PASSION, noise, fury, a capacity crowd and a bucket full of excitement - Bradford City had all the ingredients for an FA Cup upset yesterday but with their main stirrer, Chris Waddle, struggling without a suitable topping, Bradford never rediscovered the knock-out blend that overcame Everton in the previous round.
It was not exactly a case of egg on face for the First Division strugglers, but on a weekend of giant killing, this was one valley that did not resound to the sound of a heavyweight falling.
In truth it never looked likely. Bradford had a lorry load of possession, a swarm of corners and plenty of general pressure, but it was rarely translated into direct strikes to worry Kevin Pressman. In fact the Sheffield Wednesday keeper spent most of the afternoon plucking crosses from the air and Bradford's most dangerous moment came on the hour when Des Hamilton's centre rippled the side netting.
Wednesday were far from frightening around the goal themselves and, rather appropriately, their 85th minute winner was a dubious shot from Ritchie Humphreys that deflected off Nicky Mohan, thereby wrong-footing the previously stable Schwarzer and trickling in. A dejected City manager, Chris Kamara, even said they were treating it as an own goal. Calling it a "cruel piece of luck" Kamara said: "As much as Nicky Mohan don't want it, he's got it. I never thought they would score today." Relatively scathing of "dogged" Wednesday, Kamara also addressed his own side's shortcomings, principally a lack of fire power in attack. "We didn't have enough up front We didn't play as much football as we normally do, but we played half decent and lost again. That's typical of our season. It's back to reality now."
David Pleat would not rise to the doggedness bait, but he did stress that he used the example of Nottingham Forest's defeat at Chesterfield in his team talk to illustrate what can happen if a Premiership side produce a performance without moral or physical courage. He was relieved that in stormy conditions, on a greasy surface, Wednesday had the necessary conviction and, particularly after half time, cool heads.
That had not been the situation before the break when the visitors were clearly rattled by the hostile environment. Steve Nicol was also making a few elementary errors, Des Walker, flustered and in "last ditch" mode from the beginning, and when Pressman dropped a Sergio Pinto corner it appeared to confirm that he was nervy too.
But Bradford's major drawback was the absence of a physical presence that might have intimidated Wednesday. Nevertheless Waddle was still able to deliver a series of raking, inventive passes that had both Kamara and Pleat nominating him as the best player on the Park and while his influence declined as his team-mates of a season ago rallied, Waddle was the one being serenaded by the Wednesday fans at the end.
Yet even after Andy Booth had stung Schwarzer's hands with a volley and then hit a post 20 minutes from time, 0-0, rather than 1-0 seemed a more likely result.
But then David Hirst replaced Carbone and fresh-legged down the left before feeding Humphreys. A shot, a deflection and Wednesday were in the quarter-finals to face Wimbledon.
