Matches – 23 January 2010 – Tottenham H 2 Leeds United 2 FA Cup fourth round – White Hart Lane – 35,750 Scorers: Beckford 2 (52 mins, 90 mins pen) Tottenham Hotspur: Gomes, Hutton, Dawson, Bassong, Bale, Rose (Palacios 57), Kranjcar (Keane 71), Modric, Jenas, Defoe, Crouch (Pavlyuchenko 71) Leeds United: Ankergren, Crowe, Bromby, Kisnorbo, Hughes, Howson, Doyle (Becchio 81), Kilkenny, Johnson (White 88), Snodgrass, Beckford In January 2010 the glory, glory days were back in an emphatic way for Leeds United: no sooner had the League One leaders pulled off an extraordinary FA Cup third round victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford, than they learned that they had been paired with Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in the competition‟s next stage. Tottenham had been one of the main beneficiaries of Leeds United‟s financial collapse of the previous decade, signing a number of former Elland Roaders during the fire sales that had been necessary to ensure the club‟s survival: Paul Robinson, Robbie Keane, Aaron Lennon and teenage starlet Danny Rose. Jonathan Woodgate had also arrived in North London after stays in Newcastle, Madrid and Middlesbrough. The pairing of the two clubs brought memories and inevitable thoughts of „what might have been‟ for United fans, and Leeds manager Simon Grayson acknowledged as much in the days leading up to the clash. “I think, regardless of what‟s in the opposition squad, there‟s a sadness of what‟s happened to the club and the decline... Not so long ago this club was in Europe and they were in the top six and wanting to improve to get to where they were 30 years ago under the likes of Don Revie, Billy Leeds manager Simon Grayson during the intense Cup-tie Bremner and Johnny Giles. at White Hart Lane “It is sad, but it‟s happened and you can‟t do anything about it. We have learnt from the experience as a club. Now we are trying to take it back to the next level and beyond. I would like to think that the club had sunk as low as it could have done two or three years ago when Ken Bates came in and saved it and, now we are trying to get back up, make sure we never go to those depths again. www.mightyleeds.co.uk - Matches – 23 January 2010, Tottenham Hotspur 2 Leeds United 2 1 “We‟ve got everything here that‟s geared to the Premier League. All these facilities are from the Premier League days and we are averaging gates of 25,000, which is really excellent. If we went to the next level we would get up to 30,000, and beyond that if we got back to the Premier League. But we‟ve got to take things one step at a time. It is a big club in the wrong division but we are in that division for the reasons that we are. “By the time we come to play Swindon [on Tuesday] we might not even be top but that is part and parcel of the season. We have been up there all season but Norwich and Charlton deserve credit because they have been on impressive runs but we have still got 21 games to go and hopefully we can win the majority of them. “There are tough teams and tough places to go but hopefully the FA Cup can kick start the rest of our season. “Whatever happens, we‟ve just got to make sure we try to do the same things we‟ve done before. If we come off the pitch with no regrets and still lose, then so be it. As long as we‟ve given ourselves a great opportunity to do the best we can then you can‟t ask for more than that. “There are a lot of people who like Leeds to suffer, but we are trying to do something about that. We are not here to be popular, don‟t get me wrong, we are here to win matches. If we win every game between now and the end of the season and everybody still hates us then I‟m not too bothered, because we‟ll have achieved our target of getting promotion and being successful. But I‟d like to think we‟re winning over the neutrals. There‟s a lot of people I‟ve met at games over the past couple of Hughes and Johnson run over to congratulate Beckford after his goal at Old Trafford weeks that have said we deserved to win at Manchester United and that the team was a credit to me. That we play the game in the right manner. “That‟s encouraging. That‟s my philosophy as a manager, to try to do the right things and entertain people and get people saying nice things about us. “Whatever side we put out can do more credit to the club and get a positive result... I think this is different to the Manchester United game in that the rivalry isn‟t like that with Tottenham. They are a still a massive club, a top six club, and I have a huge amount of respect for them and their manager. “We know it will be difficult because Tottenham will play a strong team. We‟ve had a slight dip in terms of results, but we have a confident bunch here. We have to keep doing the right things and working hard. We want to do ourselves justice and it‟s important that the players come off the field without any regrets. www.mightyleeds.co.uk - Matches – 23 January 2010, Tottenham Hotspur 2 Leeds United 2 2 “When I look back at our last couple of games, we could have scored a few goals on Tuesday (against Carlisle) and at Exeter so as much as the results were disappointing, we played well enough to get something from both games. “If you look at Tottenham and how their season is going they will want to get into the top four. They are one of a group of sides who wants to win things. I don‟t expect them to make too many changes on Saturday. They‟ll have a team of internationals and it‟s a chance for the players to produce for them. “Harry has won the FA Cup and they will be treating the competition with a huge amount of respect, thinking they can win. They‟ll give us the respect we deserve and hopefully we will do ourselves justice and maybe get another positive result.” Grayson‟s Tottenham counterpart, Harry Redknapp, acknowledged the revival going on at Elland Road: “They are a big club, with crowds of 30,000. They have a great chance of coming up and Simon Grayson has done a great job there. They could go through a league next year and it could carry them into the Premier League easily. They could be back where they were.” Redknapp gave former Leeds starlet Rose (19) his first senior start with Keane on the bench. There were two other changes from the side that lost 2-0 at Liverpool during the week with recalls for defenders Alan Hutton and Sebastien Bassong. Vedran Corluka, Ledley King and Wilson Palacios were the players making way. For United, Patrick Kisnorbo returned in place of captain Richard Naylor, who had damaged his hamstring against Carlisle, while Michael Doyle came in for Mike Grella, with Robert Snodgrass being pushed up into attack in support of Jermaine Beckford. United did not go to White Hart Lane in the best of form: they had not won one of the three matches played since Old Trafford and earlier in the day Norwich‟s 1-0 defeat of Brentford had seen the Canaries usurp the League One leadership that United had monopolised since 19 September. As with Leeds‟ visit to Old Trafford, the White Hart Lane clash was televised live on ITV, with a 5.15 kick off on Saturday evening. Tottenham were determined not to go the same way as Robert Snodgrass holds off the challenge of Niko Kranjcar Manchester United before them and Redknapp had instructed them to pressurise the visitors from the off. His players took him at his word and the first twenty minutes saw them threaten to sweep Leeds aside. Spurs were instantly onto concerted attack, pushing Leeds back deep into their own half. They were awarded a free kick on the right within thirty seconds of the start when Bradley Johnson fouled www.mightyleeds.co.uk - Matches – 23 January 2010, Tottenham Hotspur 2 Leeds United 2 3 Hutton. The Londoners could make nothing of the opportunity, however, which ended when Gareth Bale‟s cross into the area from the left curled tamely out for a goal kick to Leeds. Snodgrass caused an early moment of anxiety for Tottenham with a ball into the area for Beckford to chase. Bassong wanted to leave it to his keeper, but his hesitation almost allowed United‟s star striker in. Spurs were relieved to see the ball cannon away off Heurelho Gomes for a Leeds throw. Tottenham quickly regained possession and Defoe worried Leeds with a dangerous run deep into their half before Neil Kilkenny dispossessed him and got United back in motion. The Aussie schemer fed Snodgrass whose hopeful ball into the area for Beckford was overhit and gathered comfortably by Gomes. It was evident in the opening five minutes that Leeds were intent on making themselves difficult to break down, crowding Tottenham‟s midfielders and snapping into tackles before the home men could settle on the ball.