Sam Walker says Bradford City will be ready if semi-final goes to a penalty shoot-out
Bradford City are working hard behind the scenes in case their chances of going to Wembley are decided by penalties.
Thursday’s League One play-off semi-final second leg at Valley Parade will be the fifth meeting between the Bantams and Bolton Wanderers this season. Only in the Football League Trophy – effectively a reserve-team competition, certainly until its later stages – has there been more than a goal in it.
The Trotters won December's match 3-0, but the two league encounters were drawn, and Saturday's first leg was settled by the only shot on target all night.
A two-goal win will take Bradford to Wembley on May 24 but with away goals irrelevant, any one-goal success will take the game to extra-time and, if necessary, penalties.
So whilst goalkeeper Sam Walker does not want to deviate from the party line of just focussing on what is next, he, his coaches and analysts will be putting in the groundwork.
“I’m sure there will be plenty of that going on," he said. "We’ll sit down and look at it because we’ve got to prepare for every eventuality.
“There will be a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that we're in the best possible position to be prepared for that."
Walker is expecting a lot of intense football first.
"It's just about focussing on every next action," he said.
“Saturday was a prime example. It was a really tight affair and there was almost no room to breathe.
“I think the only little bit of time we had was with the stoppage where we had to change the referee (due to a second-half injury to Martin Coy).
"Otherwise, it was two good teams going at it.”
There is a feeling within the camp that this squad is used to big games and late-season drama, and can respond well to it.
“We've been in this position plenty of times before," argued Walker, who was part of the team automatically promoted from League Two last season through Antoni Sarcevic's stoppage-time winner.
"We've shown plenty of resilience over the course of the season to come back from being down at half-time, and we'll be looking to use all of that resilience come Thursday night.
“I feel so blessed to have been part of the games we've had at Valley Parade in particular over the last few years.
“It's another final day of the season home game we've got to win and we've got a pretty good record of doing that.”