Leeds United one step from FA Cup history after remarkable run continues in third round draw

A remarkable Leeds United run continued in Monday evening’s third round draw for the FA Cup in which the Whites have now been handed ten away games in a row.
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Jesse Marsch’s side have been presented with a January trip to Wales to face Championship side Cardiff City in what is the competition’s last 64 and the Whites have not had an FA Cup home game since taking on Rotherham United at Elland Road back in January 2016.

Back then, goals from Mustapha Carayol and Souleymane Doukara gave Leeds a 2-0 victory under former boss Steve Evans but Leeds have been drawn away from home in every FA Cup draw in which they have featured since.

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Leeds were handed a trip to Bolton Wanderers after seeing off Rotherham at LS11 in 2016 and the Whites defeated the Trotters only to be given another away game at Watford which ended in defeat in the fifth round. Under Garry Monk, the Whites were then presented with a trip to Cambridge United for a third round tie in January 2017 which ended in a 2-1 success for Monk’s side and another away day at non-league Sutton United was next on the agenda in round four.

But Monk’s Whites were dumped out through a 1-0 loss at Sutton and the last five seasons have all featured third round away assignments with every one of them ending in defeat. Under Thomas Christiansen, the Whites crashed out at Newport County in January 2018 and four more jaunts to QPR, Arsenal, Crawley Town and then West Ham United all ended the same way over the next four years under Marcelo Bielsa.

January’s forthcoming assignment at Cardiff extends the run to ten FA Cup away games in a row and Leeds are now just one game away from the record run experienced by Stockport County between 1996 and 2001. Upon visiting January’s hosts Cardiff, United will become only the second team in the competition’s history to have played ten away games in a row. The probability of such a run is one in 1024 or 0.09 per cent.

Leeds also faced Cardiff in the FA Cup third round of January 2002 which was another away day in the competition which ended in defeat. The Whites had an appalling record at Cardiff until the curse was lifted by a 2-0 victory in the Championship clash of March 2016 in which Souleymane Doukara and Mirco Antenucci both netted.

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Prior to that victory, Leeds had gone nine games and over 32 years without a win there, with seven of those contests ending in defeat. The last triumph had arrived back in February 1984, when George McCluskey’s goal gave Eddie Gray’s side a 1-0 win.

FREAK RUN: Of Leeds United away games in the FA Cup, going all the way back to the fifth round defeat at Watford, above, of February 2016.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images.FREAK RUN: Of Leeds United away games in the FA Cup, going all the way back to the fifth round defeat at Watford, above, of February 2016.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images.
FREAK RUN: Of Leeds United away games in the FA Cup, going all the way back to the fifth round defeat at Watford, above, of February 2016. Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images.

But the 2-0 success of March 2016 was followed by another Championship victory by the same score the following February. Leeds then fell to a 3-1 defeat at Cardiff in the Championship fixture of September 2017 as part of a season in which the Bluebirds were promoted to the Premier League as runners-up.

Cardiff were immediately relegated and the Championship contest in Wales between the two sides of June 2020 ended in a 3-0 loss for Leeds in what was the last meeting between the two sides as Bielsa’s men went up as champions. The third round ties will take place over the weekend of Saturday, January 7 and all sides who progress into the fourth round will pocket £105,000 from the competition prize fund.