Wycombe Wanderers manager Matt Bloomfield has revealed ‘there was no doubt’ about playing the EFL Trophy semi-final against Bradford City despite a last-minute pitch inspection.

Images taken by the Free Press showed the Valley Parade grass being incredibly cut up, with groundsmen and women producing their best efforts to make the surface playable around 90 minutes ahead of kick-off.

Heavy rain had badly impacted large parts of the North West, which included several locations in West and South Yorkshire.

Despite this, the game went ahead and even though Wycombe rode their luck, a last-minute Matt Butcher, his first for the club, secured Wanderers a 1-0 victory.

They’ll now play Peterborough United in the Wembley showpiece on April 7.

He told the Free Press and BBC Three Counties: “I got a call from the referee telling me that the game was in doubt because of the pitch, but I felt as the leader, there was no doubt we wanted to play.

“I didn’t want to give any of my players doubts, so I told them we were ready to play but in the back of my mind, I knew there would be challenges with the pitch.

“At Adams Park, we have one of the best pitches in the league, but here, we knew gritty and messy but we got through it, even though we didn’t perform to the level that I know we can be at.

“On the flip side, we showed some brilliant resilience, Max made some great saves and we got through it.

“A few of the lads have told me that they didn’t play to the best of what they can do usually, but I believe in this group.”

He also praised the Bantams with their performance, and described manager Graham Alexander as a ‘brilliant man.’

The West Yorkshire side dominated large parts of the contest, amassing nearly 20 shots on goal of which nine were on target – that was the total of Wanderers attempts for the night.

On the Bantams, he added: “Graham Alexander is a brilliant man and I thought Bradford were fantastic.

“They were very good when we played them in the FA Cup in November, they were better tonight as they played to their strengths, played on the pitch a lot better than what we did, created some good chances and we rode our luck.

“There have been times during the season when we had played well but didn’t get the results, but today, it was the flipside as we got the win.”

The result means in 17 matches between the two, Wycombe have won on 10 occasions.