FA Cup roundup: Leeds beat Plymouth, Coventry set up Maidstone tie
Three extra-time goals fired Leeds into the FA Cup fifth round with a 4-1 win at Championship rivals Plymouth. The substitutes Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter combined to put the visitors 3-1 up before a 117th-minute own goal by Argyle striker Ryan Hardie capped a comprehensive Leeds win. They will now travel to Aston Villa or Chelsea on 28 February.
Leeds hit the woodwork twice in the opening 20 minutes of a hardfought first half but the tie was goalless at the break. However their pressure eventually told in the second half as Wilfried Gnonto fired the visitors ahead in the 66th minute with a measured right-foot strike from the edge of the box which beat Conor Hazard. Gnonto benefited from a superb pass from Glen Kamara from the right.
Plymouth equalised after a 78thminute Morgan Whittaker free-kick from the left. Whittaker’s dead ball reached the 18-year-old Tottenham loanee Ashley Phillips, who looped a cross over Illan Meslier to BrendanGalloway, who chested the ball home.
Seven minutes into extra-time, Rutter put Summerville on his way to a brilliant individual goal as he cut in from the left before beating Hazard with a soaring strike. As Plymouth
pressed for an extra-time equaliser, Summerville teed up Rutter to sweep home Leeds’s third goal in the 111th minute. Argyle’s misery was completed when Ilia Gruev’s corner glanced off Hardie and skidded past his own keeper.
Coventry will host Maidstone in the fifth round after their 4-1 victory against Sheffield Wednesday. Kasey Palmer, the Coventry player who was racially abused by a fan at Hillsborough in the Championship game between these two clubs last month, opened the scoring after three minutes with a driving run and finish inside the box.
Wednesday equalised seven minutes later, the 18-year-old Bailey Cadamarteri firing a low shot into the corner of the net. Yet in the second half the hosts took over, scoring three goals in only eight minutes. Two from the inform Callum O’Hare put Coventry 3-1 ahead before the contest was effectively ended by Haji Wright’s strike on 58 minutes.
Coventry will now host sixth-tier Maidstone, the first team from outside the top five divisions to make it to this stage of the FA Cup in 46 years. Coventry are seventh in the Championship while Maidstone are striving for promotion in the National League South.
Southampton stretched their unbeaten run to 24 matches in all competitions with a 3-0 victory against Championship rivals Watford, including two goals from the France Under-21 international Sékou Mara.
Mara lashed home from an angle to open the scoring on 52 minutes before doubling Saints’ lead six minutes later with a spectacular strike from outside the penalty area, finishing off a fluent counterattack by Russell Martin’s inform side. The Scotland international Ché Adams sealed the win 14 minutes from time by steering in Joe Rothwell’s free-kick. Southampton will visit Liverpool in the next round.