Bramall Lane witnessed a match that most people will want to forget but one of which Sheffield United and their followers will cherish the memories.
Having to watch the type of Sunday-morning huff and puff that will have been replicated on craggy parks throughout south Yorkshire yesterday was a small sacrifice when the upshot was a place in the FA Cup semi-finals.
For their manager, Neil Warnock, a passionate, verbose hometown hero in an era of mercurial imports, it was "the finest hour" of a remarkable season that has also seen his side reach the semi-finals of the League Cup and mount a serious campaign for promotion from the First Division.
This was their 10th victory in a cup tie at Bramall Lane this season and, having deposited Leeds from the League Cup last November, they have now shunted Terry Venables' first season at Leeds towards the sort of undignified, shabby close that has been threatened since last autumn.
"I've a great bunch of lads who want to win every day and there's just no stopping them," said Warnock. "This team works very hard and, while sometimes we may not play the prettiest of football, we cannot be at our best every week. But everybody died for the cause today. It's a special day to be red and white."
Laced with tension, disfigured by whistling gusts and on a pitch more suitable for grazing cattle, the game that has led to Sheffield United's first Cup semi-final since they lost to Newcastle in 1998 was not pretty. At times, in fact, it was grotesquely awful. Yet the purists were outnumbered here by those wanting to celebrate the achievements of a club whose prospects at the start of the season had looked decidedly modest. Whatever their progress towards the Premiership, a first FA Cup final for 67 years is a more than realistic prospect.
Warnock was indebted to a striker signed from Crystal Palace for £250,000 last November after being deemed so peripheral at Selhurst Park that he was farmed out on loan to Grimsby at the start of the season. Steve Kabba is blessed with the sort of pace that can drain the blood from the faces of the most accomplished defenders and, even if he sometimes forgets the ball, his acclimatisation to life in the north has been one of the pivotal factors behind the Blades' successes this season. By scoring the solitary goal here he may also have moved his club nearer to a final against Arsenal, the team he supported as a boy.
The poor conditions should not be used by Leeds, however, as an excuse for why there was no obvious imbalance of talent on show. Only once, when Alan Smith's ball for Harry Kewell exposed a wonky offside trap just before the half-hour, did they emphasise the gulf in status with a move that would have looked at home in the Premiership. Sadly for Leeds, Kewell dithered with a tentative shot, allowing Paddy Kenny to thwart him.
Twelve minutes from time Kabba emerged through a congested penalty. Michael Brown's cross had manoeuvred a chance for Michael Tonge and when his shot was blocked by Mills the ball sat up invitingly for Kabba to drive a left-foot shot beyond Paul Robinson.
"It's the most important goal I've ever scored," Kabba reflected afterwards, a bottle of champagne in either hand. It was Leeds, though, who were most in need of a drink.
SHEFFIELD UNITED: Kenny, Jagielka, Murphy, Page, Kozluk, Montgomery, Brown, McCall, Tonge, Allison, Kabba. Subs Not Used: Peschisolido, Ten Heuvel, Javary, Cryan, Smith. Booked: Kabba. Goals: Kabba 78.
LEEDS UNITED: Robinson, Mills, Radebe, Lucic, Harte (Milner 81), Smith, Seth Johnson, Okon (Barmby 81), Bravo, Viduka, Kewell (Bakke 45). Subs Not Used: Martyn, Kilgallon. Booked: Harte, Seth Johnson, Mills, Radebe.
Referee: S Bennett (Kent)
