City's hopes of fairytale final victory end at Wembley (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

City's hopes of fairytale final victory end at Wembley

7:53pm Sunday 24th February 2013 in News By Ross Heppenstall, Bradford Bulls Reporter

Matt Duke saw red as City’s hopes of a fairytale victory in today’s Capital One Cup final were reduced to rubble by a vibrant Swansea outfit at Wembley.

Michael Laudrup’s men were utterly dominant from start to finish and led in the 16th minute through Nathan Dyer.

The diminutive forward slipped the ball past Duke from close range after the Bantams goalkeeper parried a shot from Michu.

Michu then added a second for Swansea five minutes before the break, which was just reward for the bucketloads of possession that the Welsh side enjoyed.

City, who had embarked on an incredible run to become the first fourth tier side to reach a major cup final at Wembley, simply struggled to cope with Swansea’s freeflowing football.

Backed by a huge following of over 30,000 fans, the Bantams lacked nothing in spirit but failed to fashion any decent openings of note and were left facing a mountainous task at 2-0 down.

It got worse for the Bantams as Dyer grabbed his second with an outstanding curling effort which put Swansea 3-0 up in the 47th minute.

Shortly before the hour mark, Duke’s trailing leg felled Jonathan De Guzman and referee Kevin Friend pointed to the penalty spot.

Dyer wanted to complete his treble but De Guzman eventually stepped up to sidefoot the ball past replacement stopper Jon McLaughlin, who had come on to replace Nahki Wells.

Swansea were happy to play out time thereafter but grabbed a fifth in the dying embers when De Guzman buried a low right-wing cross from De Guzman.

Sadly for City, their amazing cup run is over – leaving them to focus solely on winning promotion from League Two.