Leeds United v Tottenham:LEEDS MANAGER Simon Grayson wants one of his players to steal the attention away from star striker Jermaine Beckford in tonight's FA Cup replay against Tottenham at Elland Road.
Prolific Beckford burst on to the national stage after poaching the winner against Manchester United in the third round and hogged the headlines after his stoppage-time penalty equaliser at White Hart Lane. The 26-year-old forward, who had withdrawn a transfer request before his heroics against Tottenham, fired his 23rd and 24th goals of the season on Saturday to help Leeds pick up their promotion bid with a 2-0 win over Colchester. And a half-smiling Grayson suggested it was time for someone else to step forward.
When asked how his players would approach the fourth-round replay, considering Championship football next season is the main aim, Grayson said: “We’ll just go and enjoy it. We’ve not really spoken about it. We’ll just go and enjoy it like we did at Old Trafford.”
He has already decided what to tell the players ahead of the clash with Harry Redknapp’s Premier League superstars, and explained the message would be: “Give the best account of yourselves that you can, have no regrets when you come off the pitch and somebody try to be a hero again because Jermaine’s got a lot of the headlines in the last couple of rounds. It would be nice for somebody else to get them for a change.”
Both Neil Kilkenny and Patrick Kisnorbo face a race against time to be fit for the home side, with loanees Shane Lowry, Max Gradel and Gary McSheffrey ineligible.
Tottenham will be without Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko (groin) and will rest defender Ledley King (knee).
New signing Younes Kaboul is cup tied, while on-loan Monaco forward Eidur Gudjohnsen will not feature either, so Redknapp is set to bring a couple of youth team players into his squad. Aaron Lennon (hernia) and full back Benoit Assou-Ekotto (hip) are also sidelined. Redknapp said: “We are one or two down in terms of numbers, but it will be an opportunity for a couple of youngsters to come and sit on the bench,” he said.
