Bradford City boss Parkinson talks tactics and insists: We will push for away goal (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford City boss Phil Parkinson talks tactics and insists: We will push for away goal

9:50am Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in Sport By Simon Parker, Bradford City Reporter

James Hanson, pictured, will resume his partnership tonight with Nahki Wells which proved such a threat at Valley Parade

City will not park the bus at Villa Park and be looking to hang on for a stalemate.

Phil Parkinson wants his side to push for an away goal and admits it would be a risky business to sit back and try to frustrate Aston Villa.

Parkinson said: “Villa’s attacking threat is their main strength but they have got a vulnerability defensively. We’ve got to set our team up to carry a threat going forward.

“Our best chance of progressing is to score a goal.

“You have to strike the balance right but I believe we have got players who can cause them problems.

“To go too defensive would be the wrong call. Ninety minutes is a long time to just defend.

“We need to remember we want to spend time in their half of the pitch and not give them too much possession in our final third.”

With the snow ruling Apperley Bridge out of action, City travelled down yesterday afternoon and trained at the Football Association’s new St George’s Park complex just outside Burton.

They filled the blank Saturday by using Leeds’ indoor facilities at Thorp Arch but Parkinson was keen to get his players working on synthetic grass again.

“A lot of them haven’t trained on grass for over a week so it was important.

“But I don’t think that it did us any harm with the Port Vale game getting called off. There’s a lot going on and it meant we could just concentrate on this.”

James Hanson has not been involved since the first leg and the fortnight’s break has allowed his injured toe to heel.

His partnership with Nahki Wells gave Villa huge problems at Valley Parade and will once again be the focal point of City’s attempts to pull off yet another upset.

Parkinson could become the first manager to take a team from the fourth tier to Wembley in one of the main domestic competitions.

But he is just delighted that City have managed to keep the semi-final in the balance ahead of the return leg.

“Our aim was to keep in the tie alive going into the second game. The closer it was, the more the likelihood of it being a sell-out at Villa Park, which was important for the club financially.

“We’ve done fantastically well to achieve that and get to this stage. But Villa are the favourites.

“In all honesty, they could have scored more in the first leg but then so could we.

“We aren’t going there concentrating on Wembley but on producing the best performance we can.

“If that’s not good enough and Villa still go through, then we’ll hold our hands up. But we’ll know that we’ve tried our hardest and done ourselves justice.

“We want to make sure that if Villa do get to Wembley, they’ll have really earned it.”