THERE has been much speculation about the relationship between Peter Ridsdale, the Leeds United manager, and Terry Venables, the manager he appointed in the summer, but there can be do doubt that after the Barclaycard Premiership club’s departure from the Worthington Cup at Bramall Lane last night, the strain is beginning to tell.

“Venables out,” the disenchanted Leeds supporters chanted. Will Ridsdale, who demonstrated his loyalty to the club’s plc rather than David O’Leary, Venables’s predecessor, now concur?

“It is frustrating, we are not getting the results that our play deserves,” Venables, putting on a brave, smiling face in the post-match press conference, said. “This club wants better, so it’s disturbing.”

Sheffield United scored two goals in the most dramatic four minutes of time added on at the end of this third-round tie. For long passages of play, Leeds were coasting into the last 16 of the competition after some dreadful defending was exacerbated when Steve Yates had handed Venables’s team a 24th-minute lead by steering a cross from Jason Wilcox, in his first start since January, beyond his own goalkeeper.

Leeds mixed that slice of luck with some commendable resilience as Sheffield relied on a lame and predictable long-ball game. Mark Viduka might have added a second for a team slightly weakened by injury but nevertheless packed with players of Premiership quality.

Nobody, though, could predict Phil Jagielka’s sublime intervention in the first minute of injury time. From fully 30 yards, the 20-year-old right back let fly with a vicious half-volley that almost burst the net, with Paul Robinson rooted to his line.

“It was like an Exocet, but then he owed me one of those because he has missed 15 sitters this season,” Neil Warnock, the Sheffield United manager, said. “Robinson for me is the next England goalkeeper but he never moved.”

If Jagielka had perhaps settled for extra time then, Peter Ndlovu had other ideas. The substitute watched as Lee Bowyer was denied what could have been the winner by Robert Page’s outstretched body and as the ball was booted upfield, Paul Peschisolido set off towards the right corner flag, presumably to eat up a few precious seconds of time remaining. Instead, the Canadian beat his marker with ease and after his initial cross came to nothing, Ndlovu was on hand to tap home from close range with virtually the last kick of the game.

The goal and the final whistle seconds later led to a few hundred jubilant Sheffield supporters racing on to the pitch. In response, the Leeds fans started ripping up seats from the top tier of the John Street Stand and throwing them on to the pitch, forcing mounted police to intervene. A joint FA-Football League inquiry is expected to follow.

Nevertheless, Warnock said: “This is one the best nights at Bramall Lane for a long time. I thought it was a tremendous superhuman effort by us all.”

The 2,000 Leeds fans were kept behind by police as the rest of the ground was cleared, and as they waited there were chants of “Ridsdale out” as well as “Venables out”.

By full-time, to quote the football vernacular, it had all gone quiet over there in the Leeds corner. The cry of disaffection will not be silenced for long in West Yorkshire, however.

SHEFFIELD UNITED (4-4-2): P Kenny — P Jagielka, S Murphy, R Page, S Yates — N Montgomery (sub: P Ndlovu, 57min), M Brown, S McCall, M Tonge — W Allison, C Asaba (sub: P Peschisolido, 63). Substitutes not used: B Doane, J-P Javary, L Heavel.

LEEDS UNITED (4-4-2): P Robinson — D Mills, J Woodgate (sub: M Duberry, 63), T Lucic, I Harte — N Barmby, E Bakke (sub: S McPhail, 70), L Bowyer, J Wilcox (sub: M Bridges, 77) — M Viduka, H Kewell. Substitutes not used: N Martyn, G Kelly. Booked: Kewell, Mills.

Referee: J Winter.

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