No regrets for United as supporters create special Elland Road evening:
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No regrets for United as supporters create special Elland Road evening Published Date: 20 January 2011
Arsenal last night made their first trip to Elland Road in seven years and received a warm welcome. Richard Sutcliffe reports.
"HAVE no regrets come the final whistle," is the last thing Simon Grayson has said in the Leeds United dressing room before each of the club's titanic Cup tussles with old Premier League foes over the past couple of seasons.
It is a message that has clearly been taken on board by the players with United having knocked out Manchester United, taken Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur to replays and given Liverpool such a rough ride that Jamie Carragher admitted afterwards that the Carling Cup tie had been one of their toughest games of the season.
Judging by last night's frenetic atmosphere inside Elland Road, Grayson's urgings have clearly struck a chord with the club's supporters as well.
In a throwback to a decade ago and the days when United were taking on – and often sweeping aside – some of European football's biggest names en route to reaching the Champions League semi-finals, the sell-out crowd gave their team
everything.
The upshot was the fans, like the team, having expended every last drop of energy by the final whistle with the noise levels being cranked up so loud at times that sales of throat lozenges across Leeds are likely to soar this morning. In the end, it was not enough with Arsenal's quality ensuring they, like North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, survived a midweek replay trip to West Yorkshire.
But that should take nothing away from what was another night when the revival taking place in LS11 was given a national showcasing on ITV.
Now, the broadcaster may not exactly be popular among United fans – as proved again by the airing of a ditty about ITV that cannot be repeated in a family newspaper.
As a feud, however, it appears a rather one-sided affair with the channel seeming so smitten with all things Leeds that seven of the club's last eight FA Cup ties have been shown live by the channel. What the millions sitting at home witnessed at Elland Road last night was further evidence that a club who have, since the turn of the Millennium, become a byword for struggle amid financial collapse is on its way back.
It may not be this year. 
It may not even be next season. But there is an unmistakeable momentum building behind Leeds United right now that, like the unstoppable force that dragged the club down following financial meltdown, is only heading in one direction.
As for the Gunners, they now face another Yorkshire side in lee Clark's Huddersfield Town with the League One side hoping they can emulate the Whites' heroics and push the Gunners all the way in their fourth round meeting at the end of the month.
This was United's 14th 30,000 plus crowd since Grayson took charge a little under 25 months ago. In terms of noise, perhaps only last May's promotion-clinching win over Bristol Rovers bettered the decibel levels generated by the 38,232 crowd last night – especially when Bradley Johnson's thumping shot flew into the net eight minutes before the break.The tone had been set ahead of kick-off with a rousing rendition of Marching On Together that left the visiting players in no doubt they would need to show nerves of steel.
Once the game was underway, it quickly became clear Arsenal were up to the challenge and in no mood to mess around.
Samir Nasri's opening goal and the onslaught that followed for the next half-hour or so would have been enough to quieten most supporters.
But not the Leeds loyalists – as Nicklas Bendtner, who sports the highest number of all Arsenal players on his shirt, discovered when the chant of 'that's why you're 52' was aimed in the direction of the Danish striker after a glaring first-half miss.
Likewise, the lusty cheers that greeted Andrey Arshavin ballooning a shot yards over the crossbar just before the hour could not have been louder had the home side found the net for a second time.
The noise levels remained high throughout, even after Robin van Persie had put the tie beyond Leeds with a clever header at the far post when the home players were treated to a rendition of 'we're Leeds and we're proud of it'.
Such a reaction was understandable with Leeds, both as a team and a city, having heeded Grayson's pre-match call and given everything in the quest to spring a Cup shock over a top quality team.
No regrets, indeed.
