Last Friday, we revealed number 4 in the countdown from 10 to 1 of the list of best City victories from throughout the 2014-15 season. Number 4 was of course the crushing 4-0 victory against Millwall at the Coral Windows Stadium as the FA Cup run began to gather some real momentum. On the night, James Hanson, Jon Stead, Andy Halliday, and Billy Knott were on the scoresheet. At 3, it’s the 2-0 FA Cup victory against Gus Poyet’s Premier League Sunderland.
Bradford City2 (O’Shea O.G 3, Stead 61)
Sunderland0
15/02/15 – The Coral Windows Stadium
Having mastered the unthinkable to defeat Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and cause one of the biggest FA Cup upsets in the history of the famous old competition, spirits were high as was confidence going into another tie with another Premier League outfit.
Going into a tie with Chelsea, realistically City’s chances were slim to none of getting a result down there, but the situation was different for this one. It was to be in front of a sell-out crowd at the Coral Windows Stadium, Phil Parkinson’s men were brimming with belief after dispatching the country’s best football team, and Sunderland were really struggling for form of any sort.
The Bantams got off to the perfect start when Billy Clarke’s shot from 10 yards out deflected off John O’Shea and diverted past Vito Mannone who was left wrong footed. The early goal cranked up the volume to unbelievable levels and Jon Stead scored the decisive goal in the second half, against one of his former employers.
Adam Johnson was backed into a corner by James Meredith, and his weak clearance was nodded by James Hanson into the path of Stead who produced a composed finish past Mannone to confirm City’s place in the FA Cup Quarter-Final. 4,253 Sunderland fans were sent home unhappy, but Valley Parade was rocking at the thought of being potentially 90 minutes away from another trip to the famous Wembley Stadium.
Starting XI:
Williams, Darby ©, McArdle, Davies, Meredith, Liddle, Morais, Knott (Halliday 79), Clarke (Yeates 86), Stead (Zoko 89), Hanson
Unused Subs:
Urwin, Sheehan, MacKenzie, Routis
Bookings:Clarke
24,021 (4,253 Sunderland fans)Attendance:
Parkinson’s Reaction:
‘I think it was always the danger coming into the game that there was an expectancy because we’d beaten Chelsea. You could just feel it, that people were expecting us to win today, and we had to kind of guard against that with the lads and make sure that we went into the game with an underdog mentality.’
‘I felt we did that, right from the first whistle we played with great desire and great spirit. We were first to every ball, and we made it an uncomfortable afternoon for Sunderland which you’ve got to do in cup ties when there is a big gulf between the two sides.’
Billy Knott:
‘I think the win was fully deserved today, I think the boys were fantastic out there and we stuck to the game plan. We deserved it, and I think the Sunderland fans knew that, as they clapped us off at the end of the game. Credit to them, we thank them for that.’
‘Our fans were great today, and as I said, the win was well deserved. The mood is high in the dressing room at the moment, but we’ve got an important league game on Wednesday. We’ll have fun tonight, and we’ll be focused on Wednesday now, but it’s a great day for the club, and we can only thank the fans, because they were the 12thman today.’
Click on the YouTube video below to watch highlights of the 2-0 victory over Sunderland.
We'll be bringing you number 2 in the list tomorrow (Tuesday), before revealing the anticipated number 1 on Wednesday.