He has received national acclaim after his cup exploits against Chelsea.

But Mark Yeates insists his full focus now is on facing his former club Colchester United.

The Irishman’s well-taken strike capped Bradford City’s stunning 4-2 victory at Stamford Bridge, one that will go down in FA Cup folklore.

It helped complete an incredible Bantams comeback against the Premier League leaders, where they over-turned a two-goal deficit to claim an unlikely victory.

And it came almost nine years after the winger had hit a post at the same venue, in Colchester’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Blues in a fifth-round tie.

Yeates, a promotion-winner with Colchester in 2006, has received plenty of acclaim this week, following his heroics against Jose Mourinho’s men.

But the 30-year-old’s thoughts have now quickly turned to Bradford’s home clash with Colchester, for whom he played 133 games during his two spells at the club.

Yeates said: “The Chelsea game was one of my best days in football.

“There’s been so much publicity from the result and it’s been hard to get away from it.

“It was a great feeling to score and when you do something like that, it’s all over the place.

“It still gets mentioned quite a lot that I hit the post when I played there with Colchester all those years ago, so it made up for that a bit.

“I know that the goal I scored will probably get replayed a lot over the years and it’s something that will go down in history.

“It’s nice that people have recognised the quality of the goals we’ve scored and it was good to hear JJ (Jermaine Jenas) on Match of the Day give me a nice mention.

“The reaction and the phone calls and interviews we’ve had since the Chelsea game have been amazing.

“It was a bit strange seeing my photo on the front and back pages of the newspapers, the next day!

“But the main focus is on Colchester now and we have to get ready for that.

“They had a great result against Leyton Orient and we’re expecting a really tough game.

Yeates, who scored the first-ever competitive goal at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, says he still has plenty of fondness for Colchester.

And the former Spurs youngster says he would like nothing more than for the U’s to stay up and Bradford to win promotion, this season.

“Colchester United means a lot to me and I always look out for their results,” added Yeates, who left the U’s to join Middlesbrough in July, 2009.

“Going there as a young lad on loan and starting so many games while I was there was great for me.

“The initial idea was for me to go there and get experience.

“But we got promoted and had the cup run, so signing permanently was great.

“It’s a club that I have a lot of time for and I’m still in contact with a lot of people who are or were at the club.

“Colchester have always had good players and I hope that they kick on.

“The best scenario will be if they stay up and we get promoted.”