Confident Leeds United took just 45 minutes to finish off Chester City at the Deva Stadium in last night's Carling Cup first round.
In a one-sided half, United opened the scoring after just three minutes when a long free-kick from Alan Sheehan inside the Leeds half found Jermaine Beckford, who slid the ball past the despairing dive of goalkeeper John Danby.
A second goal foll
owed six minutes later when Fabian Delph laid the ball off for Robert Snodgrass to place the ball easily past a stranded Danby.
Chester, who lost 6-0 on the opening day of the season to Dagenham and Redbridge, briefly threatened a revival when Ryan Lowe's 14th-minute effort was deflected over Casper Ankergren, but 10 minutes later a poor touch from Chester captain Paul Linwood presented Beckford with his second and Leeds's third as he fired past the unfortunate Danby.
A neat passing move between Snodgrass, Beckford and Andy Robinson then presented the Merseysider with a simple goal for United's fourth on the half hour.
On 34 minutes Beckford completed a fabulous hat-trick when he took advantage of a loose ball from Anthony Barry to curl an exquisite 25-yard chip over Danby to make it 5-1 and Chester must have been fearing they were set to concede even more goals than at the weekend.
After the break Chester were more solid having substituted the ineffective former Leeds defender Paul Butler and the penalty against Ankergren converted by Lowe gave the scoreline a more favourable look.
Chester City: Danby, J Vaughan, Wilson, Butler (Kelly 46), Linwood, Mozika, Barry, Mannix, Partridge (Harris 46), Ellison, Lowe. Unused Substitutes: S Vaughan, Dinning, Taylor, Roberts, McManus.
Leeds United: Ankergren, Richardson, Huntington, Marques, Beckford (Showmuni 52), Becchio, Sheehan, Howson (Douglas 52), Delph, Robinson (Johnson 52), Snodgrass. Unused Substitutes: Michauk, Lucas, Telfer, Elliot.
Referee: G Salisbury.
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