FA Cup Round 5: Sunday 16 February 2003 Crystal Palace 1 - 2 Leeds United (Half-time: 1 - 1) Crowd: 24512 Referee: D J Gallagher (Banbury)
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Match Facts
Crystal Palace	Team	Leeds United
Cedric Berthelin		Paul Robinson
Hayden Mullins		Danny Mills
Kit Symons		Gary Kelly
Darren Powell		Ian Harte
Shaun Derry		Michael Duberry
Danny Butterfield		Lucas Radebe
Aki Riihilahti		Seth Johnson
Tommy Black		Paul Okon
Julian Gray		Jason Wilcox
Andrew Johnson		Harry Kewell
Dele Adebola		Alan Smith
Subs
Aleksandrs Kolinko		Nigel Martyn
Danny Granville		Matthew Kilgallon
Steven Thomson		Teddy Lucic
Adeola Akinbiyi		James Milner
Dougie Freedman		Nick Barmby

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bloody cold barstool view - Andy

for what's it worth here's my thoughts, all from being there

Robbo
Nothing much to do, still a bit agrieved that his distribution is all about getting it up the pitch. I think Nigel has the edge on both Robbo and Seaman here. No one better at keeping the ball out of the net in the premiership and not afraid to get to the ball.

Danny Mills
A bit out of form perhaps?

Duberry
Good in the air, rubbish on the ground, lacking belief in his ability to play it on the ground. I don't think it's beyond him but he's a poor replacement for Woody. Could he be a star player in volleyball? I'd like to think that we can find a replacement central defender in the summer. Dubes is the only fit player we have and he just doesn't provide the assurance needed.

Radebe
Class player, I just always worry that he wont be able to do what he intends to cos he's so nearly a cripple. Our best defender by a mile and almost our best player.

Harte
How can a player lose so much form?? Got bundled by Adebole? (number 31 - a big black guy) early on and seemed scared to mix it from then on. Not capable of dealing with the physical side of the game. I thought Lucic might have coped with them better today purely from a physical point of view.

Kelly
Everywhere - MOTM - you lot have already said it. what pleases me the most is that he has been on a very consistent run and recaptured some long forgotten form. I'd be surprised if he gets better. is this his best? I think so. A very worthy captain at the moment.

Okon
Thought he was ok against England for the first half but this was dreadful. 2 games to Okon, 1 to Batty for the rest of the season maybe?

Johnson
I like this player, determination is there and some of the skill. Could become a favourite at Elland road. Concern is that he is always mixed up in the 'incidents'. I think this needs sorting before it becomes a problem but it is part of his game. It can be done cos Danny Mills has managed it - how often is DMIFB booked these days?

Wilcox
Not a great game - seems to be having a hard time recently, not as direct as he was. I'm interested to see what Bravo can bring on the left side. Don't want to see Seth get stuck out here though.

Harry K.
Played in position, in my opinion. Our only threat (apart from opportunistic free kicks) but so frustrating that it took a chat with the referee to get him sufficiently riled. When he did respond he showed us why he's one of the best in the premiership. Attitude seems to be, "I'll do enough to get by". Who can blame him? 40000 fans who come to see him do his best for a mere 90 minutes every Saturday.

Smithy
Seen it before but he got hassled out of the game. Can he do the job beside Harry? Today no, but deserves a run at playing up front after putting up with filling in where he's been needed. I dont think he adds enough as a midfielder so give him a chance to make his mark where he belongs.

Subs
made little impact - can't really comment

Terry
can't believe we're chanting his name! Admittedly it was in defiance to Palace fans who jeered him. WE ARE LEEDS!!!!!

Selhurst Park
I'm glad we have Elland Road, it's not a bad place really but I like the banking to be steep.

Standing up
the whole way through, love it, probaly the only protest worth organising.

Crystals
do any of the fans groups have links to paedos?? fireworks - if you went you'll know

Palace - Dave Nattan

Yes - we're through !

Bring on some first divison team at home , we can beat them all !

We're through - thats about all there is to say. Nightmare place to get to and from- took us 2 hours to go 16 miles after game.

Okon had his worst game for us, Seth had a running battle with their number 15 which put him off his (Seth's) game.

Harte crap. Kelly once again a revelation. Doobs once again did his best.

Once again (remember Charlton and Southampton at home) Harry "got his mad up" and made th opposition suffer by just getting the ball beating anyone in his way and slamming it into the net. I wish Tel could find some way of winding him up from the start.

Best chants of the day "who put Rio on his arse, Harry, Harry Kewell"

Plus "one Les Dennis" aimed at Neil Morrisey who along with Leeds fan Hugo Speers took part in a strange half time competition and showed why they are actors and not footballers.

Laughed when I heard Trevor Francis whining on the radio - funny he never moaned about the ref missing Greys kick on Mills off the ball.

I have not seen their "goal" on TV, but it sounds as if Doobs handled it first so if the ref had got it right it would have been a pen which Robbo would have saved so F*** Off Trev.

Plus when moaning about luck he failed to mention the two deflections they got for their goal

So there you go we are in the last eight and that is all that matters

bloody cold barstool view - Jeremy Adams

The cup has our name written on it! after the huge slice of luck we got today I'm convinced we're going to be spawny enough to go all the way to Cardiff.

A pretty crap pitch didn't help but we didn't play very well. Thought we we're jut getting on top a bit when we scored, Good old Kelly nipping in before Harte had a chance to blast it 40 yards over the bar like his previous effort. Kelly must be a good candidate for MOTM, he was all over the park and his only weakness seemd to be crap crosses today. Smith worked hard but seemed a little short of the pace to me, the Palace players were giving him no room, sticking right behind him and fouling him every opportunity. It felt a bit like he was unused to playing up front so kept drifting out of position. Kewell scared them sensless and it was his piece of magic that showed the diff between divvy 1 and the prem league, though he didn;t seem quite as keen to get stuck in as recently. Wilcox seemed a bit awol for large patches of the game. Okon solid and uninspiring as usual, Johnson was okay but seemed more interested in getting booked than anything else. Rads was magnificent, Dubes was decent but shouldn't have headed out for the corner that led to their goal. Harte was pants and Mills was given a rough time by their winger (Black or Gray?) How the ref didn't see the handball AND that the ball was clearly over the line is beyond me.Thought we edged the first half, played some pretty passing football in very sporadic patches without really penetrating.

Second half Palace had it, never gave us time to settle and seemed to want the ball a bit more. Interesting 5-5-0 formation for the last ten odd mins as we hung on for dear life.

Palace (Harry, Harry Kool, Harry, Harry Kool) - Rich Walker

Heady days are back - quarter finals of the FA Cup. Certainly stirs up the excitement level here in Leeds after the doom and gloom of the past few weeks. Remember Wigan 86-87 , quarter finals - Micky Adams RIGHT foot winner, going mental in that s*** away bank. Happy days and Palace reminded me a bit of that. The best "Let's go f*cking mental" for a while and superb away support from Leeds. You can always rely on the FA Cup.

I'm not gonna look into the game too deeply. On a s*** pitch we battled through against a decent Palace team. Man of the match , and man of the year so far in my opinion is Gary Kelly. Captain fantastic ! If ever a man showed what being Leeds is all about , it was Gary Kelly. His energy levels in this game were phenominal. He was everywhere. He made run after run after run, he scored a beauty of a goal and harried and pressurised their players all day , sometimes even having to get past a white shirt to get to the Palace man. He was that good. He cannot be dropped. Even when we have a full midfield I'd play him at right back in front of Mills and I wasn't saying that at the start of the season. The Leeds fans love him, he's the number one man at the moment.

Kewell - what a goal. Henry , eat your heart out and he will do that most weeks if Tel keeps him up front. I knew he could do this sort of thing 2 years ago when he was struggling out on the left wing with 3 players marking him out of the game. Credit for Tel for knowing it too. Me + Tel - what a team. You still listen to some of these know it all media pundits. "Kewell is not a striker", "Kewell is a left winger". They don't know f*ck !

Duberry - whilst he had an effective game I thought he was dodgy. Always a step away from a sending off tackle or a mistake to lose the game. We are playing on the edge with Duberry. But credit to him , he certainly put himself on the line (!) for Leeds in this game.

I think the main reason we were second best for the majority of this game is that we turned up with two unfit players - Smith and Okon. Smith struggled all afternoon before being subbed. His legs looked heavy and he really didn't look happy to me. It's amazing how a couple of weeks out can affect a player. The other was Okon - he was terrible. He just strolled around for 60 minutes leaving Johnson to do all the leg work. He shouldn't have played if he wasn't fit. Their 'goal' - f*ck em and Trevor Francis. Remember the play offs when he was the Blues manager. He nearly started crying when penalties were not at the end he wanted and threatened to take his players home. Whinging b'stard. If you count up the bad luck we've had over the years from dodgy ref decisions then it's about bloody time.

Wolves at home for me - a bit of revenge first then Chelsea in the semis at Old traford. Then we'll go to Cardiff to get hammered by Arse but it'll be a good day out.

Kewell scores a jewel and Leeds get lucky at last - Kevin McCarra

Copy from Football Unlimited of 17/02/2003.

The depression of Leeds United supporters is so entrenched that they might be outraged by any bid to cheer them up. For the hardcore, it would take the departure of the chairman Peter Ridsdale to remove the scowls. Even so there might be some corner of their being where they can take covert pleasure at coming through this tie.

In the end it required a mistake by the referee Dermot Gallagher and his assistants to steer Leeds towards their first appearance in the FA Cup quarter-finals since 1998. In the 39th minute they failed to see that a shot by Tommy Black, which would have put Palace 2-1 up, had crossed the line, and they did not detect either that it had also struck Michael Duberry's arm before Danny Mills cleared. Trevor Francis's team might have settled for a penalty and a red card.

Leeds, however, did not live by good fortune alone. Their recent history is inscribed on the performances since, after the January sales, the team is of a very uneven standard. With Jonathan Woodgate transferred to Newcastle United, the worries about the defence are exacerbated by the chronic injury problems. Terry Venables cannot have a sense of perfect security when Duberry and the elderly Lucas Radebe must form the centre of their defence.

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