31-07-08: Newport County (a) 2-0 (HT 2-0) Crowd (711)

Programme:

On 31st July the "Junior" squad played Newport County at the Newport Stadium, Spytty Park. Leeds won 2-0 with goals from Tom Elliott from the spot and Davide Somma. The Leeds team was: Ryan Jones; Liam Darville, James Booker, Sam Jones, Adam Watson, Andy Milne, Will Hatfield, Josh Falkingham, Davide Somma, Tom Elliott, Tom Beane. There was a sluggish start while the young Leeds side looked bright despite the gloomy weather. Tom Beane, had the home keeper worried in the very first minute with a good run and testing shot from twenty-five yards which just cleared the bar. Josh Falkingham also went close in front of a disappointingly small crowd of seven hundred. After thirty-four minutes United took a deserved lead as Aaron Cook brought down Tom Elliott in the area and the towering striker easily beat Newport goalkeeper Glyn Thompson from the spot. Cook almost made amends immediately with a stinging drive into the side netting but Leeds went straight down the other end and added a second with a neat finish by Davide Somma from seven yards out. Newport rang the changes at half-time with Ben Evans replacing Paul Bignot, Paul Cochlin for Gary Warren, David Gilroy for for Craig Reid and Kris Leek for Takumi Ake. Leeds just had Joe McCann replacing Tom Beane for the second half. Newport made two more changes on the hour with Ali Gibb on for Scott Rogers and Josh Hartrick for Charlie Henry. For Leeds, Sanchez Payne replaced Sam Jones after sixty-five minutes, while after seventy minutes Ricky Manship replaced Danny Rose for the home side and five minutes later defender Matt Smith replaced Martyn Giles. Both sides made a change after seventy-eight minutes, Mike Whitwell came on for Tom Elliott for Leeds and Gary Colbourne for Aaron Cook for Newport. It was the home side's final change and left Midfielder Kevin Cooper and goalkeeper Kieron Blackburn unused on the bench. Finally Nathan Turner came on for Andy Milne after eighty-five minutes and Louis Turner took over from James Booker two minutes later, for Leeds, leaving midfielder James Baxendale, striker Jonathan Birbeck, central defender Callum Williams and goalkeeper Alex Cairns as unused substitutes.