Leeds United 1 Plymouth Argyle 1: Scintillating, then sloppy, Whites fail to take short route to FA Cup fifth round — Yorkshire Post 27/1/24

Sometimes you wonder if Leeds United have some deep-seated philosophical objection to doing things the easy way.

By Stuart Rayner

For an hour they were turning on the glitz against Plymouth Argyle, Georginio Rutter on sparkling form, Jaidon Anthony scoring what will surely turn out to be one of the goals of the FA Cup fourth round.

The fifth was there for the taking – and Leeds were too shy to take it.

Patrick Bamford missed a stoppage-time chance as the Whites added a second trip to Plymouth to a February which also takes them to Bristol City and Swansea City folowing a 1-1 draw.

Still, manager Daniel Farke did say before the game if the scores were level after 90 minutes he would rather draw than lose and with Sheffield United going out, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday are the only teams in Sunday's fifth-round draw, albeit with "or"s after their names.

What made it so frustrating was how well Leeds had played without killing the game off.

Earlier in the season Farke got sick and tired of explaining why he preferred playing Joel Piroe off a No 9, but Rutter's form in the hole recently meant that when the pair started together on Saturday, their usual roles as a partnership were reversed.

And although it was Anthony's outstanding goal which should be replayed to death this weekend, Rutter was equally if not more eye-catching.

Life in West Yorkshire has not been easy for the young Frenchman since his club record move 12 months ago but Leeds fans have really taken to him this season and watching him play, it is not hard to see why.

Three times in the opening quarter of an hour Rutter attacked down the inside-right channel, only for his crosses to come to nothing.

He produced some terrific skill to set up the first, but pulled it into empty space. When he beat Brendan Galloway again a minute later, the ball was cut out for a wasted corner. Bali Mumba had to do the same with the third.

In between time Willy Gnonto hit a shot high and wide after Ilian Gruev rolled a free-kick he won across to the Italian.

As the half wore on, Leeds could have been forgiven for wondering if it was going to be one of the days.

When Rutter robbed Caleb Roberts he threaded the ball to Anthony, whose shot bounced off the post to Gnonto. Gnonto's effort flicked off a defender throwing himself in the path to hit the crossbar. It was a day when he failed to take his chance.

Piroe forced a save in the 16th minute and before Plymouth could properly get the ball away, so did Ethan Ampadu, unrestable, even on days such as this when Farke rotates his squad.

Ampadu had another shot blocked by Roberts and Piroe could not get around a Jamie Shackleton ball pulled back a touch too much.

But the goal did finally come, in the 31st minute, from a moment of Anthony inspiration – heavenly inspiration, it might be said.

The left winger wriggled between Mumba and Morgan Whittaker, glided past Roberts and produced a brilliant finish before revealing a T-shirt which read "Rest in perfect peace mum", a tribute to his mother who died the previous week.

But the second goal did not come.

Galloway put a brilliant tackle in on Gnonto, Shackleton sliced a shot when Piroe and Antghony played the ball across the area and Piroe's effort was blocked after great work by Rutter to create it.

A couple of sloppy deep passes by Leeds encouraged Plymouth on and Byram hit a post – not the ball, you understand, just Byram as he scrambled to clear Ryan Hardie's goalbound effort.

It took another 10 minutes and another wasted Gnonto effort in the middle of it, but Plymouth got the goal they had been threatening, substitute Mustapha Bundu picking out Adam Randell for a cool finish.

It jolted Leeds into life, Farke bringing on Bamford to join Rutter, Piroe and Anthony in a front four, then throwing on Joseph for Rutter.

Before the youngster made it on Bamford had forced a save with a header, Gruev had put a shot onto the roof of the net and Piroe volleyed over.

Bamford won another header in the second added minute, but when the ball dropped he could only touch it wide of the far post with Joseph in his way.