Derby County 2  Leeds United 1

Leeds recovered from a poor start, in which we went two goals down in the first 18 minutes, and ran Derby ragged for much of the second half. But in the end we had only one goal to show for our efforts, and Derby held on to take the place in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup. 

Gary Mc.Allister made only on change to the starting eleven who faced Northampton on Friday, with Kilkenny coming in to replace Howson and Beckford having to be content with a place on the bench.  But we made a terrible start to the game, and after 20 minutes it looked like it was going to be a long and painful night for Leeds, as some shoddy defending allowed the Rams to race into a two goal lead. First Emanuel Villa managed to out-muscle Lubo in the sixth minute and curl a decent shot past Casper. Leeds tried to settle after this early setback, but we went further behind in the 18^th, when Ellington was allowed far too much space in the box at the end of a good passing took full advantage, finishing off a good passing move by the home side. 

Though we were afraid of getting a pasting at that stage, Derby decided to sit on their lead rather than try to add to it, and finally we were allowed to come forward and start to play football, though it was a while before we caused their defence any real problems. At least we were winning the contest off the field, with more than 3,000 Leeds fans giving the team some great backing, and totally outsinging the home supporters. 

Robinson tested Carroll with a fierce shot from distance, before we were rewarded for all our possession as we pulled a goal back five minutes before the break. Snodgrass sent over a pinpoint cross, and Becchio climbed above Davis to send a firm header into the net. And we could have equalised just before half-time, when Delph hammered a fierce shot from outside the area that didn’t go too far wide.  

And we kept up the good work in the second half, with the impressive Delph pulling the strings once again, and he was at the heart of a whole series of decent passing moves. Snodgrass hit the post from a free kick and the same player set Robinson up with an excellent pull-back, only for Carroll to pull off a splendid save. Macca decided to replace Robinson with Beckford to give us a bit more fire-power, but still the breakthrough wouldn’t come. 

Beckford sent a couple of shots narrowly wide and Snodgrass went close with another free kick, while Claude Davis was quite fortunate to escape with only a yellow after bringing Becchio down when the Argentinian appeared to be through on goal. Derby’s only decent chance of the half came when our former striker Rob Hulse finally reminded us he was playing and forced Casper into making a fine save.  

As time ran out Lubo joined in the attack and was unlucky to flick a shot narrowly over, and our final effort was a clever chip from Beckford, that also narrowly cleared the bar. Although we lost, Leeds can be proud of the performance, and if we can keep this up we should have nothing to worry about for the rest of the season.

Photo: Action Images

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