Leeds fall to Kabba's knockout punch

Sheffield United 1 Leeds United

Lightning struck Leeds at Bramall Lane again yesterday, Terry Venables' hopes of salvaging something from an ill-starred season to the FA Cup going up in smoke after a direct hit by Steve Kabba, who thus took Sheffield United into their second major semi-final this season.

In November, when Kabba was still fifth-choice striker at Crystal Palace following a loan spell at Grimsby, Sheffield knocked Leeds out of the Worthington Cup with two stoppage-time thunderbolts. The First Division's fifth-placed side again left it late, though there were still 12 minutes to try to earn a replay after the 22-year-old, Arsenal-supporting Londoner scored.

It was an indictment of a performance in which too many players mistook petty niggling for passion that Leeds – Champions' League semi-finalists two years ago this month – failed once to threaten the equaliser that would have kept alive their last chance of qualifying for Europe and boosted their depleted coffers.

Venables, left to rue the chances wasted by Alan Smith and Harry Kewell in the first half, warned that the lessons of a calamitous campaign had to be heeded. "At the end of the season there must be a reassessment of the whole season to make sure the club improves next year," Venables said.

Whether the former England manager, 60, will be around come August must be doubtful, but he added: "I'm a professional, like everybody else at the club. We're licking our wounds now, but by the end of the week we've got to be up again."

His opposite number, Neil Warnock, paid £250,000 for Kabba, and added insult to Leeds' injured pride when he said: "I think that's the first time Steve has lasted 90 minutes. He's usually sitting with me at the time he got the winner. I told the lads that if it's 0-0 near the end, pop one in your own goal because with our fixture backlog we didn't want a replay." Kabba went one better, popping one past Paul Robinson after Sheffield followed up with typical zeal when Michael Brown's free-kick was cleared.

Brown's second ball into the penalty area produced a shot by Michael Tonge which Danny Mills, in keeping with a dismal personal display, cleared straight to Kabba 12 yards out. A first-time, left-footed volley flew low past the Leeds keeper.

Robinson's one save of note had denied Kabba just after half-time, but Leeds created little themselves after spurning two openings in 10 minutes midway through the first half. First, Smith's angled shot straight at Paddy Kenny underlined the fact that he is not, to invoke Glenn Hoddle's memorable phrase about Michael Owen, a natural finisher.

Smith, however, soon sent Kewell racing clear to confront Kenny. The Australian's first effort came out off the keeper. Faced with using his right foot to dispatch the rebound, he lashed the ball high into the Kop.

Warnock had obviously identified Ian Harte as Leeds' weak link. The Leeds-born duo of Stuart McCall and Nick Montgomery, in tandem with Brown and Tonge, repeatedly worked the ball out to Sheffield's right, yet the home side could not complement Kabba's ability to outpace his man with any penetration through the centre.

Leeds, who lost any semblance of menace after Kewell's withdrawal with a back injury, seemed have settled for a draw. Suddenly, having to chase the game, they lost their discipline. In one farcical episode, the referee brandished a yellow card and then a red at Mills, apparently believing he was the similarly shaven and already booked Seth Johnson.

Some of Leeds' followers may have been reflecting that it was on a similar, spring-like Sunday morning, 11 years ago next month, and in the near-identical conditions of swirling wind and pock-marked pitch, that Howard Wilkinson's team won the championship at Bramall Lane. Others may have been wondering whether Leeds will ever challenge for such honours again after the dismantling of David O'Leary's team and Peter Ridsdale's financial misjudgements.

The Leeds chairman at least won the praise of Warnock for going to the Blades' dressing-room to congratulate the victors. "He was magnanimous in defeat," the Sheffield manager said. "Our players appreciated that." Whether Leeds' supporters will have appreciated the television pictures of their chairman laughing and joking in such circumstances, is another matter. It says much about the atmosphere surrounding Elland Road that his sporting gesture will doubtless be held against him by many of the disaffected faithful.

How Ridsdale, not to mention Venables, would love to be in Sheffield's place when the draw is made today. Warnock, who could become the first self-confessed Donny Osmond devotee to lead a team out in the Millennium Stadium, was delighted that his crazy dark horses had beaten Yorkshire's so-called thoroughbreds again to move closer to their first final since 1936. "It's my finest hour," he beamed. "The pinnacle of my career."

Goal: Kabba (78) 1-0.

Sheffield United (4-3-2-1): Kenny; Jagielka, Murphy, Page, Kozluk; Montgomery, McCall, Brown; Kabba, Tonge; Allison. Substitutes not used: Peschisolido, Ten Heuvel, G Smith, Javary, Cryan.

Leeds United (4-3-2-1): Robinson; Mills, Radebe, Lucic, Harte (Milner, 81); Okon (Barmby, 81), Seth Johnson, Bravo; A Smith, Kewell (Bakke, h-t); Viduka. Substitutes not used: Kilgallon, Martyn (gk).

Referee: S Bennett (Orpington).

Bookings: Sheffield United: Kabba. Leeds: Harte, Johnson, Mills, Radebe.

Man of the match: Kabba.

Attendance: 24,633.