Treat Burton like Aston Villa – that’s the battle cry for City as they head into the League Two play-offs.

With momentum behind them, Phil Parkinson’s men have been installed as favour-ites with the bookies to win the last promotion place.

City kick off the semi-final against fourth-placed Burton at Valley Parade on Thursday and striker Alan Connell reckons their Capital One Cup experience can prove a decisive weapon.

Connell said: “The whole season is on the line now. Ten months of hard work comes down to this week.

“They are big, big games but what will help us is the Aston Villa experience. We should treat it exactly the same.

“It’s just like the Villa semi-final over two legs with the home game first – and the winner goes to Wembley.

“We’ll get a massive crowd and I’m confident we can handle the situation well.

“There’s a lot of work to do but we’ve been there and done it in the League Cup so that’s got to help us.

“It’s been a really good season already and we don’t realise quite what we’ve achieved yet. But if, and it’s a big if, we manage to get promotion it will be an extraordinary story.”

Keeper Jon McLaughlin is the longest-serving player in the City squad and appreciates what it would mean to end the club’s six-year exile in the bottom division.

He said: “We want to be known as the lads who got Bradford City promoted and kick-started that move back up the leagues.

“You feel for the fans because a club this size shouldn’t be here. But before now, we’ve not been able to get ourselves even remotely up the table and challenging.

“This is the first time we’ve made the play-offs and it’s great to finally give something back. Now we want to finish it off and give the supporters what they really deserve, which is promotion and the chance to really look forward to next season.”

Cheltenham boss Mark Yates admitted he was relieved to avoid the Bantams because of their cup pedigree. And McLaughlin hopes there will be similar doubts within the Burton camp.

He added: “We believe we’re the strongest team going into this and hopefully others will feel wary.

“It’s a cup competition and that could play into our hands. It’s a format that suits us.

“We’ve shown we’re a great cup team. It’s all about having to get a result on the night and teams can’t just sit back and play for draws.

“I believe we’re a better team than the position we ended up because we did have a real sticky patch in the season during that cup run.

“We’re going to be giving it everything we’ve got.”