Bradford City 1 Rochdale 0: Wells setting sights on Wembley after wonder winner for City

Wells has flown back to the beautiful British colony for their World Cup qualifier against Barbados but will be back on Wednesday to press his claim for a starting role in Saturday’s League Two encounter against Rotherham United.

There will have been no better goal scored in the first round this season in the premier knockout competition than Wells’s wonder strike on Saturday but he knows City’s best chance of making it to the national stadium is via another route – one which took him agonisingly close last season.

He was left out of the squad for Carlisle’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final success against Brentford but Wembley is on the horizon again with City having reached the Northern semi-final of this season’s competition and having been drawn at Oldham next month.

The 21-year-old striker said: “They are the toughest team left but we can beat them. It was hard to take missing out with Carlisle at Wembley. I had a feeling it would happen because a few players came back from injury before that and they were important players to the team and I understood it.

“But just being involved even if I didn’t play was a great feeling. It would be great to do it with Bradford.”

To cement his place in the City side, however, Wells realises he will have to start putting club before country but there will be no way manager Phil Parkinson can keep him on the bench if he repeats his form against Rochdale.

Parkinson changed the game in the 65th minute with his double substitution, introducing the little and large strike pairing of Wells and James Hanson.

Hanson had a header cleared off the line and Wells saw a fierce volley cannon off the body of goalkeeper David Lucas and Chris Mitchell’s goalbound drive was also blocked after being set up by Hanson before the winner came in the 84th minute.

Wells sped from his own half down the right channel and let fly from around 35 yards, leaving Lucas grasping thin air as the ball rocketed into the top right-hand corner of his net.

Visiting manager Steve Eyre, whose side had dominated the first half only to find goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin in top form, enthused: “It was as good a goal as I have ever seen, certainly good enough to win this cup tie. I would have loved it if it had been one of our players doing it.”

Wells said: “It was a great goal from the build-up to the finish, definitely a great goal to score.

“When I picked it up, it was on the counter-attack with four on four and as soon as I felt I had time and space because my other players had made runs I just felt it was time to hit it. They said if it hadn’t gone in and I hadn’t have passed they would have been screaming at me but luckily it did. The fans were the ones who encouraged me to hit it and I have never scored one better.

“It’s time for me to push on. I can’t keep being used as a sub so I’ll have to continue to work hard in training and take my chance.

“The club and my country made a compromise to keep me here for the JP Trophy and the FA Cup and I got my chance here and I had to take it.”

The former Dandy Town Hornets player took advice from Bermuda’s most famous player Shaun Goater before making the decision to try his luck in England and sees him as an inspiration.

“Everyone wants to be the next Pele but to fill Shaun Goater’s boots will be a tough achievement but that’s what I’m here for. I’m here to get better and try to be as good as he was.”

Steve Parkin, City’s No 2 and a former Rochdale manager, says it is difficult to assess how good Wells can be due to his international commitments.

“We have had a chat with him and while we are pleased that he is representing his country there is always a stage where a decision has to be made for him to spend more time here.

“If they are World Cup qualifiers that he has to go and play in then all well and good but with friendlies we would prefer him to be here earning his bread and butter.

“He has a lot to learn but one thing he has got is natural talent, he has an eye for goal and we see that in training when he is here. It is important he enjoys the moment but builds on it. He could be a real dangerous player for us for the rest of the season.

“That goal was as speical as I have seen for a long time. We can all wax lyrical about goals but I think that was a special one.”

Parkin added that City had always planned “to really go for it and it was a bold decision by the manager to bring on those two”.

The decision to retain McLaughlin in goal was equally important following his three spot-kick saves in the 6-5 penalty shootout success at Sheffield United in the JP Trophy.

This time McLaughin made his saves from shots from open play, crowning his display by producing an instinctive far-post block from emerging talent and Manchester City loanee Harry Bunn after the break and immediately diverting the follow-up from Ashley Grimes before City got their winner.

Bradford City: McLaughlin, Moore (Ramsden 55), Oliver, Williams, O’Brien; Mitchell, Flynn, Jones, Compton; Devitt (Hanson 65), Hannah (Wells 65). Unused substitutes: Duke, Dean, Bryan, Reid.

Rochdale: Lucas, Holden, Holness, Jordan, Barry-Murphy; Tutte (Eccleston 86), Kennedy, Jones, Adams (Grimes 72), Apa Akpro, Bunn. Unused substitutes: Edwards, Darby, Balkestein, Benali, Gray.

Referee: D Mohareb (Cheshire).