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Leeds 3-0 Southampton
Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Alistair Magowan
- Role, 91热爆 Sport
Leeds earned a place in the Capital One Cup quarter-finals as they beat a disappointing Southampton side.
A second-string Saints hardly mustered a chance and should have been behind when Luke Varney missed an open goal.
But after he hit the bar, his run and cross helped set up Michael Tonge, who fired in from the edge of the area.
El-Hadji Diouf tucked in two minutes from the end after Rodolph Austin's shot was saved and Luciano Becchio hit the third via an injury-time penalty.
The victory for the Championship team meant they reached the last eight of the competition for the first time since 1996.
And it puts Leeds boss Neil Warnock on the way to replicating a run to the semi-finals while in charge of Sheffield United 10 years ago.
Southampton manager Nigel Adkins chose a completely changed team following defeat by Tottenham on Sunday, but the decision backfired and his side's poor form continued as they slipped to a third consecutive defeat.
With their next Premier League game not until next Monday, Saints could have fielded some of their best players. Instead, the teamsheet would have been of little comfort to their travelling supporters and they missed a golden opportunity to earn their fourth win of the season.
Despite their lacklustre showing, the fact it was only 1-0 at half-time was down to Leeds' profligacy rather than anything else.
Varney registered a rock-solid nomination for miss of the season when he could not find the target from two yards out following Diouf's cross, with goalkeeper Kelvin Davis nowhere to be seen.
Varney went close soon after and also hit the bar after a Southampton mix-up, but his embarrassment was partially relieved when his run and cross down the right eventually fell for Tonge to score his third goal of the season after 35 minutes.
The visitors lacked cohesion throughout and for large parts of the first half Emmanuel Mayuka was isolated up front on his first start for the club.
Guly Do Prado was pushed up after the break to try and remedy that situation, but Leeds were still the game's aggressors with Varney drawing another stop from Davis.
While there was one goal between the teams the game was still in the balance, but Warnock's side eventually settled their fans' nerves when Diouf tucked in following Davis's stop.
And Becchio's spot-kick after Tonge was brought down led the Leeds fans to taunt Adkins with "you're getting sacked in the morning" at the final whistle.