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LUFC Leeds United Fans View v Birmingham City

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I was amongst 1,547 Leeds fans that made the trip to Birmingham City on Tuesday night to witness a rare away victory.

On a freezing cold night, Leeds fought back from a half time deficit to book their place in the next round of the FA Cup.

Ashdown 7
He has never let us down when given his opportunity in the cup. One fantastic save in the dying minutes to deny Lovenkrands. I think it is about time he was given an opportunity in the championship.

Byram 6
A much better second half performance than first and he got forward to help the Leeds attack. He was nowhere to be seen when Elliott was given too much freedom for their goal.

Lees 7
For me, he is the best central defender we have at the club. Another solid performance at the heart of the Leeds defence and he should keep his place.

Peltier 6
A much better performance in the centre of defence. If he is to keep his place, it must be in here and not at full back.

Drury 5
It was good to see him starting but disappointing that he only lasted ten minutes.

Green 6
The game seemed to pass him by in the first half but he grew into the game in the second half. He had a great chance to score a third for Leeds and he could have put Leeds ahead with a good header shortly after McCormack had equalised.

Austin 6
A better performance from Austin but he is still nowhere near the player we signed in the summer and saw in the early months of the season.

Brown 6
He was his usual biting self in the centre of midfield. Problem is, his tank seems to be empty after half hour. He picked up his usual yellow card.

Varney 5
I actually think he is good defensively but once he crosses the half way line and into the opposition half, he is usually ineffective. He should have equalised for Leeds with a header shortly after they had gone in front.

McCormack 6
He was busy but never really got going in the game. He did score to bring us level when Diouf teed it up for him.

Diouf 8 Star Man
He celebrated his birthday with the winning goal. He was instrumental in everything we did well. Always looking to get the ball down, hold the ball up, and bring others into the game.

Subs

White 6

He made a good clearance off the line near the end but Chris Burke went past him with ease whenever he had the ball. One moment stood out in the second half. He had made a run forward when Leeds lost the ball and instead of busting a gut to get back and help out defensively as they broke, he sauntered back. With Drury looking like we will be out for a while, we still need a left back.

Pearce
Brought on for the final moments to try to help out with keeping Nikola Zigic quiet.

Summary
Very hard to say just how good this performance was. Having witnessed the shocking performances at Hull and Barnsley, I suppose it could only get better. I was talking to a lad stood next to me at half time and he could not believe that the first half was even better than Hull and Barnsley. For another 45 minutes in the first half, we once again failed to test the goalkeeper.

Second half there was a big transformation. We started to play the ball on the floor, there was a bit of pace and movement and we controlled the game. It isn`t rocket science Mr Warnock!

I thought Birmingham were really poor as well, so I am not going to get too carried away with the win and think it just papers over a lot of the cracks. We are still way short of a team capable of gaining promotion.

After changing things around, Warnock needs to keep things as they are on Saturday. Kenny, Tate, Pearce, Tonge, Barkley and Becchio should all need to fight to get their places back and not just walk back into the side.

Well done to all those Leeds fans that made the effort and went to the game. After what was served up to us at the weekend at Barnsley and on a bitterly cold night, who would have blamed anyone from staying away.

Now sets up a great looking FA Cup tie with Tottenham Hotspur at Elland Road.


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