Bradford City 0 Reading 0

THE shape of Alex Pearce’s broken nose told the story of a bruising but attritional afternoon at Valley Parade.

Reading’s Republic of Ireland skipper finished the closing seconds of the game in new shirt and shorts courtesy of a one-sided and no doubt extremely painful collision with the back of Francois Zoko’s head.

Pearce looked like he had just gone 12 rounds with Floyd Mayweather as the blood flowed freely from the wound, vividly demonstrating that this was no occasion for the faint-hearted.

That tone had been set 98 seconds in when Gary Liddle was pole-axed by a thumping aerial challenge from Nathaniel Chalobah. From then on, it was apparent this was never going to be a fancy-dan Premier League-style kickabout.

The tricky Valley Parade surface, which had at least dried out a bit from the Crawley slog-fest, just added to the old-school feel. It made for the sort of scrap that has gone out of fashion – at least in games on the telly.

Opposing managers Phil Parkinson and Steve Clarke admitted afterwards that they’d loved it.

In terms of moments of high skill and drama, Saturday won’t live too long in the memory. Incidents were few and far between, although both sides were left cursing the woodwork on different occasions.

But City’s biggest home audience since 1960, topping the Sunderland turn-out in the last round by 300, were gripped from first meaty tackle to last.

Here were two teams who really, really wanted it. There was nothing to show between them and you can guarantee it will be just as tight when they resume battle at the Madejski in a week’s time.

Steve Clarke had learned from Gus Poyet’s mistakes. Where the Sunderland boss had bleated about the state of the pitch and pretty much got his players obsessing about it, Reading had not even broached the subject in the build-up.

Clarke instead stuck an extra man in midfield and stocked up on power and strength. Unlike the feeble Black Cats, his team were not going to be bullied off the ball.

Surprisingly there was only one yellow card for Rory McArdle, when on another day another ref might have been tempted to fill his book.

Not that Neil Swarbrick, a late stand-in when original official Lee Mason fell ill, and his two assistants exactly covered themselves in glory. There were some head-scratching calls from all three.

City almost paid the price for one of those in the first half when Marc Perry failed to spot Jamie Mackie running the ball out of play as he powered past James Meredith.

Instead he was allowed to cut the ball back to Pavel Pogrebnyak, who took a clever touch away from Billy Knott and McArdle before smacking the post.

Such individual flashes of inspiration were rare amid the blood and thunder. To prove it, the Russian’s near miss was followed at the other end by a crunching tackle from Stephen Darby on Jordan Obita which drew the largest roar of the first half.

“You could hear that from up here,” roared TV pundit Robbie Savage, never a shrinking violet on the pitch himself, in the commentary.

After all the hoo-ha of being snubbed last round, City’s overdue telly appearance was far from classic viewing but the partisan audience in the sell-out stadium could not take their eyes off it.

The goal they longed for so nearly materialised eight minutes before the break.

Filipe Morais, who looked out-of-sorts on his return from knee injury, over-cooked a free-kick into the Reading box but James Hanson did well to retrieve it and keep the ball in play.

He found Liddle, who whipped in an in-swinging cross that beat Andrew Davies, still up there in the mix after the set-piece, and pinged against the far upright; honours even with the woodwork woe.

The fact that it took until the second minute of the second half for the game’s first corner underlined its tight nature. Nobody was prepared to budge an inch.

It was difficult for the flair characters to get involved and it took an hour for City to really bring Billy Clarke into the game. But as the hosts started to exert some pressure, without troubling Royals keeper Adam Federici, Clarke and Billy Knott became more animated figures.

The final pass or cross was still lacking until Clarke produced the pass of the match with a well-judged chip into Stead’s path as the striker burst into the box.

Unfortunately his squared ball was fractionally behind Hanson, who had to dig it out as he jabbed wide from close range.

Then City threatened again as Davies bulleted a header just over the bar from Morais’s final involvement.

Reading threw on Yakubu – but could not feed him in front of goal.

He did, however, have a swish from a melee in the City goal mouth five minutes from time.

City’s last appearance in the FA Cup quarter-finals 39 years ago ended in controversy over the legitimacy of Southampton’s winning goal. Those who were there still argue about it.

Had Reading struck at that point, the debate would surely have raged for just as long after Pogrebnyak clearly used his right hand to try and divert the ball home.

The panic was created by Oliver Norwood’s free-kick after Pogrebnyak had been clipped by Liddle.

Just as with Liddle’s earlier cross from almost the same spot, the delivery was spot-on and flew through the pack. The ball hit the same post, with the “hand of Pog” doing its best to finish the job.

Still the danger lurked as the rebound popped out to Hope Akpan, who swung and missed from eight yards. City could not get the ball away and it resurfaced for Yakubu’s air shot before a welcome whistle for offside.

So City’s bid to be only the ninth team from the third tier to reach the last four since the war is still very much alive and kicking.

Their name will be in the hat at Old Trafford tonight when the semi-final draw is made by Peter Schmeichel and X Factor host Dermot O’Leary. City’s FA Cup journey is not over.