Wembley windfall will secure club’s future Parkinson
By Colin Thompson in LondonBradford City boss Phil Parkinson believes the money the Bantams earned during their amazing run in the Capital One Cup can put the club in good stead for years to come.He said the money could be used “wisely” to ‘build a strong structure” and he intends to do just that.“I think the big picture for us as a club is obviously the revenue we’ve earned in this cup run which can strengthen this club for years to come,” he said. “The money we’ve earned is obviously way above our wildest dreams.“When a Second Division (League Two) club enters the Capital One Cup it never expects to get to the final, so we’ve got a lot of money which we wouldn’t expected to get in normal circumstances. Between the chairman and myself we got to make sure we use that wisely and build a strong structure for years to come and we will do that.”Bradford finished runners up to Swansea after losing 5-0 in Sunday’s lopsided final at Wembley Stadium.It was the widest margin of defeat in the final, surpassing Manchester United’s 4-0 drubbing of Wigan in 2006.Moving forward, Parkinson must now lift his players ahead of Wednesday’s home league match with Dagenham & Redbridge at Valley Parade.The Bantams are currently 11th in the 24-team division with 44 points from 31 matches.Parkinson said his team is better than their league position suggests.“I firmly believe that this team is good enough to be a lot higher than we are but we have a lot of games in hand,” he said.The Bantams will be without ‘keeper Matt Duke who is expected to serve a one-game suspension for being sent off in Sunday’s cup final with the Swans.Duke received his marching orders after tripping up Swansea midfielder Jonathan De Guzman to deny the Dutch international an obvious goal scoring opportunity.Bradford are the first fourth tier side to reach a major English domestic cup final in 51 years.During Sunday’s final Bantams striker Nahki Wells became only the third Bermudian to play at Wembley and the first in a major cup final.The former Dandy Town player saw 57 minutes of action on the pitch before he was replaced by backup ‘keeper Jon McLaughlin who came on after Duke was sent for an early shower.