10 YEARS ON: Bradford City’s epic journey to Capital One Cup final

Valley Parade prepared for Darren Bent to spoil the party and introduce a dose of sanity into the League Cup dream.

But he headed over the bar with the goal gaping. City, 1-0 up on Aston Villa at the time, clung on to their lead - which they would extend before the final whistle was blown on a magical 90 minutes.

It was that moment, as Bent somehow missed an equaliser after Duke could only parry Charles Nzogbia’s blast from outside the box, when Will Atkinson knew City were guaranteed another special outcome in a season full of them.

“That year it did seem to happen a lot,” he said. “Everything seemed to fall into place.

“You can put it down to a bad miss, which obviously it was, but you get your luck and your rewards for putting in all the hard work.

“It’s just crazy all the little things that happened within that game and that season that seemed to go our way. But I think we earned it.

“We had such a good team spirit - and a very good team, which seems to get overlooked sometimes.”

Exactly 10 years to the day from beating Villa 3-1 in the semi-final first leg, Atkinson can vividly recall the excitement of a cup run that still defies logic and belief.

Nahki Wells celebrates his goal with James Hanson and Carl McHugh (Image: Newsquest)

“It was after the Arsenal game when we all started thinking, ‘this is actually a bit stupid’.

“But we’d beaten Notts County, Watford and Wigan, who were Premier League at the time, so that was a massive achievement.

“Then we got past Arsenal and it was a case of ‘what is happening?’

“Out of the three teams we could have got in the semis, I think Villa were the ones we could most likely beat.

“They weren’t doing that well in the league at the time, whereas Swansea were pretty decent and Chelsea were obviously Chelsea.

“But obviously Villa would have been very happy with the draw, especially with then being at home in the second leg.”

Kicking off at Valley Parade, though, suited the Bantams as they looked to build up a head of steam and claim a third Premier League scalp.

Phil Parkinson got the message across in the dressing room to treat it like any other game.

“It’s hard as League Two footballers,” admitted Atkinson. “You want to stay professional because it’s your job but at the same time these are one-off occasions - and we had about four or five of them that season.

“We almost became accustomed to it and the manager kept things as normal as possible.

Matt Duke pulls off a reaction save from Gabby Agbonlahor (Image: Newsquest)

“We were good at keeping a good shape, we were solid at the back, midfield was strong and we knew we had the firepower up front to cause defenders problems at any level.

“We had a real good group, there were no big-time Charlies. We all played our part and fed off the passion and drive of the manager.

“The excitement leading up to the game was there for everyone to see in the city. We felt the full power of the fans behind us and playing at home first was a big thing.”

Set-pieces were another advantage that would bridge the three-division gap between the sides.

The first two goals stemmed from corners - Zavon Hines’ drilled effort back into the box falling kindly for Nahki Wells to open the scoring, then Gary Jones getting his set-piece back to supply the cross for Rory McArdle’s trademark near-post nod for number two.

And the third, after Andreas Weimann had finally broken Duke’s resistance to pull one back, was as emphatic a header from one as you will see; Carl McHugh ghosting past Christian Benteke to bury the ball in the top corner.

Atkinson remembers Duke’s “little duel” with the Villa centre forward that night, the keeper defying the Belgian time and again as well as saving superbly from Gabby Agbonlahor.

But City also had their chances for more - James Hanson offering a taster of what was to come with a header rattling the bar.

James Hanson and his team-mates clap the City fans (Image: Newsquest)

Atkinson said: “It was a big night for Villa as well, they don’t get to many finals. They weren’t going to play their reserves and turn up and not bother.

“I don’t think they played particularly badly but we gave them a real good game. We celebrated the win in the dressing room and were just excited to be going to a historic ground like Villa Park.”

As for a fourth-tier team reaching a major Wembley final, Atkinson does not expect it to happen again - and doesn’t want it too either.

“You want the underdogs to win because we’ve been there and know how it feels. But that was our thing and we don’t really want anyone else to match it.”