Seven years on: Bradford City in the FA Cup quarter-finals

THE contest was entering its 98th minute and Alex Pearce was stood on the touchline in just his underpants.

The Reading defender had been forced to strip off the rest of his kit which was soaked in blood after his nose had come off second best in a clash with the back of Francois Zoko’s head.

It was a fitting finale to a proper, old school FA Cup battle.

The two teams had slugged away at each other and there was absolutely nothing between them when referee Neil Swarbrick’s whistle signalled a truce.

It is seven years to the day since Phil Parkinson’s Bantams reached the last eight – and within touching distance of another Wembley day-out.

After the mightiest of upsets against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and comprehensive victory over a feeble Sunderland, Valley Parade rocked to the club’s first FA Cup quarter-final appearance since 1976.

Again, it was southern opposition from the second tier, memories of that defeat to a controversial goal from eventual cup winners Southampton flooding back with the visit of Reading.

The queue snaking through the concourse and out the ground in a marathon wait for tickets showed the huge interest. Everybody wanted to be there to see if history could be made once more.

It was a special occasion for Parkinson, who had played nine years of his career with the Royals, and he happily mingled with away fans outside the ground before kick-off.

Opposite number Steve Clarke, an FA Cup winner with Chelsea in 1997, was wary of the underdog threat – and had exchanged texts with old boss Jose Mourinho about City in the week.

“Bradford have been the story of the competition, hopefully we can become the story today,” he told the TV interviewer.

The state of the Valley Parade pitch was another story after the whines of Guy Poyet ahead of Sunderland’s demise in the previous round.

But Clarke was not offering that up as an excuse.

“Ours is not the best,” he said. “I know I’d love to be out there playing on it.”

It would be a game for defenders, every yard gained a hard one, nothing given cheaply. No classic spectacle for the neutral – but there were precious few of them in a heaving crowd.

The lunchtime kick-off meant that many of Reading’s travelling 4,000 support had left at 4am. But nobody was put off by the early start.

Parkinson had kept faith with the same side that had shooed away the Black Cats as City hunted a first semi-final since they lifted the trophy for the only time in 1911. Filipe Morais played through the pain in his injured knee.

The long queue of City fans waiting for tickets for the quarter-final

The tackles flew in from the start and Swarbrick was happy to let them ride. No over-fussy Premier League officiating to get in the way.

Reading fashioned the first sniff of a goal on 27 minutes.

City fans claimed that ball had crept out of play before Jamie Mackie retrieved and crossed for Pavel Pogrebnyak. The Russian cushioned the pass just inside the box and drilled in a low strike that cannoned off the post.

Then it was the Bantams’ turn to be frustrated by the woodwork as Gary Liddle’s inswinger beats the diving Adam Federici and bounces against the far post.

The half-time stats revealed that both sides had completed less than half of their passes. It was scrappy and tense – but you couldn’t tear your eyes away.

City upped the tempo attacking towards a roaring Kop and Jon Stead threatened to extend his record of scoring in every round when he burst past Pearce – only to thwarted by a last-gasp sliding challenge from Stephen Kelly.

Stead then looked to tee up James Hanson but the pass was just behind his strike partner who slid his shot wide.

City’s free-kicks had been disappointing but Morais got one spot on with his final involvement. Andrew Davies met the delivery inside the box and powered a header over the bar, to his huge frustration.

That was the big moment for the Bantams but Reading would have one more.

Just like Liddle in the first half, Oliver Norwood’s set-piece floated across goal beating everyone and pinging clear off the post.

Reading would make it count in the replay nine days later. But it had been a cup run for City that will never be forgotten.

CITY: Williams, Darby, McArdle, Davies, Meredith, Liddle, Morais (Halliday 76), Knott (Zoko 83), Clarke (Yeates 83), Stead, Hanson.

READING: Federici, Stephen Kelly, Pearce, Hector, Obita, Mackie (Yakubu 80), Williams, Norwood, Chalobah (Akpan 83), Robson-Kanu (McCleary 66), Pogrebnyak.