FA Cup 1st Round replay: Bantams battle Aldershot to progress

Matt Haynes | November 17, 2015

• FA Cup 1st Round Replay
• Wednesday, November 18th
• Kick-off: 19:45 GMT
• Valley Parade, Bradford
• Live on BT Sport 1

Bradford to copy last season’s template

A year ago, Bradford City, who are odds-on at 4/9 with Coral to beat Aldershot in 90 minutes battled their way through two non-league fixtures before that remarkable victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the third round.

This time around, another non-league outfit, Chesham United await them in the second round. Though, the West Yorkshire club will need to treat both ties with the utmost professionalism to stand a chance of putting themselves in a position to compete against a team of a similar stature to Chelsea in the third round this season.

It is goalless from the first leg, so the pressure is on to score early for the Bantams, who haven’t lost in seven matches across all competitions. They have had an array of scorers in recent matches, with Billy Clarke, Gary Liddle and Devante Cole all netting. The trio are 6/4, 10/3 and 23/20 respectively to dispatch in the anytime market.

Hanson hints at caution

While Bradford’s longest serving player James Hanson was injured for last season’s first two FA Cup rounds against Halifax Town and Dartford, he does have a few words of wisdom for the team’s younger, more inexperienced players: “I was out injured when we played Dartford and Halifax,” the 28-year-old said.

“But I remember watching the Halifax game on TV and I thought we were a bit fortunate not to be 2-0 down at one stage. It took us a while to get going that day. If Halifax had scored that second goal, who knows what might have happened?