Roar us back to Wembley – Rhodes

The Bantams, who claimed seventh place in League Two thanks to a run-in that saw only two defeats in the final 15 games, will face Burton Albion at Valley Parade on Thursday night before travelling to the Pirelli Stadium for the return three days later.

Bookmakers have made City the slight favourites to clinch promotion ahead of Burton, Cheltenham Town and Northampton Town.

With optimism also high among Bradfordians flocking to snap up tickets for this week’s home leg, Rhodes is keen to strike a cautionary note by urging fans to remain grounded ahead of taking on the Brewers.

The City chairman, who tomorrow plans further talks over a contract extension for manager Phil Parkinson, told the Yorkshire Post: “I get the impression that a lot of fans think we have already done it, and that we are off to Wembley for a second time and destined to win promotion.

“It is an attitude I don’t understand as the job is far from done. Phil and Steve (Parkin, assistant manager) have made sure the players know that a lot of hard work lays ahead if we are to achieve our goal in the play-offs.

“To me, Burton go into the semi-finals as favourites.

“I know the bookmakers don’t agree and have made us slight favourites of the four teams, but that is probably down to the crowds we get and the fact our recent form has been good.

“To me, the bottom line is Burton finished seven points ahead of us this season and have home advantage in the second leg.

“They also have the best home record in the division so Thursday night is going to be key. We need a great performance and, hopefully, a good lead to take into the return match.

“That is why I am urging every City fan to get down to Valley Parade for the first leg as their support could, once again, be crucial. The job is far from done.”

Bradford sold around 7,500 tickets for the home leg on Sunday, the first day of sale. Another 2,500 were shifted yesterday and with general sale due to get under way tomorrow morning, the club hope for a bumper attendance as Burton head to Valley Parade for the second time in less than a fortnight.

If City can edge past the Brewers over two legs, they will join York City, Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough in having visited Wembley twice in the same season.

The first trip, of course, was for the Capital One Cup final in February and Rhodes is hoping the experience of battling through to the national stadium can help Parkinson’s men.

He said: “One thing in our favour is we are now involved in a cup competition and we have shown already many times this season that we are a good Cup team. We beat Aston Villa over two legs so we know what it is about.

“Having said that, we have to play well to get through. We beat Burton 1-0 (on April 20), but they made it tough for us a couple of weeks ago despite being down to 10 men for a long time. That is how good they are.”

Unlike the impressive runs in all three of this season’s cup competitions, the play-offs will only prove lucrative if City reach Wembley due to all proceeds from the semi-finals being split 50-50 between the four clubs and League coffers. With bonuses also having to be paid to Parkinson’s squad for finishing in the top seven, Bradford expect to break even.

On a campaign that has brought the club’s first play-off challenge since 1996, Rhodes added: “Our season can basically be broken down into three parts.

“We started the season averaging two points a game and have finished in the same fashion.

“But, in between, our league form dipped. That can be put down to the Cup run, which took it out of us as a club. Mind, we wouldn’t have swapped that for the world.

“It may not have ended as we hoped in the final, but Bradford City emerged from the Capital One Cup with huge credit.

“In that respect, we have had a phenomenal season – regardless of what happens in the play-offs. Getting to a major cup final is something no one could have expected or predicted.”

Understandably, most of this week’s focus has been on Thursday’s first leg. Rhodes, however, also has an important meeting with the League Managers’ Association pencilled in for tomorrow afternoon as talks continue over a possible new deal for manager Parkinson and assistant Parkin.

The pair will be out of contract in the summer and several clubs are understood to be monitoring the situation,

Joint chairman Rhodes said: “We have arranged a meeting for Wednesday afternoon with the LMA, who are acting on Phil’s behalf. We all sat down last week and the talks again went well.

“Obviously, circumstances have conspired against us with Phil’s agent having twice become seriously ill, which held up talks.

“The LMA stepped in on both occasions, hence why I will be meeting them this week.

“Of course, in an ideal world things would have been sorted by now, but everything has to be right. We are not going to rush anything through.”

City will put their 1,600 ticket allocation for the away leg on sale this Saturday, and not Thursday night after the first leg as first planned.