A crowd of over 35000 turned up for this fifth round FA Cup clash between Leeds United and Birmingham City, then of Division One. George Graham's men cruised into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Rod Wallace but a Blues inspired comeback lead by the late Gary Ablett (pictured) ran Leeds to the last minute.
Leeds had eased past Oxford and Grimsby in rounds three and four without conceding a goal and the side from the second city looked like they were going to be steamrollered by Graham's team, who were playing far more attractive football than the dire dross that marked his arrival at the club. Hasselbaink and Wallace put us two goals to the good and our minds wandered towards the quarter-final draw.
However when the tragic Gary Ablett headed in a Jon McCarthy cross, the visitors from Birmingham found their voices. Ablett had the distinction of representing both Merseyside clubs and on that day partnered Steve Bruce at the back, who typically was booed every time he touched the ball. Ablett tragically would lose his battle with cancer on New Years Day 2012 aged just 46.
And the Brunmies were crowing just minutes later when another of their high-profile signings Peter Ndlovu smashed home an unstoppable 35 yard drive past Nigel Martyn to send the visitors in the South Stand into raptures and a tricky midweek replay at St Andrews looked on the cards.
However following a controversial free-kick, Bruno Ribeiro swung over a decent cross and Hasselbaink nipped in to head home a dramatic winner at the Kop End. When the quarter-final draw was made, we must have thought our name was on the Cup as more West Midlanders from Division One in Wolves came out of the hat and again we had home advantage. However the side containing future Whites' £12m man Robbie Keane did not read the script and a late goal from Leeds born striker Don Goodman dumped us out, Hasselbaink's luck ran out too as he fluffed an injury time penalty at the Kop End.