s goal. Birmingham’s corners showed some invention, and from one set piece Kieran Dowell fired an effort wide. But as much as the home side dominated possession, they never produced a spell of first half attacking pressure that their crowd could get behind. Shots on goal were sporadic rather than plentiful.

Fair to say City started this nervously. Brad Halliday was booked in just the fourth minute after the Bantams twice cheaply gave away possession. It took more than six minutes for a City player to actually successfully pass the ball to a team mate (compared to Birmingham’s 38 successful passes at that stage). But as the minutes ticked by and a Birmingham first half onslaught never materialised, the visitors grew in confidence and began to produce some form of attacking threat. A dangerous Tyreik Wright cross saw Alex Cochrane concede a corner. Birmingham fans booed Pointon as he slowly ambled over to take the set piece, and when he eventually took it the ball almost fell to Romoney Crichlow in a good position.

There was the odd crack appearing in home ranks. Intermittent signs of Birmingham struggling to get to grips with their opponents, and the occasion. Cochrane was booked for a late challenge on Halliday. Pointon got into some good positions outwide and stretched the play. And then a City chance. Halliday won the ball high up the pitch and it was played up to Walker, who flicked it on for the City wing back to run onto in space. Halliday’s shot was well blocked by Davies, but for a brief moment Birmingham hearts were in mouths. As City’s confidence grew further, they even began taking a couple of risks at the back to invite the press and create space to try to exploit.

So far, so very much the template of their quarter final success at League One Rotherham.   

But just as it seemed City would get to half time goalless and with the momentum, Birmingham scored. Wright was booked for a late challenge on Taylor Gardner-Hickman in the second of two minutes for stoppage time. The resultant free kick was very wide, and Dowell surprised everyone by going for goal and testing Sam Walker, who beat the shot away. It came back to Dowell, who teed up Stansfield, who from the edge of the box took a touch and produced a stunning strike that flew into the bottom of the goal.

Just pure class from a forward who began this season playing Premier League football. A £15 million League One record signing, Stansfield is providing value for money for Birmingham, and now has 20 goals from 26 starts – only Mo Salah has scored more English domestic goals this season than the 22-year-old. He is a cut above any striker the Bantams have faced this season.

Indeed, the disparity of the two teams was best illustrated by those forward positions. While Birmingham utilised their £15 million man, City didn’t have a genuine striker available. An injury to Calum Kavanagh – and the cup-tied status of Tommy Leigh, George Lapslie and Michael Mellon – left Alexander with just midfielder Jamie Walker to lead the line. Youth striker Harry Ibbotson was recalled from his loan spell at Guiseley to be on the bench. For Walker, this was a first start in over 10 weeks, and he was a bit too isolated for much of the first half. Not the magnetic force to the ball that City needed. Not a £15 million, 20-goals-by February striker, for that matter. But you know, Walker did his best and it was nice to see him getting an opportunity again.

The question, at the break, was what could City do against what felt like an inevitable tide of Birmingham’s powerful position. Did they continue to defend deep and hope to get a late equaliser, or push on and risk leaving space which Birmingham had spent 45 minutes sniffing to find? City choose the latter, showing attacking intent from the resumption of the game. And though the risks were obvious – with Stansfield getting in and spurning a great chance to make it 2-0 – the upsides of their boldness were rewarded with a gleefully celebrated equaliser from Pointon.

Birmingham were livid about the Bantams goal, as only moments earlier Stansfield had gone down in the City box under a challenge from Crichlow. Probably was a penalty in truth, but you can see why it wasn’t given. As Birmingham complained, Richie Smallwood and Alex Pattison worked the ball forward quickly for Sarcevic to set up Pointon. It was a lovely attacking move of devastating quality. In the aftermath Stansfield stayed down on the ground injured. The game was delayed for eight minutes, and the striker ultimately had to be rushed to hospital.  

The home side looked rattled by the turn of events. They became sloppy on the ball, and at times looked on the ropes when City came forward, smelling blood. The League Two side attacked from both sides with dangerous balls into the box causing clear Blues anxiety. At one stage Ryan Allsop squared up to Aden Baldwin, and the smile on the City defender’s face said much about how dramatically the game had changed. There was only one team who looked to be enjoying the occasion, and it wasn’t the team who called this place their home.

Pointon and Wright were linking up wonderfully, with Sarcevic also revelling in the occasion and producing moments of skill. Smallwood was outstanding in the centre. And Jamie Walker became more involved, pressing, harrying and generally proving a nuisance to a Birmingham backline that spent so much of the first half coasting.

But just in case anyone forgot, Birmingham eventually rediscovered their prowess. They found some rhythm and found some teeth. They began to push more often. And though initially they were regularly let down by trying one too many passes, and a lack of crispness, the waves of attack began to become more frequent, more polished. It was a truly heroic effort from Jack Shepherd, Crichlow and Baldwin to push back against the tide, but the pressure began to notch up and they became increasingly busy.

The difference, ultimately, was the depth of Birmingham’s bench and the impact their subs made. Alfie May – a regular thorn in the City side over the years – had come on for Stansfield and forced a good save from Walker, when he got on the end of a cross from another sub Ethan Laird. There was also the positive influence of Keshi Anderson from the bench, who stretched the game after coming on. And most crucially of all was Dykes, who netted the winner eight minutes after his introduction. Tomoki Iwata had found space and crossed, with Dykes getting ahead of Shepherd to head home with two minutes of normal time left.

City just couldn’t match that quality from their own bench. The forward players visibly tired, and the only moves Alexander felt he could play was to bring Callum Johnson on for Halliday and throw Shepherd up front, with Ibbotson also getting a late cameo for Walker. In the 11 minutes of stoppage time that was caused by Stansfield’s injury, and a separate long delay following a clash of heads, City had some hit and hopes into the box and a very late free kick opportunity. But Birmingham held on.

Everyone expected Birmingham to do Birmingham things and steamroller Bradford City. To the Bantams great credit, that didn’t happen. And though the League One side celebrated jubilantly at the end, there was a certain level of hollowness to it all because it hadn’t been the walkover expected. A look of slight embarrassment that kept a lid on the giddiness levels.

For City, no prizes but much to take home. In a recent interview, City CEO Ryan Sparks pointed out that this is the third successive season the Bantams have reached some sort of semi final. Sadly, it wasn’t a case of third time lucky – as this one ultimately ended the same away as the 2023 play off semi final with Carlisle, and 2024 EFL Trophy last four meeting with Wycombe. But getting this far for the second year in a row is another encouraging sign of the greater professionalism and rising standards at Valley Parade.

They may seem to always be the bridesmaid right now, but at least City are getting to take part in the party. After recent years of getting nowhere near anything, they are knocking louder and louder on the door of success. And if they keep going in this same way, eventually that door will open.

They need to take the experience of being part of this big match atmosphere and these scenes of triumph as inspiration to achieve occasions like this of their own. They have 15 League Two games left to play, and they’re in a fantastic position to make sure that an EFL Trophy semi final appearance isn’t the high point of their season. This was a game that ended in disappointment for Bradford City, but like Birmingham they are moving in the right direction towards their own rebirth.

You hope this is the last semi final City have to worry about taking part in this season. Because if they can keep playing like this, they can skip the Wembley step completely and enjoy the prize of celebrating automatic promotion.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2024/25, BCAFC, Birmingham City, Football League Trophy