At least Manchester City's departure from the FA Cup this season, unlike the stiff-necked withdrawal of Manchester United, gave their followers a whiff of glory.

That was all it was. Eventually Leeds United's superior passing and movement saw the Premier League leaders through to the fifth round with a victory which, but for the agility of Nicky Weaver in the City goal, would have been comfortable to the point of indecent luxury.

Yet for the best part of half-an-hour there seemed little difference between Manchester City's view from the top of the Nationwide League and the vista at present enjoyed by David O'Leary's aspiring young side. In the first 20 minutes alone the teams shared four goals, with City twice holding the lead.

Yesterday Joe Royle seemed to opt for a policy of win or bust; anything but a fixture-clogging replay.

So he was happy to play three against four in midfield in order to employ Mark Kennedy as an orthodox left-winger supporting the strikers, Shaun Goater and Paul Dickov.

In fact Kennedy had an indifferent game, but so enthusiastically did City attack Leeds at the start of the game that for a time the afternoon offered them the possibility of a notable victory.

The reality was that the longer the match progressed the more Leeds exploited the advantage of the extra man between the penalty areas. Lee Bowyer and Harry Kewell found space at will, and once Leeds had gone ahead shortly before half-time the outcome was never going to be in doubt.

For the opening 20 minutes Manchester City suggested they could match Leeds goal for goal and the tie had the makings of a classic.

The opening was a combination of opportunism and misjudgment. In the second minute Jonathon Woodgate cleared Kennedy's corner but only to Kevin Horlock, who lobbed it back into the goalmouth for Goater's header to beat Nigel Martyn in a high arc. Goater, however, had run back from an offside position so the goal should have been disallowed.

Nevertheless, this was the start the occasion demanded and the ease with which Leeds soon penetrated the City defence suggested that any sense of injustice would not linger long. Sure enough, within six minutes they were level, Eirik Bakke deflecting Ian Harte's header into the net following Stephen McPhail's sharply-inswinging free-kick.

In the 12th minute City's fans celebrated what turned out to be their team's best moment. Goater challenged for a ball which broke loose and Ian Bishop whipped it off McPhail's toes before restoring his team's lead with a marvellous right-footed shot into the left-hand corner of the net.

With the ground ringed by rainbows City were in a seventh heaven, but after 20 minutes Alan Smith kneed the ball into their net after Bishop had blocked Harte's header on the goal-line.

Then Kewell appeared at the far post three minutes before half-time to end an incisive move by Jason Wilcox and Bowyer scored with a simple tap-in and there the excitement ended.

Bowyer added a fourth from Wilcox's shrewd centre five minutes past the hour and Kewell a fifth after Darren Huckerby had come off the bench to set up the chance.

At the last a post denied Kewell a hat-trick, but by then Manchester's only FA Cup tie of the season was an academic exercise.

MANCHESTER CITY: Weaver, Edghill, Wiekens, Horlock, Goater, Dickov, Bishop, Grant (Whitley 55), Kennedy, Jobson, Granville (Peacock 67). Subs Not Used: Crooks, Wright, Tiatto. Booked: Horlock. Goals: Goater 2, Bishop 11.

LEEDS: Martyn, Kelly, Harte, Radebe, Woodgate, Kewell, Bowyer, McPhail, Wilcox, Smith (Huckerby 87), Bakke. Subs Not Used: Robinson, Mills, Jones, Duberry. Booked: Smith. Goals: Bakke 8, Smith 20, Kewell 41, Bowyer 66, Kewell 88.

Attendance: 29,240.

Referee: D Gallagher (Banbury).