THERE is a first for everything in competitive sport. Yesterday at the Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham were allowed to take Leeds United, that direly troubled Yorkshire club, to a fourth-round replay because of one overriding, possibly unique factor — the two Australian forwards hired by Leeds proved irresponsibly unprofessional.

Leeds were already ahead when Harry Kewell, attempting to showboat, spurned a glaring opportunity to lay the match to rest. Then, nine minutes from the end, Mark Viduka, displaying with his elbow an aggression that he had failed to show with any other limb throughout an apparently disinterested performance, was shown a straight red card for his act of violence on the head of Gillingham’s player-manager Andy Hessenthaler.

Of the incident, Hessenthaler said: “Viduka and I had had a little bit of a go at each other moments before the sending-off. My hand caught him in the face, we had a few words. But look at the size of him, and the size of me, and ask yourself how he came to dig me high on my forehead with his elbow? As far as I was concerned it was deliberate, he tried to do me and deserved the red card.”

Leeds manager Terry Venables is considering an appeal. “There is no way Viduka was intentionally trying to elbow him,” he said. But Venables’ plea is likely to fall on deaf ears as referee Neale Barry is adamant that his decision was correct. “From two to three yards away I am very confident I was in the perfect position to make the decision,” he said.

So two clubs who need the money have the prospect of another payday at Elland Road on February 4. If the fare is no better than yesterday, where a sanded and bobbly pitch was blamed for the lack of quality, then heaven help the paying fans. But, as both managers were swift to remind us, that is the Cup; and the 37-year-old Hessenthaler bore the cuts and grazes to prove it.

Some fans on the Leeds terrace unfurled a banner directed at their chairman: “Peter, why are you selling our soul?” It was unfair to point every finger at Peter Ridsdale, but he was the chairman who, with novice manager David O’Leary, had bought players beyond the means of the over-ambitious club.

Now they cling to the dream of the FA Cup, and captain Dominic Matteo admitted afterwards: “Terry (Venables) regards the FA Cup as desperate. We have to do well in it, and I suppose by the end we are happy still to be in it.”

Gillingham imposed lower league football on the Premiership side. They did so to avoid the mud, and they did it for the delectation of Sven-Göran Eriksson, the England manager, who may have been looking at the Australians, with eyes on next month’s international.

It was high-energy, with excessive gusto and it rattled a Leeds team missing the assurance of Jonathan Woodgate in defence. Woodgate, of course, might be sold anyway, as both Venables and Matteo confessed that they do not have an inkling of what is going on at board leve. All they can do, said Matteo, is concentrate on training and playing and hoping.

Gillingham should have taken the lead on the stroke of half-time. Hessenthaler swung the ball over from a corner on the right, Chris Hope flicked it on with his head and there, lurking beyond the far post was Guy Ipoua. However, he side-footed the ball against the post and Leeds escaped. Four minutes into the second half Paul Shaw was adjudged, harshly, to have fouled Alan Smith. Goalkeeper Jason Brown failed to line up his wall correctly, and Smith struck the ball home from about 25 yards.

The howler from Kewell followed five minutes later. The Australian had read the bounce of a clearance by Paul Robinson better than Barry Ashby but, having danced to fool the goalkeeper, Kewell lifted the ball high and wide.

Even so Leeds, by now passing the ball with some authority, seemed to have the game under control until that charge by Viduka. Within a minute Mamady Sidibe scored the equaliser. It came on the ground, not in the air where “Big Mama” had a clear five inches in height over the Leeds defenders. A cross low from the left by Shaw was nudged onwards by Hope, with Sidibe stretching to push it over the line.

Two minutes from time Gillingham should have won it. The cross came from the right wing, and Sidibe was there unattended. He barely jumped, the ball glanced off his forehead and went wide.

Gillingham: Brown, Southall, Edge, Ashby, Hope, Hessenthaler, Smith, Saunders, Shaw, Ipoua (Wallace 72min), Sidibe

Leeds: Robinson, Kelly, Lucic, Radebe, Matteo, Bakke, Okon, Wilcox, Kewell, Smith, Viduka

Scorers: Gillingham: Sidibe 82

Leeds: Smith 49

Referee: N Barry

Attendance: 11,093

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