Before

During

After

Despite losing their unbeaten record in the competition at the sixth time of asking, Newcastle progressed to the last 16 of the Premier League Cup competition on Monday.

While the Magpies were already assured of qualification before, it was win or bust for Leeds, who required three points to leapfrog over us at the top of the table and deny Southampton.

Newcastle started with a trio of players currently out on loan: Jamie Sterry (Crewe Alexandra), Liam Gibson (Accrington Stanley) and Elias Sorensen (Blackpool) all released for this game only following a lack of recent pitch time at their respective loan clubs.

A decent crowd of 1,000 assembled at the Nethermoor ground of non-league Guiseley, but the 7pm kick-off came and went with little action on the field - despite the two teams being in position. 

After extended debate between the officials and the two benches, the hosts altered their usual all-white kit by donning un-numbered yellow training tops, while we remained clad in the blue kit.

A lack of PA announcements led to speculation of a colour clash or some sort of issue related to kit sponsors - although the Leeds shirts and their replacements carried a betting logo - as did ours.

The mystery was eventually solved by the Guiseley twitter correspondent, who reported a:

"Slight delay here as lufc have to change shirts due to one of the players being colour blind....."

(It was later confirmed that the player in question was home goalkeeper Will Huffer).

With identification of their players complicated by the lack of numbers, Leeds opened the scoring after 25 minutes when 17 year-old striker Ryan Edmondson fired home from just inside the box.

Newcastle were level within a minute though when Gibson's ball down the left flank to Yannick Toure saw him find Sorensen in the box and his flick-on allowed Sterry to net from 12 yards with a deflected shot.

Visiting goalkeeper Otto Huuhtanen made a double save three minutes before the break to ensure the scores were level at half-time, but was helpless to deny Edmondson a carbon copy of his first to restore the Leeds lead barely two minutes into the second half. 

With Newcastle showing very little up front and an unhappy Sorensen caught offside several times, Leeds pressed on and opened up a two goal margin on the hour when Pascal Struijk hooked in from 12 yards. 

And it was almost four when Lewis Cass smacked the ball off his own post from close range in the 89th minute.

Ben Dawson's side advance as runners-up, with Leeds topping the group.

Premier League Cup - Group H:

		Pl	Gd	Pts
1	Leeds	6	6	12
2	Newcastle	6	4	11
3	Southampton	6	8	10
4	Notts County	6	-18	1

14 of the 16 qualifiers are now known as follows: Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bournemouth, Derby County, Everton, Fulham, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Stoke City, the mackems, Swansea City and Wolves.

Anything less than a six goal defeat by Forest on Thursday will rubber stamp Leicester's place in the last sixteen at the expense of Exeter City. The outcome of the West Bromwich Albion or Burnley game on Friday will then confirm which of those two sides qualify and complete the lineup.

Biffa