'Quite sobering' - Plymouth Argyle boss on ruthless Leeds United and family emergencies before cup exit

Leeds finally saw off Plymouth after 200 minutes in the FA Cup Fourth Round, scoring an additional three goals in extra time having been held to a second consecutive 1-1 draw.

Sodden conditions at Home Park worsened as the evening wore on, making hard work of Leeds' eventual cup progression. Daniel Farke was forced to call upon blue-chip players Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville, Patrick Bamford and Archie Gray from the bench in order to see off the Pilgrims who battled back from a goal down.

Foster made reference to Leeds' quality during his post-match media briefing, having witnessed his team bow out valiantly.

"I said to them [players] after the game how proud I am. One thing we spoke about leading into it was coming away with no regrets and I'm proud of the way they approached the game, how difficult they've made it for Leeds over two games.

"The scoreline is quite sobering for us in terms of their ruthlessness at the end but we won't be too downtrodden with the score or the result, I know how well we played. We've got to take the positives and use them going forward."

Foster was only able to name six substitutes on the night, due to a pair of family emergencies within his squad, in addition to ineligible players such as Leeds loanee Darko Gyabi and cup-tied Adam Forshaw, as well as injuries.

"It was unfortunate," he said. "We've got the four boys who are ineligible, which we knew. We've got a couple of injuries coming into the game, which is disappointing, but that's part and parcel of football.

"We've got two boys who have missed it with respective family commitments and I feel for both of them. Neither of them wanted to miss the game but family comes first and we made sure those two boys are okay.

"It was more important they stayed with their families than come with us tonight. That challenged us in terms of the numbers in the group but I've no issues in terms of the number of subs we had, it was just circumstances.

"Mikel's grandfather passed away on Sunday so he went to London, and we send him our best wishes. Julio's partner became unwell yesterday and she's pregnant at the moment so it was quite a distressing time for him and her, just a family first thing," Foster said.

Leeds return to Home Park in the Championship in under two weeks' time. The Whites will face either Chelsea or Aston Villa in the next round of the FA Cup, ties to be played at the end of this month.