Luke Varney helped inspire Leeds to a memorable 3-0 Capital One victory over Southampton to take us into the Quarter-Finals for the first time in sixteen years.

Varney was one of four changes to the side who performed so awfully against Birmingham just three-days ago and to be fair, the ex Portsmouth man has not enjoyed the best starts to his Leeds career and has become a target for the boo-boys.

But even his biggest critics will be seeing him in a different light after a performance if hard running, sheer effort and giving everything but getting a goal.

Varney was also part of a quartet of ex Pompey players who faced their old bitter rivals, not that you would notice as there was a distinct lack of noise from the away end. The small number of Saints fans who made the long journey north would have surely feared the worse when boss Nigel Adkins made ELEVEN changes to their starting line-up?

Unlike the pitiful slow starts that came in our recent home disappointments against Birmingham and Charlton last week, Leeds opened brightly and Varney, White and Byram all made positive good runs at the visitors defence. Varney did miss what was a sitter when an excellent through ball from Diouf seemed to trap him on the inside of he thigh and roll out.

Varney then struck the woodwork when he sailed in a delicate chip. Tonge also headed over as Saints looked rocky at the back.

However on 34 minutes, the on-loan Stoke man gave United a deserved lead. Varney played in a pass which caused panic in the Southampton box and Tonge stepped in to lash us into the lead.

I was surprised how reluctant Southampton were to have a go back at Leeds, there did not seem any urgency about their play and keeper Kelvin Davis cut a bizarre site with several short goal kicks to defenders who would simply lump the ball out of play or into the grateful path of a Leeds player.

Varney continued to wreak havoc in the channels and with Diouf proving his ever sublime touch and canny movement it seemed it would only be a matter of time before our illustrious Premiership opponents caved in to a second goal. Both players linked up excellently and the Kop were soon roaring their names in wild appreciation, Diouf honoured in song "El Hadi Diouf he plays for Leeds" to the tune of Tony Christie's "Amarillo" whilst Varney got a few choruses of "Who needs Van Persie when we've got Luke Varney?"

Some chilly Yorkshire sharp showers no doubt made the task less appealing to our visitors from the South, but the cold certainly did not put off our Jamacian international Rodolph Austin from a surging 40 yard run on 85 minutes and a blistering shot which Davies could only parry into the path of Diouf who netted the killer second we had waited a little too long for which is my only criticism of the night.

Both Varney and Diouf left the field to a standing ovation on ninety minutes when Warnock brought on Danny Pugh and Luciano Becchio. Becchio even had time to make it ten for the season when he smashed home a stoppage time penalty after Tonge was uphended in the area and referee Chris Foy, who I thought had an excellent game pointed to the spot.

Critics will argue that Leeds beat essentially a Southampton reserve side, who Eddie Gray later described on Yorkshire Radio as the poorest side he had seen at Leeds this season but the whites can only play against what is in front of them and the pleasing thing for me is that we upped the tempo tonight, showed much more determination and passed the ball about much better.

Now if we could only turn this slaying of so-called Premiership giants on Tuesday nights into seeing off the Championship fodder we have struggled with midweek for over 12 months now then we could realistically be an outside automatic promotion bet rather than a hopeful late sneak into sixth!

Photo: Action Images

TimWhelan added 13:27 - Oct 31 It certainly made a pleasant change to see Leeds passing the ball on the floor rather than humping it forward, which is ironic when Varney is better than Becchio in the air anyway! Varney looks much happier in the centre than he has done on the left, and I hope he keeps his place on Friday night.
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