BRADFORD CITY AFC

City did their chances of progressing into the Capital One Cup Final no harm whatsoever with a truly memorable victory over Aston Villa in a pulsating semi-final first leg at the Coral Windows Stadium.

Backed by a hugely vocal home support, Phil Parkinson's men produced a simply brilliant display to ensure they have a two goal advantage to take to Villa Park for the second leg in two weeks time.

A first half effort from Nahki Wells, plus second half headers from Rory McArdle and Carl McHugh either side of an away goal from Villa's Andreas Weimann, were enough to secure a magnificent victory for City on a magical night of cup football.

With chances galore on offer and the match played out in front of an amazing atmosphere, the victory will probably go down as one of City's most memorable cup wins in their history.

Having survived a few of early scares after Christian Benteke was guilty of missing more than one promising opening, City stunned their top-flight hosts when Wells latched onto a deflected Zavon Hines shot to slot home past Shay Given.

Paul Lambert's Villa still carried their early attacking threat after the goal, but Wells' opener seemed to give Parkinson's men the license and the confidence to go for even more.

Hines saw an angled drive shovelled away by Given at his near post, while James Hanson was only denied a goal on the line when Fabian Delph kicked clear his bullet header from a Gary Jones corner.

Villa thought they were in for an equaliser on the stroke of half time when Charles N'Zogbia pushed the ball back to the lurking Gabriel Agbonlahor but Duke was on hand to repel the effort with a stunning reaction save - not the last eye-catching save the Bantams 'keeper would make on the night.

Duke was equally impressive after the restart when he kept out further efforts from Agbonlahor and Benteke early into the second half.

Darren Bent was called for by Lambert off the bench as the hour mark approached, but the England international striker proved to be wasteful early on when he volleyed wide from close range before heading over from yards out later on after Duke had struggled to hold onto a N'Zogbia fizzer.

After doing a commendable job of keeping Villa at bay, City proceeded to send their fans into dreamland when Rory McArdle amazingly doubled their advantage with thirteen minutes to go.

Up for a Jones corner that was initially cleared, McArdle was in the right place to power home a header past Given from close range following Jones' second delivery into the box.

With Valley Parade truly rocking at this stage, Hanson could have made the scoreline even more unbelievable for a now-delirious home support when his header from substitute Blair Turgott's cross clipped Given's bar.

The game wasn't completely over, however, when Villa got themselves off the mark in the tie seven minutes from the end. Andreas Weimann latched onto Benteke's flick on and just beat the on-rushing Duke to dink it past the 'keeper and into the net.

City weren't finished themselves though as they managed to restore their two-goal advantage a minute before the end of normal time when Carl McHugh sent a thumping header past Given from a Jones corner.