Thompson strike has given City momentum for Wembley

The Bantams, who were surprise Capital One Cup finalists in February, need to overturn a one-goal deficit at the Pirelli Stadium to reach the play-off final at Wembley.

They find themselves in arrears because of a woeful defensive performance in the first half of the first leg at Valley Parade on Thursday night, which left them with it all to do in Derbyshire.

Burton boast the best home record not only in League Two, but the whole of the Football League, having won 17 of their 23 games.

Recovering from a 3-2 deficit is not beyond the Bantams, though, especially with no away goals rule in the play-offs.

But whatever the result, Parkinson wants his charges to leave everything on the field in pursuit of a second trip to Wembley.

“Let’s be fair to this group of lads, they’ve been outstanding this season. They’ve been tremendous, but we need a big performance from them on Sunday,” said Parkinson.

“We want to play well for ourselves, we want to come out of the game with credit and we want to come off the pitch, whatever the outcome, knowing we’ve put in a good performance to do the season justice.

“If we can do that, who knows where it will take us.

“Burton are a good side, and the challenge is for us to play at our best.”

Bradford do at least take some momentum into the second leg, having scored the only goal of the second half to halve Burton’s advantage.

And that improvement was reflected by what Parkinson saw in his players’ eyes when he walked into the dressing room on Thursday evening.

“It was a mood of determination,” he said. “Because we want to play well now, and that’s important.

“We have done that all season and we need to get back to being tight as a team.”

Stopping the rampaging Jacques Maghoma and towering Calvin Zola will be key to Bradford’s chances tomorrow.

The two terrorised City in the first half at Valley Parade as Burton cut a swathe through the home defence with three goals in 21 minutes.

“They have got some good attacking players and you have to give them a lot of credit,” said Parkinson. “We’ve got some good defenders, but we just didn’t perform as a unit.

“We forgot to do the basics first and foremost, and in any game of football your back four needs to be strong to give you a chance, and we were too open in the first half.

“Second half we responded really well and got the goal and it’s all to play for.

“A tremendous goal from Garry Thompson has kept us in it and we have to make sure we produce a far better performance.

“We know the play-offs can create an edginess, but as a team this season these players have worked their socks off for each other, but they didn’t do that on Thursday, they played too much like individuals in that first half.

“And it was probably one of our poorest displays defensively and I’ve got to make sure that whatever happens, we now put in a really good performance.”

Burton finished seven points above Bradford after 46 games, yet went into the semi-final as slight underdogs, owing to the form City showed in reaching the play-offs; two defeats in 15 games since their League Cup final defeat to Swansea.

Gary Rowett, Burton’s manager, accepts that the dynamic of tomorrow’s game will be different to a normal league game, because an early goal from Bradford would only level the scores on aggregate.

But Parkinson wants to play on any potential home anxiety. “The onus was on us on Thursday and we didn’t deal with it well,” he said. “People said we were favourites, now the tables have turned, now the onus is on Burton to a certain degree.”