The Gills are alive as Viduka strikes out

Gillingham 1 Leeds United 1

The small town in Kent whose Latin motto means "home of the shouting men" gave the locals plenty to shout about yesterday, without quite managing to heap further woe on Leeds United's troubled season.

Gillingham, the better side in the first half, conceded a goal to Alan Smith soon after the interval and should have been finished off soon afterwards by Harry Kewell. Reprieved, they came again and the clamour reached a peak in the last 10 minutes, when Mark Viduka was sent off for an elbowing offence and the Mali international Mamady Sidibe swept in an equalising goal.

So the First Division side, unbeaten now in nine games, will have another chance at Elland Road on Tuesday week when both clubs will welcome the extra revenue from another full house and further television coverage.

Leeds' needs in that respect are even greater than those of yesterday's opponents, and a degree of relief could be detected in the applause of their chairman, Peter Ridsdale, at the final whistle. Bitterly disappointing cup defeats by Malaga and Sheffield United before Christmas had closed off two other financial avenues and increased the holding company's desire to lighten the club's wage bill and produce some transfer revenue.

Since succeeding David O'Leary six months ago, Terry Venables, like Kevin Keegan when he was at Newcastle, has discovered that all was not as it said in the brochure. Football managers, alas, are not protected by Abta. Tired of either suffering in silence or merely making the right noises, Venables has recently grown mutinous, dropping strong hints that he might walk away from the job rather than see Jonathan Woodgate follow Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Keane, Lee Bowyer and Olivier Dacourt out of the door.

As a clever manipulator of the media, he has managed to divert criticism on to his chairman who was greeted yesterday by a huge banner reading "Peter, why are you selling our soul?" "To placate the shareholders" might be the honest answer.

Following the breakdown of Robbie Fowler's proposed move to Manchester City, there will be no £4m by the look of it for Seth Johnson, the midfielder who has failed to convince Middlesbrough of his fitness. Woodgate was also unavailable through injury yesterday and Danny Mills was suspended, but Dominic Matteo and Lucas Radebe were outstanding in defence, limiting the home side to set-piece opportunities as they began brightly on a real old FA Cup day.

There was a brass band, an open, standing terrace at one end and a soft, narrow pitch always more likely to favour the underdogs direct approach. Andy Hessenthaler, their 37-year-old player- manager, hurried and scurried to his usual good effect and Nicky Southall, the hero of a previous giant-killing against Sheffield Wednesday, kept pumping in crosses from the right.

Two corners after half-an-hour's play had Leeds in trouble for the first time: each was only half-cleared to Paul Smith whose centres were headed wide by the bullish defender Barry Ashby. A third corner followed and this time Paul Smith tried a drive himself which flew narrowly over.

The Premiership side, unable to pass the ball smartly on a pudding of a surface, had achieved little by then except one worthwhile shout for a penalty as Eirik Bakke was pushed over by Smith. Right on half-time and, inevitably, from another corner, Leeds almost conceded at a critical moment. Hessenthaler's cross was nudged on by Chris Hope and Guy Ipoua's shot struck the near post.

"If we'd scored then, we might have gone on and won the game," said Hessenthaler. Instead, his team were behind four minutes after returning from the dressing room.

Paul Shaw was penalised for climbing on Alan Smith who, from 25 yards, was able to take advantage of a chink in the defensive wall, curling the ball expertly into the side of the goal left unguarded by Jason Brown. It was Smith's first goal since 17 November, well timed to impress the ubiquitous Sven Goran Eriksson who had fewer prospective England players to watch than Australians ahead of the two countries meeting at Upton Park next month.

Kewell, one of the latter trio, had shown up well in attack, switching from left to right and back again but, only seven minutes after the goal, he was guilty of a miss that could still cost his club a heavy price. Paul Robinson, also under Eriksson's scrutiny, launched a huge kick, allowing the Australian to outwit Ashby and commit the goalkeeper before lifting the ball high into the open terrace when a more delicate touch was required.

Unexpectedly, it turned out to be their last chance of the game. Gillingham took new heart, the shouting men found their voices again and attention became fixed on the opposite end of the ground. Rod Wallace was brought on as a substitute, warmly welcomed by the Leeds supporters who remembered his contribution to their 1992 Premiership title.

Fresh legs galvanised the home side and both Hessenthaler and Shaw drifted shots close to Robinson's goal. With 10 minutes to play, Viduka, angered by an earlier spat with the player-manager, elbowed him above the eye and was immediately dismissed by the referee, Neale Barry. Almost before Leeds could regroup, Roland Edge found Shaw down the left for a low cross that Sidibe turned joyously in.

By then, Venables was happy just to stay in the one competition that still offers him any hope of tangible success this season. "We're pleased to be in there and hopefully some big guns will get knocked out and we'll have a chance of winning it," he said. "Their goal was the first time we got caught cold. It was a pretty good professional performance."

Having seen a replay of the sending off, he was generously inclined to give Viduka the benefit of the doubt denied to him by the referee. "When he went up for the ball, there was no way he was intentionally trying to elbow him. I thought Hessenthaler made a lot of it which was a shame. They're a very direct side and we got caught up a little bit in the same game. It was difficult not to."

Which is, of course, all part of that old FA Cup magic.