Leeds 4 -Sheffield 3 27th September 2008
After the luxury conditions of Thorpe Arch on Friday night Leeds came back down to Earth playing on a pitch where the grass was so long the top of the ball was only just visible in certain areas. Tired legs and minds from Friday night were evident early on as Sheffield seized the initiative; they took the lead, produced a good save from Brandon Linley and forced Sam Capitano into a spectacular goal line clearance. Leeds rolled their sleeves up, forgot about the tiredness and played their way back into the game. When Danny Powell wiped in a corner on 18 minutes the unfortunate Sheffield defender could only deflect it into his own net but it was no more than Leeds deserved. Jack Bagnall and Tom Lyman had started to look lively up front and after early indecision the Leeds back four of Meston, Jewitt, Jameson and Smedley were starting to get to grips with the Sheffield attack. It was therefore a surprise when Sheffield again took the lead just into the second period when the Sheffield striker was allowed too much space and fired the ball past an unlucky Brandon Linley. The cheers from the Sheffield spectators had only just died down when Leeds hit straight back. After good work by Jack Bagnall, Danny Powell was on hand to finish with a superb left foot shot into the corner. Leeds were now on top. Danny Hebditch hit Sheffield with a couple of hard but fair tackles in midfield that summed up the Leeds determination and it was Hebditch who put Leeds in front on 36 minutes. Shaun Gibson threaded a lovely ball through to Kieran Booth inside the area who teed the ball up for Danny as he ghosted into the box to make it 3-2 Leeds.
The last 20 minutes was a scrappier affair as both teams were feeling the effects of playing in the wilderness of pitch 3 for the previous 50 minutes, mistakes were bound to happen. First Leeds went to sleep to allow Sheffield a sloppy equaliser and then the game ended in controversy when Sheffield stopped playing when they thought the ball was heading over the dead ball line only for the ball to slow up in the long grass. Callum Rzonca as sharp as a razor had anticipated this and ended up walking the ball into an empty net with not a Sheffield man in sight.
This was a tremendous result coming the morning after a tough 3-3 draw with the Leeds Shadow Squad, the pitch was not at its best and Leeds showed bags of character to keep their unbeaten run going.