Bradford City continue FA Cup run with victory over Sunderland

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/15/bradford-city-sunderland-fa-cup-match-report

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Jon Stead has been there and worn the T-shirt during a career spanning 13 years and 10 clubs. But once things got so bad that his own supporters actually sported a derogatory T-shirt about him, mocking his productivity as a striker. “I saw Jon Stead score a goal,” was its sarcastic slogan.

So there was a sense of karma when supporters of the club in question, Sunderland, greeted his late substitution here with a standing ovation for his part in earning Bradford a first FA Cup quarter-final appearance since 1976 and maintaining his achievement in scoring for five consecutive rounds this season. Stead, 31 and revitalised by a loan switch from Huddersfield, took 30 games to get off the mark in an 18-month spell on Wearside. The 4,250-strong travelling support would have been forgiven for the odd double-take on this performance.

Stead epitomised everything good about Bradford City as the League One side tore into opponents superior by two divisions.

As early as the second minute he used his strength to draw a free-kick from Wes Brown. Filipe Morais delivered the ball into the area and Sunderland’s failure to clear resulted in Billy Clarke’s bobbling shot being diverted past Vito Mannone by John O’Shea. Then, just after the hour, he kept his composure to provide the second goal Bradford’s superiority merited when his shot squirmed under Mannone’s body.

“If you look at the calibre of striker that Sunderland had on the pitch then, for people to be speaking about Jon Stead is a great tribute to him,” said the Bradford manager, Phil Parkinson. “His all-round performance for us – not just today, ask the people who watch him every week – has been immense. His hold-up play, his running for the team, his challenging and his finishing.

“A lot of strikers go somewhere, and it doesn’t quite work out. But he has moved on with his career, he hasn’t let it affect him and he’s pushing on again.

“It’s great to see that a player of his age is still ambitious and has the desire to play at the highest level he can.”

While it was Stead – forced to have post-match stitches to his foot after being caught by a Sunderland player’s studs in an innocuous challenge – who stole the acclaim up front, Rory McArdle was equally heroic at the back. His thunderous aerial challenge on Danny Graham left him with a head bandage for all but seven minutes of the game. “It typified what we were all about,” acknowledged Parkinson.

Bradford – roared on by a crowd in excess of 24,000, their biggest for more than 50 years – simply began where they left off last month when they became the first team to overturn a two-goal deficit to beat a José Mourinho team at Stamford Bridge. The relationship between the players and fans here makes it an uncomfortable experience for higher-ranked opponents. Just ask Aston Villa and Arsenal, humbled here during Bradford’s run to the League Cup final in February 2013.

“It’s like a throwback, really, with three sides of the ground singing and getting behind the team. The lads are absolutely revelling it in and they deserve the support because of the manner of the performances over the last few years. We have a group of players who, every time they pull on the shirt, they wear it with pride.

“You can’t win every week but every time we play we give it everything we’ve got and the supporters, and people of Bradford, have responded to that,” said Parkinson.

The rutted surface can spook opponents too, although Gus Poyet acknowledged “we didn’t lose because of the pitch”. Only once did it obviously negate attacking endeavour when Billy Jones’s attempted 20th-minute cross was sent into orbit via a combination of divot and shinpad.

Bradford are certainly used to it and carved out the superior openings throughout: Stead’s glancing 20th-minute header from a James Meredith centre teased its way across the six-yard area while Clarke – the one change to the XI that defeated Chelsea – displayed commendable close control just after the half-hour to weave through the heart of the visitors before unleashing a drive that Mannone beat away.

At the other end, Sunderland felt aggrieved at not having the opportunity to level from the penalty spot after Steven Fletcher was accosted by a McArdle challenge in the process of shooting during a comedy of errors. Fletcher, receiving possession in an offside position, dilly-dallied for what seemed an eternity in the process of shooting and was crunched under the nose of the referee Kevin Friend.

Otherwise their threat was limited to a couple of first-half efforts straight at the Bradford goalkeeper, Ben Williams: a Graham header that lacked power and a shot from Patrick van Aanholt slowed up by a deflection.

Trailing at the break and without Jermain Defoe as an option from the bench because of a calf injury, Sunderland threw on Connor Wickham for the second half. However, a bright start to the second period, during which Williams was forced to field several high balls into the box, fizzled out and Bradford settled the tie soon afterwards through Stead.

Attempting to clear downfield, Adam Johnson’s mishit was exposed when James Hanson nodded it back into the Sunderland penalty area and Stead composed himself to switch the ball between his feet and shoot under Mannone’s body to provide a decisive two-goal advantage. It left Poyet to bat away suggestions that, after more jeers from his own fans following disquiet on Wearside in midweek, this represented a managerial low point.

“No, I haven’t been in the bottom three once this year. I was bottom for eight months last year,” he shrugged. Instead, like his fans, he credited Bradford, who are now unbeaten in a dozen home cup ties under Parkinson.

“The good thing about this Bradford City team is that they didn’t win every game here. They won at Stamford Bridge, against the best team in the league right now on a great football pitch. Today they play here and beat us on this football pitch. Give plenty of credit to what they do.”