EVERYONE loves a good sporting fairy tale, but to get two in the space of just 24 hours this week was a quite unexpected bonus.

The last time the unheralded duo of Bradford City and Swansea City met on a football pitch, they fought out a 2-2 draw in front of just 7,347 fans at the Bantams' (Bradford's nickname) humble Valley Parade stadium in West Yorkshire.

In four weeks' time, both clubs will march out at London's Wembley Stadium where an expected 90,000 full house will greet the players and managers. And once the referee blows the final whistle, one team will lift the Capital One League Cup trophy and play in the Europa League next season.

It's the stuff that football dreams are made of, really. Except, this story is very much real and one that both fans and neutrals are savouring.

Not many gave tiny Bradford much of a chance when they were drawn to face Premier League side Aston Villa in the semi-finals. Villa may be struggling in the top flight, but Bradford is a side entrenched in the unglamorous confines of League Two (the fourth and lowest tier of England's professional football leagues).

As fate would have it, Bradford failed to stick to the script and went on to produce one of English football's biggest shocks in history on Tuesday by knocking out Villa 4-3 over two legs.

Such was Bradford manager Phil Parkinson's disbelief at his men's achievement that the first question the champagne-soaked boss was asked by a concerned journalist at a post-match press conference was: "Are you all right?"

To be honest, it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise to see the Bantams get this far. Earlier wins over Wigan and Arsenal in the competition stamped their status as bona fide giant killers, and Aston Villa just couldn't muster enough in its fuel tank to stem the tide.

There are many in the Bradford line-up that have become overnight heroes. The tale of striker James Hanson, for one, is a classic rags-to-riches example. From stacking shelves and changing the toilet roll at his local supermarket just three years ago, he went on to score the fourth and decisive goal against Villa to book his side's place at Wembley.

But lest Bradford already think that its name is etched on the trophy, there is the small matter of getting past another top flight opponent in Swansea. The Swans' own run to the final has also been nothing short of extraordinary.

Having only celebrated promotion to the Premier League last May, Swansea's battling performances have seen the club soar to ninth place with 30 points, just seven behind fifth-ranked Everton in the table.

After a quite emphatic 3-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield in the fourth round, a two-legged semi-final with Champions League winners Chelsea seemed one hurdle too many for Michael Laudrup's team.

Few teams emerge from Chelsea's Stamford Bridge home with anything except their tails between their legs, but Swansea's brave warriors were anything but intimidated as they claimed an improbable 2-0 result. In the second leg in front of their own fans in Wales, Swansea saw out a goalless draw that ensured a smooth passage into the final.

The man behind the Swans' stunning rise is a Spanish striker whom, in all honesty, barely anyone even knew about at the start of the season. Michu - signed from Rayo Vallecano for a bargain £2.2 million (S$4.3 million) last July - has repaid his transfer fee many times over with 16 goals, 13 of them coming in the Premier League.

Swansea has never won a trophy in their 100-year history, and the players know they will have no better chance to do so than against Bradford next month.

Some critics have already lamented the fact that this season's final has lost some of its shine because a big name isn't featuring in it.

No one should begrudge either Swansea or Bradford their day in the spotlight. This is what the Beautiful Game is all about, and one only needs to watch the fervour and passion of their fans to understand how much this trophy means to them.