Date:
Venue:
Competition: FA Youth Cup Final, First Leg.
Score:
Scorers:
Attendance: 6,649.
Teams:
Referee: Mr G. Barber (
Leeds United’s youngsters can expect another rough ride, in the
true sense of the word, when they bid to clinch an FA Youth Cup final win in
the second leg at
United’s
attacking skills earned them a two goal lead by the twenty-first minute and it
was richly deserved. The crowd loved every moment of it. However, United will
take only a slender lead with them to
Only four
minutes of the game had gone when United’s
youngsters, regarded by many as the best crop the Elland
Road club have had since Don Revie’s youth team of
the 1960’s, took the lead. Australian international left back Harry Kewell sped off on a forty-yard run and weaved his way
round several defenders before slipping the ball through to Wesley Boyle who
took it in his stride and hit a fierce left foot shot on the run past Palace
goalkeeper Gareth Ormshaw.
United
continued to show rich promise, pinning Palace back, and they increased their
lead in the twenty-first minute when Matthew Jones got up well to beat the
challenge of Hayden Mullins from Stephen McPhail’s
left wing cross. Some of the gloss was taken off the victory when Stephen McPhail was sent off in the seventy-fifth minute for two
yellow cards. Palace had man-marked the Irishman all the match and he had come
in for some stern treatment from Richard Kennedy. It was as a result of a hard
tackle in the first half that he received his first card, for retaliating to
the challenge. Outclassed Palace had three players booked in a ten minute spell
in the second half, two of them for fouls on McPhail,
but when the United youngster fouled Stevens fifteen
minutes from the end referee Graham Barber booked him again and sent him off.
The foul count however was weighted heavily against the South East London side,
who committed twenty-four compared to eleven by United. Paul Robinson may have
been at fault for the Palace goal but he atoned for his error by making a
tremendous save in the dying seconds when he palmed a close range header from
Mullins over the bar.
Match Action:
Players:
The
Irish Internationals, Alan Maybury
and Stephen McPhail
Australian International Harry Kewell and Welsh International Matthew Jones, all played at
full international level
