Ormondroyd: League is priority

Former Bradford star Ian Ormondroyd would still prefer promotion to League One over a day out at Wembley.

Last Updated: 20/12/12 at 15:40   

Bradford: Eyeing Wembley

Bradford: Eyeing Wembley

Bradford face Aston Villa in a two-legged Capital One Cup semi-final in the new year after dumping Arsenal out of the competition last week.

As a former Villa player, Ormondroyd has more reason than most to relish the semi-final, which he will attend in his role as radio summariser for Bradford-based station Pulse FM.

However, with Phil Parkinson's men handily placed in fifth spot, ready for a League Two promotion push over the second half of the campaign, Ormondroyd wants to see his old club begin their rise back up the leagues.

"It is really important for the club to get promoted," he said. "I know for a fact that is what the manager wants, you could tell that by the team he played at Brentford in the FA Cup on Tuesday and, given a choice, that is what I would like as well.

"It was a long way down to the bottom league. City need to get out and start pulling themselves back up again. There is no doubt they will give it everything in these two matches with Villa, but the points are just as important."

Now 48, Ormondroyd spent four years with home-town club Bradford before Graham Taylor signed him for Villa in an eyebrow-raising transfer in 1989.

But Ormondroyd confounded expectations and might even have ended up a league title winner in 1990 had Villa not blown up in the final weeks of the campaign.

"I enjoyed my time there," he said. "People don't really appreciate what a big club they are. But they won the European Cup not that long before I joined (1982) and even though we couldn't win the league in 1990, we still qualified for Europe.

"It is that history Villa are trying to get back to now, and after a slow start it does look as though they have picked up under Paul Lambert."

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