Leeds United 1  Carlisle United 2

If recent form was anything to go by, Leeds should have expected to have run up a decent lead in the first leg, but in the event were outplayed for long periods by a spirited Carlisle side. We can be grateful that Freedman’s injury time goal gives us hope for Thursday’s second leg.

An expectant crowd whipped up a great atmosphere inside Elland Road before kick-off, but Carlisle made the first opening against a hesitant Leeds defence, when Graham’s cross from the left was met by an unmarked Bridge-Wilkinson, and we were relieved to see the ball come back off the post.  Almost immediately we came close at the other end, when Freedman cut inside and curled a beautiful shot towards the far corner, only for Westwood to get his fingertips to the ball and turn it round the post.

The frantic pace continued, as Casper had to get across his goal to block a header from Graham, and Freedman tried his luck with a clever lob over the keeper from the edge of the box. It was the right idea, but the ball drifted just the wrong side of the post.  Then Beckford forced Westwood into another fine save, but it was the visitors who took the lead in the 32^nd. minute. 

Carlisle won a corner when Graham was challenged by Fraser and Casper, though the Sky replay later showed that we should have had a goal kick.  The corner was headed clear, but only as far as Hackney, who cracked in a superb volley that took a deflection off Graham’s backside to leave Casper completely flat-footed.  There were further chances at both ends before the interval. Beckford was put through by Kilkenny only to shoot narrowly wide, and Casper was quickly off his line to smother the danger as Graham broke through.

Carlisle had shaded an eventful first half in terms of possession, but at that stage Leeds were still well in the game. But we needed to make a decent start to the second period, and instead seemed to come out determined to make life difficult for ourselves at the back. First Howson lost possession when fannying around on the edge of the box, but Casper saved his blushes with a decent save from Bridge-Wilkinson.  But worse was to come in the 50^th. minute, when the Cumbrians grabbed their second.

The goal stemmed from a lack of cover down the Leeds right, with Fraser left totally exposed while Kilkenny abandoned his allocated position to play in the centre. Richardson had cope with two players at once, and Graham slipped it past him to Hackney, whose low cross left Bridge-Wilkinson the simple task of scoring from six yards. This time the goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Leeds, and we seemed to run out of ideas. We could have done with Hughes or Johnson in midfield, where Howson was playing too deep and Douglas contributing very little.

Mc.Allister made his first substitution before the hour mark by replacing Beckford with Kandol. Becks looked annoyed to be taken off, but he had started to run out of steam after his efforts in the first half, and probably wasn’t fully fit. Kandol won quite a few headers, but also treated us to some woeful shooting, a couple of strikes from distance that were well off target.

By now Carlisle were content to fall back on defence, and in the 78th minute Macca responded to the chant “there’s only one Seb Carole”, to give the side some much-needed width.  Westwood was forced into one more decent save, when he had to tip a back header from his own defender over the bar, but it wasn’t till the closing stages that their defence really came under pressure.

Johnson crashed in a free kick from just outside the area, which was on target before a defender got his head to the ball, and there followed a series of corners.  When Hughes became our third sub as the game went into injury time I thought it was far too late for him to make any impact, though he still found time to come close to a red card. He flicked out a leg after being fouled and caught the Carlisle player on the side of the head, but his victim seemed to make a meal of it and the ref settled for giving him a yellow card.

We were promised four minutes of injury time, but six were actually played as the ref finally got tired of the amount of time Carlisle were taking over every throw in.  And it was fortunate that Hughes was still on the field, as he was on hand to knock a deep cross back across the area, and Freedman pounced to score a vital goal and give Leeds at least some hope for the second leg.

Carlisle’s goalkeeper was Sky’s man of the match, and without his contribution it could all have been very different, but this was a dreadful result for Leeds.  The late goal seems to have given us a bit of optimism, but at Carlisle we will need some bite in midfield, a bit of width and a lot more organisation in defence. Can we do it?

Photo: Action Images via Reuters