Can Bradford Continue FA Cup Fairytale Against Reading?

FA Cup surprise merchants Bradford City take on Championship strugglers Reading in the quarter-finals of the competition. The League One side have the advantage of being at home but are still 15 places shy of the Berkshire club. In spite of this the Bantams have picked up seven points from their last five league games and sit just outside the play-offs in eighth with a game in hand.

Tomorrow`s visitors have earned themselves only one win and four points in total from their last five Championship games, scoring only two goals from these matches. Steve Clarke`s side will be hoping that success in the FA Cup will trigger a surge up the second tier of English football.

Indeed, their Championship struggles and their away disadvantage means that the Royals are the outsiders for tomorrow`s clash. In what is anticipated to be a closely fought affair, Clarke`s men are best priced at 2/1 at william hill to be able to seal a win over the League One play-off hopefuls. Phil Parkinson`s favourites can be backed at 13/8 at both Betbright and betfred. A draw that would see the game replayed at Reading`s Madejski Stadium is on offer at 12/5 at both bet365 and Betvictor.

Bradford entered the FA Cup at the first round stage, whilst Reading received a bye into the third round of the competition. Bradford made their FA Cup 2014/15 debut against non-league Yorkshire rivals Halifax, managing to come back from being 1-0 down to secure their passage into the second round. Jon Stead and Filipe Morais hit goals early in the second half to cancel out Lois Maynard`s opener. This was the first and only time in this tournament that Bradford had failed to hit the back of the net in the first half. Coral`s 4/9 says there will be a goal in the first half tomorrow whilst 11/10 (boylesports) says it will come from the Bantams.

Parkinson`s men met their second non-league opposition of the competition in the second round, hosting Conference team Dartford at Valley Parade. It took only 10 minutes for Billy Clarke to open the scoring before Stead made it 2-0 before half-time. Morais scored his second of the competition to make it three before Mark Yeates added a fourth just under 15 minutes into the second 45. Lee noble grabbed a consolation for Dartford in their 4-1 defeat. This would be the first of three times that tomorrow`s hosts will have scored exactly four goals in an FA Cup encounter. Spreadex`s 18/1 says it will be the same again against the Royals in the quarter-finals.

A brace from Billy Knott and an own-goal from Sid Nelson weren`t enough to see the Yorkshire side through in a 3-3 draw away at Championship side Millwall. At Valley Parade, the hosts recorded a comfortable 4-0 victory with James Hanson, Stead, Andy Halliday and Knott all bagging goals. Hanson is the 9/4 favourite (Betvictor) to grab a goal at any time tomorrow.

This led to a fourth round clash away at Premier League leaders Chelsea, things not going so well after the first 45 with Stead the only City player to hit the back of the net with the score balanced at 2-1. Morais levelled things up with 15 minutes left to play before both Halliday and Yeates grabbed goals in the final 10 minutes to see them achieve an unlikely 4-2 upset.

Finally, Bradford managed to take advantage of an early Jon O`Shea own-goal against Sunderland, Stead adding the second in the second half to see them record their first win to nil of the competition. Both betfair and Spreadex have 10/3 on a home win to nil tomorrow.

Reading entered the competition at the third round stage and have recorded three away victories over Championship opposition by a margin of one goal 1-0 against Huddersfield, 2-1 against Cardiff and 2-1 against Derby County. Seven-to-two (boylesports, paddy Power) says the Championship side will record a win by another one goal margin of victory tomorrow.

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06/03/2015     © Frixo 2026