Brave Bradford stun Premier League Wigan
LEAGUE TWO Bradford City last night led the Capital One Cup’s surprise results after securing a 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory away to Premier League Wigan when the match had remained goalless after 120 minutes.
Shaun Maloney fired his penalty over the bar, and Matt Duke saved from Jordi Gomez, after the home side – for whom manager Roberto Martinez had made nine changes from the weekend’s 2-1 victory over West Ham – missed a number of chances against a resolute defence.
Nathan Doyle, Gary Jones, Stephen Darby and Alan Connell scored Bradford’s four penalties, while Ben Watson and David Jones had scored Wigan’s successful two.
Struggling Southampton were another Premier League side to suffer a somewhat surprising elimination in a 3-0 defeat to Leeds after Michael Tonge’s 35th-minute opener was followed by late goals from El-Hadji Diouf, in the 88th minute, and a last-minute penalty from Luciano Becchio.
Leeds were not the only Championship side to secure such
a morale-boosting victory, as Middlesbrough forward Scott McDonald scored a 39th-minute goal to secure his side a deserved 1-0 victory in the Wear-Tees derby away to Sunderland.
And Aston Villa recovered from conceding two second-half goals to Swindon Town’s Miles Storey – when they had led 2-0 – to win 3-2 after a brace from Christian Benteke and another from Gabriel Agbonlahor.