Sun. Jun 8th, 2025
Birmingham and Bradford reach EFL Trophy semi-finals

Jay Stansfield’s 18th goal of the season was enough to send Birmingham through to the last four

Two-time winners Birmingham and League Two side Bradford City booked their places in the semi-finals of the EFL Trophy.

Birmingham, who lifted the trophy in the 1990-91 and 1994-95 seasons, beat Stevenage 1-0, while the Bantams knocked out 2021-22 winners Rotherham with a 1-0 win at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.

Blues dominated their last-eight tie at the Lamex Stadium, but were denied by a string of saves from Taye Ashby-Hammond until Jay Stansfield ran on to Marc Leonard’s through-ball to slot the winner with seven minutes left.

The result extends the League One leaders’ unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions.

Bradford hit the winner against League One Rotherham just before the hour mark when Reece James brought down Brad Halliday and Richard Smallwood lifted the penalty into the roof of the net.

Elsewhere, League One promotion chasers Wrexham claimed an emphatic 4-1 win at League Two Port Vale in a rearranged last-16 tie to tee up a quarter-final with Bolton.

Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast

Get football news sent straight to your phone

Comments can not be loaded

To load Comments you need to enable JavaScript in your browser