Nahki Wells: ‘Thanks for your support — I’m proud to be Bermudian’

Nahki Wells sent a heartfelt message of thanks to his supporters despite an “upsetting” 5-0 Capital One Cup final defeat to Swansea at Wembley today.

The striker, 22, received little service as the Welsh Premier League side dominated possession and carved the League Two outfit apart at will.

Goals from Nathan Dyer (2), Jonathan de Guzman (2) and Michu saw Swansea totally outclass the Bantams, whose task was made even harder by the 56th-minute sending off of keeper Matt Duke.

Wells couldn’t mask his disappointment at the one-sided result but knows he can take some solace from becoming the first Bermudian to play a major final at Wembley, and just the third to run out at the famous stadium.

He told the Bermuda Sun: “I’m proud to say I’m a Bermudian and all the support has been fantastic — I want to thank all the people who have sent me their wishes all through the build-up to us making it this far.

 “There was even a good number of Bermudians here today – family and friends – even people that I don’t know. I saw Bermuda flags all around the ground so I’m just thankful for the support and hopefully I can have another chance to come back in a few weeks and some more Bermudians can be in attendance.”

Wells was taken off after Duke’s sending off as manager Phil Parkinson was forced to sacrifice a forward in order to bring on replacement keeper Jon McLaughlin.

The former Dandy Town man understandably had a face like thunder as he trudged off — but he said that was just a natural reaction to not getting the chance to finish the 90 minutes.

Gutted

“I understood the substitution, it’s football and I’m not going to disrespect the manager’s decision,” he said.

“I was gutted because I knew I could have played 90 minutes and I would have done all I could. I thought the red card was harsh to be honest with you and the referee could easily have given a yellow — and we had to suffer the effects.”

He added: “I’m still really proud of what we’ve accomplished coming this far. It’s upsetting to come to Wembley and lose 5-0 but there are a lot of positives to take — we made history.

 “We went out there and did the best we could, obviously it wasn’t good enough but we’re going to strive to come back in a few weeks for promotion [play-off final]. We were praying we would break the deadlock and get the first goal but we knew if they scored it would be much more difficult as we had to push forward.

 “They keep the ball well and they scored at a crucial time just before half-time and that probably put it out of our reach. We did the best we could but the best wasn’t good enough.”

Wells admitted the timing of the goals really wounded Bradford, who struggled to get any foothold in the game and were never close to adding to their list of scalps that this season include Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa.

The Devonshire man looked a threat at times in the first half but lacked support from a midfield that was often left chasing shadows by some of the Swans’ superb technicians. Pablo Hernandez, Dyer and Michu, in particular, were superb.

Wells said: “We knew what we were getting into coming into the final but even at 2-0 we knew if we got one we could have got back in it, but as soon as it went 3-0 we probably knew it was out of our reach. We didn’t get on the ball and we didn’t keep it well enough and they just drained all our energy by keeping possession.

 “At half time the gaffer told us we are here to win the final and not to have any regrets, do the best you can because you have nothing to lose, do the club and the fans proud.

 “Obviously they got the goal which set us back because we probably would have had a lot more chances if they hadn’t have got that third but once they got that they were destined to win it.”