The latest Gary’s Memories blog is now available for view

Tickets for our FA Cup fourth round replay against Tottenham Hostpur on Wednesday Febraury 3 (7.45pm) have now sold out.

The game is being screened live on ITV1 and full match commentary can be heard on Yorkshire Radio (DAB only) and LUTV.

Leeds United have signed Aston Villa defender Shane Lowry on loan until March 13.

The 20-year-old met his new team-mates for the first time on Friday and went straight into the squad for the weekend game against Colchester United.

Lowry has made two senior appearances with Aston Villa – he made his debut in the Europa League this season – and spent three months on loan with Championship side Plymouth Argyle earlier this term.

The left-back was born in Perth and, despite having represented the Republic of Ireland at under-17 and under-21 level, he was named in the Australian senior squad for the recent games against Netherlands and Oman.

Lowry is the third Australian national at the club with Paddy Kisnorbo, a regular in the Socceroos side, and Neil Kilkenny, who is pushing for further international recognition after a frustrating Olympics in the summer of 2008.

Lowry was the club’s second signing ahead of the Colchester game with Birmingham City’s Gary McSheffrey also stepping down from the Premier League.

Neither player is eligible to play in the FA Cup, but both have permission to play in the JPT Area Final second leg at Carlisle on February 9.

These are the dates for this years meetings (ALL ON THURSDAYS FROM 7.30PM ONWARDS)

February 4th

March 4th

April 1st

May 6th

June 3rd

July 1st

August 5th

September 2nd

October 7th

November 4th

December 2nd

All these dates have been also added to the calender.

Leeds United have signed Premier League striker Gary McSheffrey on loan until the end of the season.

The 27-year-old completed his switch from Birmingham City on Friday morning and will go straight into the squad for Saturday’s game against Colchester.

McSheffrey, who joined Birmingham in a £4m deal from Coventry in 2006, has scored 20 goals 94 appearances for the Blues.

The striker, who had a loan spell at Nottingham Forest last season, has featured nine times for the Premier League side this season.

United manager Simon Grayson said: “Gary brings plenty of experience and he is a good signing.

“He’s coming from the Premier League to League One and he will add quality to the squad.

“He is a threat, he can play a number of positions, and we’re delighted to have him here.”

The fifth round tie between Bolton Wanderers and ourselves or Tottenham Hotspur will be screened live from the Reebok Arena on Sunday 14th February, with a 1.30 PM kick-off

The bus for the Tottenham Hotspur F.A Cup Replay will now run at 4.45pm, not 5pm from Langbourne Road. Bus prices are £12 adult and £5 juniors

Fans wishing to buy tickets for the FA Cup fourth round replay against Tottenham are advised that the date of the game has now been switched.

The proposed date was Tuesday February 2 (7.45pm), but the game will now take place Wednesday February 3 (7.45pm) due to TV coverage.

The game will be screened live on ITV 1.

Please click here for full ticket information.

As the dust settled on Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round 2-2 draw between Tottenham and Leeds, a lot of the talk surrounded two frontmen – Jermaine Beckford and Roman Pavlyuchenko.

Both had played their part in an intriguing game. Beckford twice dragged Leeds from a goal down to ensure the sides must go again in a 2 February replay, while Pavlyuchenko’s impressive late cameo came so close to earning Spurs victory in front of a capacity crowd.

Two quality performances from two quality performers – and yet the future for both is far from certain.

While Beckford is attracting interest from the upper echelons of the English league as a result of his superb form in League One this year, Pavlyuchenko has looked every inch the forgotten man at Tottenham.

Beckford’s match-saving brace against Tottenham comes after his match-winning strike in the last round against Manchester United, and he has scored 22 goals from 32 games already this season.

And the fact the 26-year-old will be available on a free contract when his current Leeds deal expires in the summer only adds to the clamour for the frontman.

Newcastle, Everton and Arsenal are among those said to have cast admiring glances in his direction.

Leeds boss Simon Grayson insists Beckford will be going nowhere, at least until the summer, but if his display against Spurs is anything to go, the suitors will only continue to swell in the coming months.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp was certainly impressed.

“He looked a good player, dangerous,” said Redknapp. “He played on the shoulder, got into good positions, and he was always a threat.

“I’m sure he could be a threat in the Premier League. As a free transfer at the end of the year, you couldn’t go wrong with him.”

Beckford was a constant thorn in Tottenham’s side. More often than not finding himself as the lone front-man, he was always looking for the ball over the top and a chance to exploit the space left behind the hosts’ high defensive line, and he ran the channels well whenever Leeds broke forward.

Despite being a tall man – at 6ft 2in – he is not a naturally gifted hold-up player, and his first touch could certainly use work.

But while these skills can be acquired with time and experience, he has the one ability that professionals still call the “hardest part of the game” and that is sticking the ball in the net.

His first goal at White Hart Lane was all about opportunism as he pounced on Jermaine Jenas’s poor attempt to clear a corner before spinning and squeezing the ball under keeper Heurelho Gomes.

The second displayed another vital trait if he is to succeed at a higher level – character.

To score a penalty 96 minutes into a game to earn your side a replay requires no little skill and considerable mental strength, and Beckford showed it all as he slammed it home.

Conversely, it’s a lack of mental strength that appears to have been Pavlyuchenko’s problem.

The Russian arrived at Tottenham with a big reputation and for a big price. Having impressed alongside Andrey Arshavin at Euro 2008, he was expected to bring strength, guile and a cutting edge to a Spurs frontline that had been shorn of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane in the close season.

Instead, he has more often than not proven a source of frustration for both Redknapp and previous incumbent Juande Ramos.

A record of five goals in 32 league games tells part of the story, but it is more the player’s approach that seems to rankle so much.

On the face of it, Pavlyuchenko has all the qualities needed to succeed anywhere at the highest level – and his display as a 71st-minute substitute on Saturday hinted at just what the 28-year-old is capable of.

His finish to put Tottenham 2-1 up was made to look easy and was as

impressive as the clever step-over and run into the box that had preceded it.

He showed his ability to hold up play as Spurs tried to kill the game late on, displayed a flash of pace and movement in a fine move involving Gareth Bale down the left, and underlined his ability with the ball with a defence-splitting pass that almost played in Keane.

As Redknapp said after the game: “If he played every week like he did when he came on he’d be an automatic starter.”

But, instead, far too often Pavlyuchenko, much like the Bulgarian he was bought to replace, looks diffident, uninspired, sulky even.

And Redknapp did little to disguise his dissatisfaction at the player’s efforts in training when he replied “erm, he’s OK, yeah, OK” when asked after the game about Pavlyuchenko’s commitment out on the practice pitches at Chigwell.

That Pavlyuchenko asked to be left out of Tottenham’s squad for their Carling Cup tie against Manchester United in December because he was not “mentally right” only underlines his fragile character.

Strangely, Tottenham fans love him.

Maybe they believe in his talent, maybe they understand his frustration, maybe they wish only for him to be given a fair crack of the whip with a string of games.

Redknapp continually insists publicly he is happy to retain his four strikers at least until the end of the season, and if Pavlyuchenko were to keep putting in cameo displays like that against Leeds, the manager – not one to bear a grudge – would surely give him his chance.

All the same, for very different reasons, both Pavlyuchenko and Beckford could soon be on the move.

But while the former is looking to salvage a career, Beckford is looking to build one.

Leeds United have been handed an away trip to Bolton Wanderers in the fifth round of the FA Cup if Simon Grayson’s side overcome Tottenham Hotspur at Elland Road in a fourth round replay.

It is the fifth successive time United have been handed an away draw in the FA Cup this season, having already visited Oldham, Kettering, Manchester United and Tottenham.

United’s last trip to Bolton was in May 2004 when the club’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed after a 4-1 defeat.

Leeds have already beaten Premier League opposition away from home this season in the FA Cup and set up a replay with Tottenham after drawing 2-2 at White Hart Lane on Saturday.

The two sides meet again at Elland Road on Tuesday February 2* (7.45pm) for the right to meet Bolton in the fifth round on the weekend of February 13/14.

Ticket information for the Tottenham replay is available here.

* Date subject to change subject to TV coverage.