On a night when torrential rain swept across Elland Road, Leeds did exactly as much as they needed to - to beat FK Partizan 1-0 and win the tie 4-1 on aggregate.

After United's first leg heroics, a fortnight ago, it seemed unlikely that we would be in for a classic footballing encounter this evening - unless Partizan could find a quick early goal. Leeds simply needed to keep their shape - and play their usual counter attacking game - in order to ease themselves into the next round of the competition. And that's exactly what they did.

O'Leary picked the same team that started the game against Newcastle with the exception of Hopkin, who replaced the unlucky Bakke, and Huckerby, who was preferred in front of Smith.

The game started brightly enough with Leeds assuming an element of control, without carving out any real goalscoring opportunities. Partizan looked solid enough at the back, their defenders snuffing out any potential dangers from the United strikeforce, and tidy in midfield. However, up front they lacked real pace to trouble the United rearguard.

It wasn't until the twentieth minute that Leeds had their first clear scoring chance. Harte made progress down the left flank, whipping over a stunning cross which went over the head of a Partizan defender and fell at the feet of Bowyer. Unfortunately, though, as Lee took the opportunity full on the volley, he skied his shot over the bar.

On the half hour mark, Kewell had a chance to put us in front. A long clearance by Martyn found Harry, who skipped past two defenders to run on goal and hit a fierce shot on goal. The effort, though, was blocked by the Partizan defence.

Moments later, good work by Bridges down the right led to a United corner. The first corner was parried away by Damjanac whilst the second was headed down brilliantly by Woodgate into the path of Hopkin. The Scot should have buried his shot in the back of the net, with the goal at his mercy, but somehow managed to sky his attempt over the bar.

Still, though, there was time for one more glorious opportunity before half-time. A lightning quick break, from one end of the pitch to the other, started with Kelly in the right back berth and took in Hopkin and Huckerby before Darren saw his shot saved by the Partizan keeper, who was now starting to atone for his blunders in the away leg, a fortnight ago.

Despite the 0-0 scoreline at half time, O'Leary must have been reasonably pleased with his team's first half performance. Although a little patchy in places, we still managed to carve out several clear cut chances and restricted Partizan, for the most part, to long range efforts.

The second half began in more scrappy fashion, as the rain whipped across the park even more fiercely. It looked as if both sets of players were starting to look forward to a warm post match shower. Lee Bowyer, though, had lost none of his competitive edge. Having perhaps been a little fortunate to avoid receiving a yellow card - or worse - just before half time, when a trailing elbow caught Pekovic in the face, he then made a rash two footed tackle on Tomic, just four minutes after the restart, for which he was rightly booked.

On 55 minutes, United finally took the lead, when Partizan's reliance on playing the offside trap - which had served the well throughout the evening - finally backfired on them. Kewell played a delightful through ball into the path of Huckerby. Darren sprinted towards goal, rounding the keeper and slotting home the winner from a tight angle, albeit off the outstretched leg of a Partizan defender.

And that was pretty much game, set and match as far as both sets of players - and supporters - were concerned. Undoubtedly, the torrential rain played its part in spoiling the proceedings and, with a 4-1 aggregate lead, United could be excused for taking their feet off the pedal, especially with an important Premiership game coming up at the weekend, against Watford at Vicerage Road.

The plus points were that United extended their winning sequence to six games - and, despite the scrappiness of much of their play in the second half, they did look as if they would be able to go up a gear should the need arise. They will now go into Friday's second round draw, hoping to avoid one of the big games at this early stage in the competition.

United Star Man: David Batty