Written by Jason McKeown (images by John Dewhirst)

You never really thought this could happen again. Yet here we are.

Bradford City are in the League Cup quarter-finals.

The once-in-a-lifetime cup run of 2012/13 suddenly doesn’t feel quite so once in a lifetime. City will take their place as one of the final eight names in the draw this Wednesday evening, with the possibility of a dream tie, history-altering financial rewards and another occasion to capture the public imagination.

Valley Parade can certainly dream again after they booked their place in impressive style, beating an enthusiastic if deeply flawed Peterborough side. It was hard work until it wasn’t, with the Bantams able to coast their way through the final stages two goals to the good, and with City’s rock-solid backline doing what City’s rock-solid backline does to seal a safe passage. The home support revelled in the brilliance of their side, as the sizeable Peterborough away following skulked off into the night for a painfully long journey home.

Perhaps, if you’re being incredibly picky, this charge to the last eight hasn’t quite had the pinch-me-I’m-dreaming feel of 14 years ago. But that in itself says something rather wonderful about this Bradford City side.

They’re not so much confounding the odds as simply living up to what we’ve come to expect of them. Burnley are the only higher-league side they’ve defeated in this cup run and, well, look at the state of them right now. Beating Peterborough here was the third of four games in which City have simply overrun inferior opponents.

The cup draws along the way have hardly set pulses racing, but they have been kind. That might be about to change in the most stimulating way, with Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester City (boo!) potentially waiting in the last eight.

Whoever they get, this squad of players will certainly give them a game. If the transition from Graham Alexander to Michael Duff has coincided with a small slowdown in results, the quality of this team hasn’t been thrown into doubt. Here they took advantage of a Peterborough side who didn’t follow the likes of recent league opponents Leyton Orient and Burton in playing a low block, and City made hay.

Peterborough were brave for sure. They played a high line. Attacked in large numbers. They pressed hard. And they took the fight direct to City. It made for some uncomfortable moments. Only once all season have the Bantams faced more attempts on goal than Peterborough’s 16 here, and that was the 22 from Championship-side Burnley. In the away dugout, Robbie Savage repeatedly had his head in his hands before looking up to the heavens as he wallowed in misfortune. Each failed Peterborough attack was treated as some affront to his managerial genius.

But Savage ultimately let his new club down by not being as clever as he thought he was. His all-out-attack approach suited City to the ground, as they waited calmly for visiting mistakes and revelled in final third space that’s been routinely denied them in recent, goal-less outings. It’s the third time this calendar year Peterborough have rocked up to Valley Parade with an adventurous gameplan that belied their limitations and ignored City’s strengths. And it’s the third time this calendar year City have made them pay.

They also keep being ably supported by their former loanee, Alex Bass, who for the third visit in a row undermined his general shot-stopping excellence by gifting City the opener. Here it was a Callum Connolly corner that he should have come to claim but haplessly allowed to go through to Macaulay Gillesphey, who gleefully tapped home at the back post. Bass would go on to produce several fine saves, but the damage was once again done.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a Peterborough fan putting up with such erratic goalkeeping. Bass is like a toddler carrying your phone. Everything might turn out fine, but you are never, ever relaxed.

Peterborough, and Savage, can certainly cry misfortune at Bass gifting City this goal, 13 minutes in, after they’d made a really bright start. Their 4-2-3-1 set up saw wide forwards Owura Edwards and Vernon Masara link up well with the talented number 10, Ethan Williams. But United missed their suspended top scorer Harry Leonard, with deputy Danny Omerod barely making an impression and having the fewest touches of any starting player. Indeed, Omerod’s most notable moment was to accidentally block a Williams effort just before the break.

The contrast in Omerod and Jake Beesley at the other end was telling. This was Beesley’s best game yet for the club. It really suited him to play against such a high line, and he was ably supported by the two wide forwards in the 3-4-3 playing closer to him and running beyond him to stretch the game.

Those two wide forwards were Bobby Pointon – recalled after sitting out Saturday – and most surprisingly Antoni Sarcevic, at least in the first half. The City skipper returned to a position he did so well in over the past two seasons, with George Lapslie playing as an attacking midfielder and largely doing well. The pair did swap over after half time. It was one of several subtle but important attacking ideas from Duff that caused Peterborough problems.

And it was in a crucial 17-minute period, just after the break, when one manager won his side the game and the other one cost his own team. Peterborough could feel some level of hard luck going in at half time 1-0 behind, and re-emerged purposeful and determined.

They were on top right from the restart. Bass sent a lovely long ball to Edwards that let him run behind, cut inside, and hit a sharp shot towards the near corner of the goal that was brilliantly kept out by Jon McCracken. Then Williams sent Masara away – aided by a weak back header from Gillesphey – but McCracken came out and dived at the former Burnley man’s feet to expertly claim the ball. Then Edwards set up Williams for a shot that hit Matt Pennington and smacked onto the post.

Peterborough on top, and flying. City hanging on.

This was when Duff reacted. He quickly threw on the rested Aden Baldwin for Reece Welch, with the latter having endured a difficult evening and in need of being taken out of the firing line. On also came Kayden Jackson for Corey O’Keeffe. Like-for-like changes that shored up leaks but didn’t drastically change City’s set up. If you’re Peterborough, all you needed to do was keep going.

But instead Savage rolled the dice. Stupidly early.

57 minutes. A triple Peterborough sub. A team that was already set up to attack went kitchen sink mode. With at least 33 minutes to play.

It was premature. It was naïve. It was strange management from a guy who at best we can say is learning the ropes. All evening Savage was frantically gesturing and signalling to his players in a micro-manager way that suggested limited confidence in his charges’ ability to play to instructions without constant intervention. And with his team now in the ascendancy, all Savage needed to do was look at the Valley Parade scoreboard and remember his side had loads of time left to grab an equaliser that was looking increasingly likely.

His early intervention helped no one but Bradford City.

You sensed Duff couldn’t believe his luck. Because he reacted to Savage’s gung ho tactics by making a further couple of subs. Adam Phillips and Will Swan came on for Pointon and Lapslie, and six minutes later Phillips sealed the tie by scoring the second goal.

And how we got there was both comical and illustrative. Peterborough piled forward, City counter-attacked and Phillips was played through one-on-one on the right. He took a heavy touch and Bass was able to claim.

Moments later, rinse and repeat. Peterborough piled forward, City counter-attacked and Phillips was played through one-on-one on the right. He took a heavy touch and Bass was able to claim. (Yes, I’ve written the exact same sentence as the last paragraph – this really did happen twice.)

Moments later, rinse and repeat. Peterborough piled forward, City counter-attacked and Phillips was played through one-on-one on the right. He took a heavy touch and Bass was able to claim. This time he made it count, firing a powerful effort that deflected into the top corner.

Well done Phillips, you got there in the end. The crowd reaction to his second mess-up was one of anger, and you feared it was a tipping point for the summer signing. But Phillips was able to climb back off the cliff edge and his first goal in City colours will do him the world of good. He might even have got a second goal (or should be a fourth!) when late on he air-kicked the ball in the box, only to recover and see an effort cleared off the line.

By that point Peterborough were gone. Their rash move to kitchen sink mode had left them completely wide open and punished by Phillips’ second. At 2-0 down they had no other moves left to make, and going even more attacking risked getting a hammering. So Savage’s hasty switch to all-out attack ultimately lost Peterborough the game, especially given he was up against someone as wily as Duff. The final quarter of the game was reassuringly simple.

And it capped off a good night. They might easily have scored more. In the first half Pointon should have buried a one-on-one opportunity when Beesley brilliantly played him in, but his first touch inadvertently narrowed his angle and Bass was able to claim. Pointon had another night where he was okay, but a shade below his best. A first half booking when he overran the ball and lunged into a Peterborough defender in frustration hinted at deeper issues. It wasn’t a very Bobby Pointon thing to do, and suggests a player struggling with his confidence right now.

Pointon was one of six City players to be booked – five of the yellows coming in the first half – and there wasn’t really much to complain about with any of them. Unlike the two goals City had disallowed over the 90 minutes. First, at 1-0, Gillesphey seemed to have repeated his earlier feat when he headed home another Connolly corner, only for referee Thomas Kirk to find reason to blow up for a foul. At 2-0 Swan ran through and finished well, but the flag was put up and that goal was chalked off too. Replays suggest it was the wrong call.

No matter, City’s greater streetwise edge meant they were ultimately able to win with ease. Peterborough are the ultimate “can we play you every week” team for the way they keep coming to BD8 with wide open game plans that the Bantams are well poised to dismantle. So maybe this wasn’t the night where solutions to the lack of goals in League One were found – few league opponents will gift them so much space. But it was lovely to see City prove they can be an effective attacking force, after understandable recent doubts.

It all sets up an exciting day of anticipation about the quarter final draw late on Wednesday evening. And whatever the outcome, there’s the small matter of Saturday’s West Yorkshire derby with Huddersfield to get really revved up about now.

City face the new league leaders having still not conceded a goal under Duff and looking in fine fettle. McCracken is proving to be an incredible piece of business. City have not simply upgraded on Sam Walker, they’ve found a guy levels above who genuinely will be difficult to keep hold of.

Pennington didn’t have his best night but grew stronger when Baldwin was introduced to calm down City’s backline. Gillesphey had a decent evening but will return to the bench on Saturday. The wing backs were their usual excellent selves and Ibou Touray is having another storming season. How City will cope without Connolly – who is suspended – is a concern, further emphasised with another excellent showing from him here. Though late sub Kieran Morgan had his own best game since signing on loan, and might have just about earned the right to claim his first league start to cover Connolly.

Up front, City still don’t score enough but Beesley’s last two performances have been much better. Perhaps the sight of Huddersfield blue and white will jolt Pointon back to his best. A good performance from Lapslie adds to welcome headaches over what to do on the right-hand side, especially with Phillips finding a goal.

Saturday’s meeting with Huddersfield will tell us more about this team, but perhaps we already know enough.

There was something remarkably appropriate about Fleetwood producing the shock of the round on Tuesday night, knocking Arsenal out on penalties. Fourteen years ago, that was us. Bradford City were the League Two underdogs taking down Arsenal on penalties, generating national headlines and embarking on a cup run that nobody could quite believe.

This time feels different.

The giant-killing headlines belong to Fleetwood. City haven’t really defied the odds at all. They’ve reached the last eight largely by doing what this team has become very good at doing: being better than the opposition. Perhaps this is one of the stranger consequences of a football club getting better. The extraordinary gradually stops announcing itself as extraordinary.

In 2012/13, Bradford City made it this far and nobody could quite believe it.

Fourteen years later, perhaps the most exciting thing is that we can.

Categories: Match Reviews

Tags: 2026/27, BCAFC, League Cup, Peterborough