NCFC 25/26 • Leeds (A) - FA Cup

After a trip to Wales to watch Chelsea (eventually) beat Hollywood FC 4-2, the second game of the weekend was Norwich taking on Dirty Leeds at Bellend Road.

I was meant to meet my Norwich-supporting cousin for a drink before the game but that didn't happen, so I grabbed two slices of pizza from the Greggs inside the Asda where I'd paid a surprisingly small amount to park for the day, and then walked in more or less a straight line to the ground, with a nice view along the way.

I walked in the wrong side of the ground and took the long way round to the away end, where I saw supporters being searched as they came in - hopefully anybody carrying any offensive weapons doesn't know that you can just walk straight in around the other side. Anyway, I had a pretty good seat and watched Kenny have an interview for his 300th appearance for the club.

In truth, Leeds were all over us for the first half. Their first goal was chalked off for handball, but Grimshaw had a bit of a nightmare coming off his line. Sean Longstaff scored with a beautiful touch and finish just after the half hour mark, they got the second just before half time (I think they had another disallowed for offside in between that). We'd barely had any chances and it was clear there was a huge gulf in quality. People around me were saying Grimshaw had to come off at half time, and he actually did, but for an injury apparently, so Vlad came on for the rest of the game.

The second half was a bit better, we had more of the ball and were in their half of the pitch a lot more than the first half, which is good as at least we had a lot of the game played out in front of where we were standing. Mundle-Smith and Slimane came on for Kvistgaarden and Maghoma and nearly combined to get one back but it went just wide of the mark. While we had more of the ball, Leeds pushed forward so much quicker that us, and after having a strike ping off the bar, one loss off possession and they had the ball back up the pitch and in the back of the net for their third.

Ultimately, I expected this would be a loss, and so it turned out to be. Leeds may be fighting relegation but their B team comfortably beat pretty much the strongest team we could put out, and injuries aside, it's a reminder of the level we'll need to get to if we want Big Phil to take us back to the big time.