Chelsea 2 – 4 Bradford City, 2014/15 FA Cup: Where are some of them now?
By George Perry
One downside of being a perennial top-six team with a room full of trophies is that your involvement in famous upsets usually has you on the losing side. Let’s take a look back at a magical night that came at Chelsea’s expense.
The magic of the FA Cup blanketed Stamford Bridge on January 24, 2015. Of course, the magic of the FA Cup doesn’t do anything for clubs like Chelsea. In fact, the magic of the FA Cup usually works against such clubs, as it did that night when League One’s Bradford City came back from 2-0 to win 4-2 in the fourth round of the tournament.
Chelsea played a rotated but only slightly weakened starting XI. Three of the four defenders are still with the Blues, and if not for Maurizio Sarri, the entire backline from that night could still be with the club: Andreas Christensen, Kurt Zouma, Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta. Jose Mourinho subbed on Cesc Fabregas and Willian for Mikel John Obi and Mohamed Salah, respectively, in the 70′ to try to protect the game at 2-1. Bradford City scored five minutes later. Mourinho then immediately deployed Eden Hazard in place of Loic Remy, and Bradford took their first lead six minutes later.
Two players from the Blues’ starting XI that night are retired: Petr Cech and Didier Drogba. Three Bradford City players have since hung up their boots. No one from Bradford City’s matchday squad is still with the club. Most of the players have extensive journeymen CV’s, with several loans for each permanent transfer as they mostly shuffle around the English Football League.
Bradford City did have two familiar names in their team that season, but neither were in the matchday squad at Stamford Bridge
Jordan Pickford spent 2014/15 at Bradford City, his third of four loans from Sunderland. Pickford made 34 starts with 10 clean sheets, but the FA Cup was the one tournament in which he did not play. He played the following season at Preston North End before Sunderland sold him to Everton, and he made his England debut several months after.
A more unusual situation was Oliver McBurnie. McBurnie was a Bradford City youth product who made his first-team debut in December 2013. McBurnie had six league appearances and one FA Cup appearance (a stoppage time substitution) in the first half of the 2014/15 season.
For the second half of the season, he was partially loaned to Chester FC in the National League. TransferMarkt records two separate loans for McBurnie from Bradford City to Chester in January and March of 2015. He played 13 complete games plus one 65 minute appearance for Chester. His debut for Chester actually game on the same night as Bradford City’s upset at Stamford Bridge. But a month later, McBurnie came off the bench in stoppage time for Bradford City in a league fixture against Peterborough.
Bradford City sold McBurnie to Swansea City that summer, and Swansea loaned him to Newport County, Bristol Rovers and Barnsley in the next two seasons. Swansea City ultimately sold him to Sheffield United, where he has four goals this season towards the Blades’ improbable seventh-place “finish” in the Premier League table.
Bradford City and manager Phil Parkinson are the only people to come back from 2-0 to defeat Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge; and Bradford were the first team to score four goals against Mourinho on his home pitch. Mourinho visited the visitors’ locker room after the game to shake each players hand, sealing the magic of the FA Cup for that side.
Next. Clubs further down the pyramid told to act like it all never happened. dark