Reaching the Capital One Cup semi-finals will bank City up to £1million.

Phil Parkinson’s giant-killers are still the talk of football after sensationally dumping Arsenal out of the competition on penalties.

And the club’s reward for reaching the last four next month is set to be anything upwards of £700,000 in profit. Should they draw Chelsea, that bounty is likely to be swelled to seven figures.

City are already guaranteed two chunks of £160,000 for live TV coverage of both legs plus a minimum £25,000 in prize money even if they lose. Throw in their percentage of the gate receipts home and away, advertising and sponsorship and the club have hit the mid-season jackpot.

Joint-chairman Julian Rhodes today confirmed that the money-spinning double header will allow Parkinson to go into the transfer market during the January window to reinforce their bid to reach League One.

Rhodes said: “The finances are looking very good. It’s no secret that we had a bit of a gamble this year but that has paid off.

“That money has cleared off all the debts and will also give us some scope to strengthen next month if the manager decides we need to.

“It’s clear now that we will have money to boost the squad. It’s a great opportunity to enhance our promotion credentials.

“People say that we should focus on the league and the cup games could become a distraction.

“But for one thing, they have been fantastic viewing and more importantly, look at the money we are generating from those cups which can be used towards our main aim of winning promotion.”

Rhodes, like everyone connected with the club, is still coming to terms with the enormity of Tuesday’s quarter-final victory and the prospect of being only one round from Wembley.

He added: “It was incredible how the game panned out but I don’t think it quite hit home until the following day.

“I had the radio on and all they were talking about was what had happened at Bradford. Turn on the telly and they were buzzing about our victory.

“It’s difficult to take in but give a lot of credit to Phil, Steve Parkin and the coaching team and players. They are responsible for this, getting us high up in the league and still going strong in all three cup competitions.

“It was a fantastic 24 hours with beating Arsenal, being reinstated in the FA Cup and completing the sale of the club shop and office building.”

City have their league heads back on tomorrow when they face Paul Sturrock’s in-form Southend at Roots Hall. But the visitors have lost only one of their last 12 games.

Rhodes said: “These are great times for everyone and we’re all excited for the Christmas period.

“We’ve got the Capital One Cup draw coming up on Wednesday, another game in the FA Cup, the JPT area semi-finals in January as well as all the league fixtures.

“There are two home games over Christmas against Accrington and Rochdale and I would like to hope a few more will turn up for those matches, having seen how fantastically well we did in beating Arsenal.”

Brentford chief executive Mark Devlin said he was "perplexed" by the decision to allow City back in the FA Cup.

He said: “We understand Bradford's situation but we didn't really anticipate the appeal being upheld.

“I understand Newcastle also gave an opinion that the decision to remove Bradford from the cup was a bit harsh. But with the greatest respect, it's not really Newcastle's place to make that comment.

“We weren't asked for an opinion or invited to the appeal. But no matter what we feel, we have to take it on the chin.”

Parkinson will use next week's replay to give game time to the likes of Kyel Reid, Zavon Hines and Ritchie Jones.