Leeds United 3 (Austin 26, Byram 34, Lees 74) Oxford United 0 (From Oxford Mail)

Leeds United 3 (Austin 26, Byram 34, Lees 74) Oxford United 0

9:45pm Tuesday 28th August 2012 in Oxford Utd By David Pritchard, Chief Sports Reporter covering Oxford United. Follow us on twitter: @oxfordmailoufc. Call me on 01865 425458

BATTLING Oxford United tasted defeat for the first time this season as Leeds United came out on top in the Capital One Cup tie.

The npower Championship side simply had too much quality in the final third at Elland Road and had chances to make the shoreline more emphatic.

After a good start the visitors' hopes of an upset were quashed by two well-taken goals from Rodolph Austin and Sam Byram.

Oxford rode their luck after the break but Tom Lees' header settled the contest 16 minutes from time.

Chris Wilder made three changes from Saturday's 2-1 win against Plymouth Argyle.

Two were enforced, with Jake Forster-Caskey and Deane Smalley failing to recover from knocks.

They were replaced by Simon Heslop and Sean McGinty, while James Constable was preferred to Tom Craddock.

The U's resisted the option to pack men behind the ball and stuck to their favoured 4-3-3 shape as Tony Capaldi was pushed into midfield alongside Heslop and Adam Chapman.

Despite the two division gap between the sides, Oxford settled the fastest.

Showing no signs of being intimidated, they kept the ball well and looked to shoot on sight.

Their best opening came on four minutes, when a McGinty cross was not dealt with by the Leeds defence.

The ball fell to Capaldi, whose first-time shot was deflected to Potter, but his effort was smothered by Leeds goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown.

Sean Rigg and Chapman also had shots from range in an encouraging opening 20 minutes for the underdogs.

Leeds boss Neil Warnock made six changes to his line-up, but it still contained the likes of El-Hadji Diouf, Michael Brown and Andy Gray.

They gradually saw more of the ball and showed a clinical edge by taking the lead with their first effort on target.

On 26 minutes Byram rolled a pass across the box for Austin to drive first time low past Ryan Clarke, who got a hand to the ball but could not keep it out.

Within eight minutes Leeds doubled their advantage.

Diouf found Byram, who rolled one challenge and went past Jake Wright before showing great composure to chip Clarke from inside the penalty area.

The tie was almost over before the break, but a strong hand from The goalkeeper kept out a shot from Diouf late in the half.

Clarke made an even better stop at the start of the second half, when Austin rose to head a corner firmly towards goal.

The giant midfielder had an outstanding game and only the crossbar denied him a second goal of the night from a thunderous 30-yard effort.

In between Austin's efforts Constable, who had to feed on scraps, carved out a chance when he spun Kisnorbo and shot left-footed, but Ashdown parried.

The U's had fleeting sights of the Leeds goal, but the home side continued to create the clearer openings.

Byram volleyed over after Diouf crossed from the right, while Only a last-ditch block from Wright kept out a charging Michael Brown.

Leeds finally made it 3-0 on 74 minutes, when Lees steered a header not the corner from a Diouf cross.

Wilder used the closing minutes to give two players debuts.

Young striker Tyrone Marsh made his long awaited bow, while new loan signing Daniel Boateng also got a run-out hours after joining from Arsenal on a six-month loan.

Oxford finished the game on the front foot, but a consolation goal was beyond them.

The side now turn their attention back to the league and a trip to York City on Saturday.

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