On our return from Newcastle the night before, I was gutted to wake up to the very sad news that Leeds had lost another one of our legends from the great Don Revie side, Terry Yorath. Thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time. Black armbands were worn for him today and more will be done at our next home game in his memory.

To lose in the 113th minute at Newcastle was demoralising but I couldn’t have been prouder of the lads. They put their bodies on the line and battled for the whole game, and I couldn’t have asked for more from them.

Onto the FA Cup today where I wanted us to do well even though I knew there would be changes to the team. We could still put out a strong side and give players who needed some game time the chance to play. I make no apologies for saying that my favourite ever game whilst following my team, was seeing us win the FA Cup at Wembley in 1972 for the only time in our history. Seeing my hero Billy Bremner lift the cup from Her Majesty the Queen was fantastic and being able to celebrate the win was the end to a magical day apart from Mick Jones getting injured; those memories will never be taken away. This game was my first visit to Wembley where the community singing was led by Tommy Steele wearing white in support of Leeds. The whole stadium of Leeds and Arsenal fans singing in unison to Abide with Me and the National Anthem are still spine tingling to this day. I hate how the FA Cup has been devalued but I for one, would love a cup run too.

Team: Darlow, Ampadu, Bijol, Bornauw, Piroe, Gnonto, Harrison, Gruev, Tanaka, Okafor, Nmecha.

Subs used: Justin for Bornauw (46), Longstaff for Gruev (73), Byram for Gnonto (86), Aaronson for Okafor (89), Stach for Piroe (89).

Subs not used: Perri, Struijk, Chambers, Calvert-Lewin.

Leeds came back from a goal down to win the game 3-1 with goals from Gnonto (55), Tanaka (59), Justin (90+3).

Attendance: 21,741, with 5,114 Leeds fans.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

Booked: Harrison.

With snow having fallen in the morning as I arrived at a white Elland Road, luckily the roads were clear, and a lot had melted by the time we arrived in Derby. As the turnstiles weren’t yet open, I was going to stay on the coach only to suddenly realise that I’d left my ticket for the game at home! Oh dear, I’d been stressing ever since Newcastle about having a digital ticket on my phone, then nearly leaving that in the car which totally threw me today. Luckily, I’d brought ID with me so was able to get a duplicate thankfully. It must be something about Derby as I had to get a duplicate ticket here a few years ago after my dog ate my ticket, oops!

The game was quite quiet for the first 30 minutes as the team took some time to gel for me. Suddenly we stepped up the pace with a good spell where Piroe was unlucky not to score as a powerful shot saw the ball hit the inside of the post and come back out and away. Their keeper then saved from both Okafor and Gruev before Leeds were awarded a penalty when Okafor was brought down in the box by their keeper. I was still waiting for VAR to appear before realising it wasn’t the Premier League as Piroe stepped up to take it. Sadly, their keeper guessed the right way and made a good save. Instead of being a goal up, that quickly turned to us being a goal down as Leeds tried to clear the ball. Their man had gone down as they shouted for a penalty although it wasn’t one, but their man reacted quicker in the box to score. That’s what I call Sod’s Law. We hadn’t given up as Gnonto, Piroe and Okafor (although the flag went up for offside for the latter), brought saves from the keeper as we went into half time a goal down.

We made one change at half time with Justin coming on for Bornauw. We equalised with a great goal after Bijol sent a ball through for Piroe who dummied it and Gnonto got on to the end of it and smashed the ball into the net. We went into the lead a few minutes later when their keeper made a great save to deny Piroe again and Tanaka hit the rebound into the net. It was a good feeling going into the lead, but I think the Derby fans will have regretted giving our fans some stick earlier, as they got it back which was quite funny. Their keeper although a villain with giving away the penalty more than made up for it with another impressive save from Nmecha’s header. I went to get my flag and hoped I wouldn’t jinx the score because obviously if Derby equalised there would have been extra time. Instead, it was Leeds who got a third goal to seal the game as we broke out of defence and Nmecha with some brilliant work got the ball to Justin to score who put the round beyond any doubts.

We are in the fourth round draw so will know by tomorrow night who our next opponents are. Saturday sees us back at Elland Road for the Saturday 3pm kick off game against Fulham so see you there,

LUFC – Marching on Together!