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Wells backs Bradford for another cup run

Nahki Wells (centre) is on the receiving end of a heavy challenge from Swansea defender Ki Sung Yeung during last season's League Cup final at Wembley.

Nahki Wells has tipped Bradford City for another epic Capital One Cup run after being drawn away against Championship side Huddersfield in the first round of the competition.Wells helped the Bantams reach the final of last season’s Capital One Cup when they lost 5-0 to Swansea City, having beaten Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa en route to Wembley.While admitting that those cup exploits were an inevitable distraction at times, Wells believes Bradford are even better equipped for another historic cup this season after gaining promotion to League One.“If we were still in League Two, then it might have been better to get out (the cup) early and focus on winning promotion,” Wells told the Bradford Telegraph & Argus.“But now we’re in League One, then I’m sure we’ll all be ready to give it a go again.“There won’t be many players who have achieved what we have, making it to a major cup final and then coming back to League Two standard the following week. It was new to all of us and a learning curve for everyone.”Wells, who bagged 26 goals last season, said it was tough to refocus on the league campaign following the enormous highs of claiming prized Premier League cup scalps.But he praised the mental strength of his team-mates after City relaunched their promotion push following their heavy defeat to Swansea, losing only three of their last 18 games to return to Wembley three months later.“There were no excuses but I think there was a bit of a case that we were not winning in the league at times because we were looking forward to big cup games,” said Wells, who scored in Bradford’s 3-0 win over Northampton in last month’s League Two play-off final.“One day we were playing Arsenal, then the next it was a league game. You went from a crowd of 25,000 back down to 10,000 or even 1,500 if we were playing away.“It does bring you back down to earth and nobody had been through that before.“The management and staff drilled it into us that the league was our main focus and everyone was rotated per match. But it was tough on the mental side for a while.“We learned from it that you have to play with the same strong mentality whether you are playing a major Premier League team in the cup or somewhere in League Two. If we didn’t give 110 percent like we did against Arsenal, then it wouldn’t work.”City are the first finalists since Birmingham in 2001 to start the following season in the opening round. But despite going all the way to Wembley, they are not seeded because of their league position.Ties will be played the week commencing August 5.