Well, we didn’t see that coming. After a dull first half Leeds stepped up a gear to beat Birmingham City with gols from Mc.Cormack and Diouf, to get through to a glamour fourth round tie against Tottenham Hotspur.
With the general air of despondency about our abysmal away form in the league, the internet had been awash with tales of regular away followers who couldn’t face going to this one, but as it turned out there was quite a queue building up just before kick-off. Quite a few were tempted by the opportunity to pay cash on the night, and we managed to contribute 1,547 out of another abysmal crowd of 8,926.
Following Saturday’s debacle at Barnsley there were seven changes to the starting line-up. Two were enforced, with Tonge and Barkley ineligible, and Becchio was apparently ill, although I assumed after Warnock’s comments that he’d been left out to get his head sorted out elsewhere. Ashdown replaced Kenny for another outing as our cup goalkeeper, and we were treated to the sight of Varney playing out on the left wing.
And we had to make another change after only 10 minutes with Drury picking up yet another injury, but thankfully White coming on as a straight replacement so we didn’t have to endure Peltier being switched to left back. With Leeds being denied the option of “lump it up somewhere in Becchio’s general direction” we were forced to play football on the ground and looked much the better for it, but it took a while for us to create any decent chances despite dominating the possession.
With not much happening on the pitch the sparse crowd were left to amuse themselves, and Birmingham at least managed a decent boys pen up in the corner nearest to our section, who spent the game waving their arms around and generally trying to provoke us. And of course we added to the air of unpleasantness with the usual chants about Marlon King’s activities off the field.
It took half an hour for us to create a decent opportunity when a corner led to a goalmouth scramble that ended with a feeble shot from Byram’s wrong foot, easily gathered by Doyle. And despite all our possession it was the home side who took the lead on the break in the 36th minute. Redmond outpaced our defence in a move down the Birmingham right and crossed for the unmarked Elliot to score from close range.
We almost equalised straight away when Varney popped up in a central striking position, but he could only direct his header wide of the post. As they trudged off at half time there was little to suggest that Leeds would get back into the game, yet Warnock must have said something inspirational during the break, as we looked sharper when the second period began.
Austin tried a fierce shot that Doyle held without too much difficulty, but still produced a sarcastic chant of “a shot on target, we’re on the pitch” from the Leeds end. We continued to press, though we were getting nothing from set pieces, with Doyle looking commanding in the air without a big Leeds forward to trouble him. But just as it looked as though we were drifting out of the FA Cup the equaliser finally arrived with 20 minutes to go.
Byram sent a cross over from the far right which came through to Diouf, and the Senegal man had time to pull it back for the unmarked McCormack to score from close range. Our former loan player Paul Robinson complained that the ball had gone over the touchline before Byram crossed it, and he would have even more to discuss with the same linesman a few minutes later.
Green was close to putting Leeds in front as he forced an excellent save from Doyle, but the second goal arrived in the 74th minute. A cross struck Robinson just inside the box and the linesman flagged instantly, with the referee pointing to the spot after a consultation between the officials. With regular penalty taker Becchio indisposed it fell to Diouf to do the honours, and though Doyle tried to put him off by dancing on the line as he ran up, Diouf cooly chipped it into the net as Doyle dived to his right.
We had some anxious moments to survive as Birmingham finally woke up, and the giant Serb Zigic came off the bench to see if he could add to his impressive record against Leeds. He did manage to force Ashdown into an excellent save, but although he won plenty of the ball in the air, he never managed to head it in the right direction, so we didn’t have much difficulty in clearing our lines.
We had to clear a couple of corners, but generally managed to keep hold of the ball to run down the clock, and after three extra minutes at the end we’d survived to go through to our glamour tie in the fourth round. We even had the luxury of being let out straight away, as we’re usually kept in for ages by WMP at this particular venue, but this time it wasn’t going to take long for the home fans to disperse.
So Warnock got the result he needed to relieve the pressure, although in truth we were only the better of two poor sides on the night. I can’t really imagine this Leeds team being good enough to get past Spurs, but I suppose we can always dream.