Ephraim sets up United’s progress (From Advertiser Series)

Ephraim sets up United’s progress

9:59pm Tuesday 15th December 2009

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Leeds United 2, Accrington Stanley 0

Leeds eased into the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Area final against Bradford City’s conquerors Carlisle but Accrington hit the woodwork twice in the second half.

Winger Hogan Ephraim, on loan from QPR, scored the first goal and teed up the second for Neil Kilkenny.

Reflecting the size of the respective squads, United made nine changes while League Two side Accrington’s line-up showed just three.

Leeds handed a debut to goalkeeper David Martin, on loan from Liverpool, and had captain Richard Naylor back after injury, with Andrew Hughes and Kilkenny the only survivors from Saturday’s starters.

It took Simon Grayson’s men just nine minutes to open the scoring. Ephraim’s 20-yard shot from the left deflected off visiting defender Phil Edwards and found the far bottom corner after Mike Grella and David Prutton had traded passes. It was Ephraim’s first goal in only his second start since joining Leeds on loan last month.

Tresor Kandol should have doubled the advantage on the half hour but, after being played through, the striker loped into the penalty area and saw his shot hit keeper Dean Bouzanis and loop over the bar.

Luke Joyce wasted Accrington’s best chance of the first half when he lifted the ball over the bar from just inside the D. Martin dealt capably with all the visitors could throw at him, which was not much in a first half of few goalmouth incidents.

Having scored early in the first half, Leeds staged a repeat. Five minutes after the interval Ephraim turned goal-maker by darting down the right, riding Dean Winnard’s challenge and crossing for Kilkenny to power a header into the bottom right corner.

Accrington responded by replacing a subdued Billy Kee with Sean McConville and Peter Murphy with John Miles, while Leeds sent on Sam Vokes and Max Gradel in place of Mike Grella and Kandol.

Miles was out of luck when his shot hit Martin and came back off a post and a minute later McConville somehow shot wide of a gaping net. Bobby Grant then shook a post and Naylor made a block on the line to keep the Leeds goal intact.

As United finished strongly, Gradel was the victim of a flying one-handed save by Bouzanis, who clawed the ball away from the top corner.

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