Leeds came from behind and needed two superb strikes from Michael Brown and Dominic Poleon to see off League Two Chesterfield who played far better than their league status suggest by giving an excellent account of themselves.
In fact the Spirites, who brought along over 2000 fans, were cursing in the last minute of time added on that Nathan Smith's shot clipped the near post, had it gone in Leeds would have faced an unwanted further 30 minutes to try and avoid being another notable scalp in a first round which have seen many of our Championship rivals dumped on their backsides, such as Brighton, Sheffield Wednesday and now Blackburn.
Another club embarrassed were Middlesbrough and all the pre-match talk was of their apparent interest in Ross McCormack. The Scot dropped to the bench in one of seven changes made by Brian McDermott. The crowd warmly received McCormack and chanted he was "Not for sale" with Blackpool also coveting his signature.
Many of the 17,000+ in attendance probably got into their seats late, the queue for tickets stretched the length of the West Stand which was pretty bizarre given how long they have been on-sale for, still I'm sure that GFH capital will be pleased so many turned out against such low profile opposition on paper given their latest set of worrying financial reports.
However those who knew nothing about Paul Cook's team will now testify they are anything but low profile, but a decent attacking side who play good football. Having survived early Leeds pressure including a goal bound header from David Nortis which Matt Smoth should have done better with the initial shot on his full debut.
However on 19 minutes, Chesterfield who were passing the ball about and oozing confidence took a deserved lead when Drew Talbot's cross was met by the head of Eoin Doyle, Chesterfield's summer signing from Hibernian. This sparked wild celebrations in the away-end including a couple of blue smoke flares which were wimpy in comparison to the ones the Chelsea fans brought in our last League Cup outing nine months ago.
It stung us into a bit of a response luckily and on 28 minutes the eternal butt of Elland Road jokes Michael Brown showed he still knew a thing or two about finishing when he smashed home a 25-yard pile driver past Chesterfield keeper Tommy Lee.
"Michael Brown is not for sale!" Roared the Kop!
Three minutes later, Dominic Poleon settled the tie, picking up Aidy White's throughball, he beat an unsighted Lee to edge us in front.
However Chesterfield should have been level at the break, somehow Jason Pearce managed to clear Darikwa's effort after the Nottingham born midfielder beat Kenny.
It became something of a blood and thunder cup-tie in the second half, Chesterfield won the booking's count by three to one as it got a bit tasty. McDermott threw on Luke Murphy and McCormack on the hour as insurance and McCormack, his usual buzzing self threaded through Poleon who's effort was smothered by Lee and Smith could have also wrapped things up with a decent chance squandered.
So we hung on just and all eyes are on the draw this lunchtime to see who we get in round two.