Jesse Marsch has called on his Leeds side to use their late escape from an embarrassing FA Cup defeat at 10-man Cardiff City as a “stepping stone”. Leeds were heading for a sixth successive third-round exit until the 18-year-old substitute Sonny Perkins scored his first professional goal to equalise deep into second-half stoppage time and earn a replay.
Leeds have won only two of their past 16 matches in all competitions and Marsch said they must heed the lessons of their late rally after conceding they were initially out of sync in south Wales. “As a manager I’ve never lost to a lower-division team in the cup and part of it is because I demand that the players take it seriously and we play with intensity as if it’s a first-division match,” the head coach said.
“We didn’t do that in the first half and we put ourselves in jeopardy. We have to learn now – it is a young group – what cup matches are and how to handle them. Part of the challenge is also trying to teach our team to be bigger winners and understand how to handle things and how to manage moments. I think we can use this as a stepping stone for us to move forward.”
Leeds trailed 2-0 at half-time after goals by Jaden Philogene-Bidace and Sheyi Ojo. Marsch praised the impact of his bench with Rodrigo, part of a triple substitution on the hour, particularly influential. Cody Drameh and Max Wober also arrived, the latter for his debut following a £10m move from Red Bull Salzburg. Rodrigo headed in within five minutes of entering the field but missed an 81st-minute penalty after the Cardiff left-back Joel Bagan was sent off for handball.
“The whole first half it is hard to pinpoint one thing; it was not in sync, it was not aggressive enough and there was not a full understanding of what exactly this game and this tournament was going to require,” Marsch said. “I think the subs came in and helped make a difference.”
The winners of the replay at Elland Road, to be played on either 17 or 18 January, will face a trip to the winners of Accrington Stanley versus Boreham Wood.
“I’m disappointed for the players because of the amount of work they’ve put in and we’ve shown that on our day that we can take it to a Premier League team,” said the Cardiff manager, Mark Hudson. “We’ve got to play like that again next week.”