Leeds eventually overcame Kettering Town’s brave resistance to go through to a third round tie at the theatre of wet dreams.

This was an eventful night in many ways, witnessed by a disappointing crowd of only 10,670 when I had thought that the prize of a trip to Old Trafford might have put a few thousand onto the gate. The attendance included 1365 from Kettering, who were pretty lively throughout the game and didn’t have that much trouble making themselves heard. 

The line-up was pretty much as expected, although both full-backs were dropped to the bench after the chasing they had from Huddersfield’s lively wingers on Saturday.  Hughes came in at right back and Aidan White on the left. Becchio started up front in the absence of Vokes, and Kisnorbo had failed to recover from injury in time, so we still had Lubo and Bromby in central defence. 

During the first half the difference in class was very much in evidence, and it’s no exaggeration to say that we could have gone in at half time four or five goals in front. The first decent chance came from Kilkenny, who curled a shot just past the post after a neat exchange of passes on the edge of the box. 

The one goal we did get came on 20 minutes, when a cross from Snodgrass found Becchio completely unmarked, and he made no mistake in flicking the ball into the far corner. This prompted a solo pitch invasion from what seemed to be a Leeds fan in the Kettering end, and things got a bit heated after he was rugby tackled into an advertising hoarding and retaliated, so it took three stewards and a couple of police to finally drag him away. 

The chances continued, with Harper doing well to get down to a shot from Beckford, and Kilkenny hitting the post with a fierce shot from outside the area. There was nearly a comedy moment when one Kettering defender whacked the ball into another and it fell kindly for Howson, but Harper made an excellent save from his well-struck volley (no doubt to the relief of the two Kettering lads, else the incident could have popped up on one or two of those ‘blooper’ DVDs that come out every so often.) 

Kettering’s only chance of the first half fell to Elding, who could only send the ball high and wide from the edge of the area. Though we were only one goal ahead at the interval, at that stage you couldn’t possibly see Kettering getting back into the game.

But things began to change after they introduced the lively Thomas in place of Bain, and the Kettering player looked so impressive with his clever turns that I wondered why he hadn’t been on from the start. Soon afterwards Leeds lost White, who seemed to have pulled something, and Kettering began to find some space down their right side of the field. 

So it was in the 62^nd. minute, when Heslop’s cross from that side found Elding completely unmarked in the middle, and he had time to guide his header into the far corner, for only the second goal he’d ever  scored at Elland Road. After that it seemed a completely different game, as Kettering grew in confidence. Our clever moves stopped coming off as they got their tackles in, and going forward they started to find an embarrassing amount of space amongst our defence. 

We were still creating chances, and Howson sent a fierce shot just wide, before Harper had a lucky escape when he let a Kilkenny shot slip out of his grasp but saw it run just past the post. It was getting very tense as the minutes ticked away, as and Kettering could have scored on the break when Elding finally beat the offside trap, but Bromby raced back to put in a great tackle. Grayson brought Kandol on for Becchio and the big man produced our final chance of normal time with a firm header that was scrambled off the line.  

It was still pretty even during the first period of extra time, with Snodgrass hitting the post yet again, but there was still no breakthrough.  I suddenly remembered how rubbish we are at penalties, whilst being thankful that at least Becchio wouldn’t be around to take one.

But we finally broke Kettering down when Grella came on for Howson, and the American took advantage of a defender’s slip to fire home from 6 yards in the 118^th. minute. And within a minute Kandol made the tie safe with a header from close range after a good cross from Snodgrass.  

After that Kettering’s heads dropped, and as they ran out of steam Grella scored his second with an excellent curling shot, and Beckford looked suspiciously offside as he got the fifth, to give the scoreline a rather flattering look. And he nearly scored again as he hit the post right at the end, which really would have been harsh on Kettering, after they battled so hard for so long. 

At the final whistle we gave them a good round of applause, especially their player manager Lee Harper, who was afforded far more respect than visiting keepers normally get from the Kop.  And after the match came the extraordinary news that Kettering’s hot-headed chairman had sacked assistant manager John Deehan because he wasn’t happy with his substitutions, and therefore Harper is likely to resign! 

At least the Kettering team and their fans came out of this tie with great credit, and let’s hope we can say the same for ourselves after our own cup final at Old Trafford in three weeks time.

Photo: Action Images

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