Beating Villa snow problem for Duke

Bradford goalkeeper Matt Duke has revealed how a snowball fight played its part in securing the club's memorable Capital One Cup semi-final success over Aston Villa.

The Bantams created history on Tuesday night as they became the first fourth-tier team to reach a major cup final at Wembley, losing 2-1 on the night at Villa Park but progressing 4-3 on aggregate. The West Yorkshire outfit had seen their preparations for the crunch return leg severely hampered by the wintry weather sweeping the country.

City travelled to St George's Park to train on Monday but the team bus got stuck in the snow en route, leading to an innocent snowball fight among the players which relieved any of the pre-match pressure. Asked whether there were any omens to Bradford's semi-final triumph, Duke said: "I think a lot of the disruption if I'm honest."

He went on: "The preparation was all up in the air, we didn't know what was going to happen with the bad weather. We couldn't really train properly but we went to St George's Park (the Football Association's national football centre in Burton) to train.

"We meet the coach in Barlborough for some of the lads who travel and the coach driver pulls the coach in and it gets stuck, we're all off the coach pushing it and trying to get it out.

"We're all off the bus having a laugh, having a snowball fight.

"It was such an occasion that's massive and we could over tense - and we were having a laugh and a good time, that's testament to the staff.

"We're just a good set of lads who get on and we had a good time, playing with snowballs.

"Little things like that disrupt the preparation and I think it's quite good sometimes, it takes your mind of it."