EYEWITNESS: Dan Carrier's view on Tottenham Hotspur 2 Leeds United 2
FA CUP: SPURS 2 LEEDS UNITED 2
EYEWITNESS report from WHITE HART LANE
By DAN CARRIER
IT is a rare feeling for a Leeds United fan: to know that the rest of the footballing population are keeping their fingers crossed for you.
And after hitting a last minute equaliser against Spurs this evening in a thrilling cup tie, they are going to find themselves being backed by the nation once again in 10 days time.
Kicking Leeds United Football Club used to be an easy, and popular, trick. Oh how so many rejoiced as United fell fantastically from grace, going from a Champions League semi-final in 2001 to the bottom of Division Two in under a decade. While its been some years since they were last in the top flight, the distaste lingers. They became football’s most unpopular club because of the niggly Revie teams and was invigorated by the bunch that found themselves in court on assault charges 30 years later.
They also attracted ridicule for their exuberant spending, mortgaging their future in a bid to win the Champions League. All in all, it was not good PR.
So to have the country perched round the telly roaring Leeds on is a new experience, and the upset at Old Trafford in the last round was universally greeted with joy. It was the sort of filip this season’s FA Cup needed.
And it was not, in a way, wholly unexpected. With the bigger Premiership teams struggling for consistency, this has been a topsy-turvy season. Throw in the enmity that exists between the two clubs, and it was always going to have that atmosphere that suggests a shock may not be, well, quite so shocking.
And now Leeds brought their 4,000 potty-mouthed choristers to the Lane, and again had that strange sensation of having the neutral on their side.
Here was another visit to a Premiership ground to remind the travelling support how far this once mighty club have fallen. It must have been galling to look at the pen-pics of the Spurs players in the programme before hand. Keane, Woodgate and Lennon were all key members of the Leeds team last time they were in the top flight. Another player who has appeared at both Elland Road and the Lane was Paul Robinson: he also bailed out during the free fall to join Spurs, and could be found in the pitch side TV studio offering his wisdom, a fact the home fans pointed out.
It got even worse for Leeds as the Spurs team was read out. Harry handed a debut for young winner Danny Rose, who he signed from the Yorkshire club, and the away fans did not let him forget it. With the absence through injury of Lennon, Rose was brought in to add some much needed pace to the side.
Harry pointed out in his programme notes that the FA Cup this year was as open as any, and thanked Leeds for helping make it so: “With Manchester United and Liverpool out, it is like it was a few years ago when I won it with Portsmouth,” he said.
“It gives you a better chance with two of the big guns already out this year and every body is going to be thinking they have a real chance this year.”
And Spurs started strongly, as if Harry had made this point as the players laced their boots up.
In the opening minutes United keeper Ankergren was forced to tip over a long range lob from Defoe, and then moments later pulling off an eye catching, one handed effort from Kranjcar.
It looked like the contest might end before it had really got going: after six minutes, the Leeds refusenik Rose was scythed down in the box by full back Jason Crowe. But Defoe was denied by a smart save from the resulting penalty by Ankergren.
Harry has pointed out that performances by visiting goalkeepers this term have been superb, with Hull’s keeper Boaz Myhill keeping Spurs at bay last week.
His penalty save and generally confidant handling as Spurs swarmed forward made things nervy. Defoe then had a good claim for another go from 12 yards after 22 minutes. A lovely through ball from Modric put him in on goal, but he had the ball - and seemingly his legs - taken away from him by the recovering centre back Kisnorbo.
It was an open game, the sort that the FA Cup brand likes to say is particular to the old competition. Leeds did their bit, creating a few sniffs in the first half. Beckford, the hero of Old Trafford, poked an effort wide when he should have done better, and Gomes was also prompted into two athletic leaps to parry other efforts, albeit from ranges that keepers like. But just as looked like United may get to the half time break with the morale boosting fact that things were still all square, Gareth Bale snuck round the back on 42 minutes and squared for Defoe. His shot was pushed out by the keeper, but Crouch was on hand to stick away the rebound.
But this is the cup, and there were more twists and turns to come.
Leeds scrambled an equaliser through the outstretched boot of Beckford seven minutes after the restart and suddenly it seemed like the old cup magic may have another high profile victim on its hands.
But again Leeds were put on the ropes when an inspired switch by Harry brought the cup dream back. He swapped Keane and Pavlyuchenko for Kranjcar and Crouch, with 20 minutes to go. The Russian, who has been hoiked round more Continental clubs this January than a stag do, is desperate to leave. Yet by the enthusiasm he brought to the game, perhaps he doesn’t believe his time here is really over. The Russian played a wonderful dummy with Defoe, slipped into the box for the rebound and fired Spurs back into the lead.
It was his first touch of the game in what may well be his last ever for Spurs. It is the sort of cup story that makes the competition. You want it to be about heroes. You want your side to just throw every thing forward and to hell with the acres of space at the back. You want a skin of the teeth experience, one you‘ll remember on cup final day when you look back down the road to Wembley.
And you want the shocks, to remind you why this sport is still, occasionally, an unpredictable experience. Particularly if the shock is in the form of Roman Pavlyuchenko rescuing our season.
But it was not tobe: with four minutes of injury time played, Dawson was adjudged to have knocked over Beckford. The striker dusted himself off and at the end where Defoe had shot so tamely at the start of the game, Beckford buried his penalty.
Hero: Super Pav. His introduction seemed to remind his team mates how fortunate they are to be in Harry’s circle of trust. For some one in the position he finds himself in, his effort was exemplary, and he got that extra bit out of those alongside him.
Villain: The referee. That was just never a penalty. Dawson took the ball cleanly.
And apart from that obvious grumble, I also want to nominate the first person all those years ago to decide to take their shirt off in the middle of January at a football match to show how hard people from up north are. Hardness does not spring to mind, just a sedentary lifestyle and a high fat diet. The massed ranks of bare breasts amongst the Leeds seats looked like a government health warning to promote your five-a-day.
Move of the Match: Gareth Bale did a lovely slalom 50 yards up the pitch, weaving through Leeds like they were road cones. His progress into the area and a Maradona like goal was brutally ended when he was hacked down by one of the five Leeds players in a chasing pack finally managed to get near him. But Pav’s cheeky body swerve to make space for his goal was a moment that will make a fitting swansong if he does move on in the next eight days.