Wells: We can do it!

Nahki Wells fears Swansea will be Bradford City’s “toughest test” when the club’s headline-grabbing cup run comes to an end in Sunday’s Wembley final.

However, the highly-rated 18-goal predator has backed his fitness and pace to cause real damage to the Premier League side during the Capital One Cup showpiece in front of 90,000 fans.

The 22-year-old is widely expected to start alongside James Hanson despite playing just five minutes of the Bantams’ past two games.

Wells is ready to reunite the strike partnership that has helped the League Two side upset Arsenal and Aston Villa en route to Wembley. But he remains wary of the Welsh team’s ability — taken to a new level by manager Michael Laudrup — to keep the ball and leave opponents chasing shadows.

Wells told the Bermuda Sun: “I don’t want to take anything away from Swansea. I know we’ve beaten Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa so far in the cup but I’ve a real strong feeling that this will be our toughest test. Depending on how well they use the ball will effect on how much I’ll get tired, so if we are chasing the ball for 90 minutes and closing down and defending I won’t have the energy to go forward but if we are in the game, you know, I’m a strong believer that I’m fitter than a lot of professionals.

“I’ve proven with my pace and my power I can exploit the weaknesses in their defence but until that day comes it’s so hard to predict. It’s a large pitch, probably the biggest one we’ll play on and it will have an effect on us and it will benefit the likes of myself. We’ll see when the time comes.”

The former Dandy Town man knows, if he starts, he will have a vital role to play in keeping possession when the ball is fired up to him. In fact, he believes that side of the game will be critical to the result.

He said: “They play really good football, they can dominate large parts of the game, they keep the ball well. We just know that when we do have the ball we have to keep it well and attack at every opportunity we have and hopefully we can take our chances and if we defend well enough and get that bit of luck, we might be able to overturn them.”

Routes to the final

How Bradford City and Swansea City made it to the Capital One Cup Final at Wembley:

Bradford City
First round: Notts County 0-1 (aet)
Second round: Watford 1-2
Third round: Burton 3-2 (aet)
Four round: Wigan 0-0 (2-4 pens)
Quarter-final: Arsenal 1-1 (3-2 pens)
Semi-final: Aston Villa (3-4 agg)
Nahki has three of his team’s goals in the Cup.

Swansea City
First round: Bye
Second round: Barnsley 3-0
Third round: Crawley 2-3
Four round: Liverpool 1-3
Quarter-final: Middlesbrough 1-0
Semi-final: Chelsea (2-0 agg)

Have a message for Nahki? E-mail James Burton: [email protected]. On Twitter, use #WellsAtWembley.
Our coverage of Wells at Wembley is sponsored by Digicel and Lindo’s.