Varney appears bedevilled but Leeds prove too good for Saints

One abject surrender against Aston Villa in a Wembley final and a couple of losing semi-final appearances are all the Elland Road outfit have to show for their efforts since the 1968 triumph that brought the first trophy of Don Revie’s reign.

Last night, however, the United fans who braved a cold West Yorkshire night were given a double cause to remember their team booking a place in tonight’s quarter-final draw.

First, the manner of Leeds’s performance meant they fully deserved to claim a second Premier League scalp of the season as goals from Michael Tonge, 
El-Hadji Diouf and Luciano Becchio proved enough to dump Southampton out.

As pleasing as this was for United, however, without doubt the biggest talking point – and the one part of the night that will surely live longest in the memory for the 17,002 crowd – was a contender for one of the worst misses in the club’s history.

Luke Varney, in the side due to manager Neil Warnock wanting to rest top scorer Becchio, was the guilty party and his moment to forget came in the 14th minute.

Aidy White’s searching right-wing cross was the catalyst, the quality of the delivery allowing Diouf to peel away from his marker and volley a pass across the face of goal from almost on the goal-line.

With Kelvin Davis having been drawn towards the Senegal international and, therefore, out of position, the Saints goalkeeper could only watch helplessly as the ball rolled beyond his grasp and towards the unmarked Varney.

A yard out and with all the goal to aim at, it seemed merely a matter of touching the ball over the line but, instead, the summer signing from Portsmouth somehow managed to screw his effort wide.

It seemed an impossible trick, the true magnitude of the miss only being revealed moments later to a huge groan on the big screen.

Varney looked crest-fallen. Credit to the striker, however, as he did not try to hide for the rest of the evening and even played a major role in United’s opener 11 minutes before the break.

Seizing on to Lee Peltier’s pass, Varney cut inside smartly before drilling a cross that Davis could only palm out to Tonge who slid the ball through a melee of bodies to open the scoring.

Varney cut a relieved figure as the ball rolled into the net, an understandable reaction following not only his glaring miss but also another effort that had crashed against a post after he had beaten Davis to a miscued back pass by Jos Hooiveld.

Tonge’s third goal for United may have taken some of the pressure off Varney but his frustration was far from over as, in the second half, he was unable to take another gilt-edged opportunity.

A passing move that was sufficiently incisive to open up the Premier League’s leakiest defence created the opening as the former Sheffield Wednesday striker raced into the area.

However, as Davis advanced from his line, Varney once again fluffed his lines with a shot that struck the goalkeeper in the chest. Varney did reclaim possession before the ball ran dead but his subsequent attempted pass to Tonge was poor and the Saints were able to clear.

The tongue-in-cheek response of ‘Who needs van Persie, we’ve got Luke Varney’ from the Gelderd End moments later showed that the home fans were in a forgiving mood, the crowd’s bonhomie no doubt being helped by the dominance that their side had shown.

This superiority was underlined with two goals in the final three minutes as, first, Diouf tapped in after Rodolph Austin’s shot had been parried by Davis and then Becchio converted a penalty won by Tonge.

A Saints side showing 11 changes to the starting line-up beaten 2-1 by Spurs could have few complaints with such an emphatic defeat.

That loss having taken place just two days earlier at St Mary’s explained why Nigel Adkins had felt so many alterations were needed.

What was puzzling, however, was why the Southampton manager had not felt the need to include the likes of proven match-winners Rickie Lambert, Adam Lalaana and Jay Rodriguez on the bench.

Instead, the Saints manager plumped for seven substitutes with just six starts between them this season – and Paulo Gazzaniga, a summer signing from Gillingham, accounted for five of those.

This lack of options in reserve meant Adkins had nowhere to turn when trying to pep up his badly-misfiring side as Leeds made light of Varney’s amazing miss to reach the last eight for the first time since 1996, the year the Yorkshire club went all the way to Wembley before crashing to an abject 3-0 defeat against Villa.

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Leeds United: Ashdown; Byran, Lees, Pearce, Peltier (Pugh 89); White, Austin, Brown, Tonge; Diouf (Gray 90), Varney (Becchio 89). Unused substitutes: Kenny, Drury, Green, Norris, Gray.

Southampton: Davis; Butterfiel, Hooiveld, Seabourne, Reeves; Ward-Prowse, Chaplow, Do Prado; De Ridder (Isgrove 67), Mayuka, Lee (Shaw 67).Unused substitutes: Gazzaniga, Stephens, Chambers, Hoskins, Sinclair.

Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).