West Ham take it down to the wire after dramatic injury time salvage operation - but it's all in vain

Should have been a nice day for it : Picture @CapFootballUK

FA Cup Quarter-Final

West Ham United (0) 2 Fernandes 90+3 Disasi 90+6

Leeds United (1) 2 Tanaka 26, Calvert-Lewin pen 75

After Extra Time: Leeds win 4-2 on penalties

The Hammers hit two goals in injury time to salvage an FA Cup tie that had threatened to totally pass them by - but their heroic fightback to take the game to extra-time did not have the happy ending they craved.

Although rookie sub keeper Fin Herrick saved the first kick in the penalty shoot out from Joel Piroe, the Hammers were undone when the normally ultra reliable Jarrod Bowen had his kick saved and the decisive moment came when Pablo had his shot from 12 yards also saved by Lucas Perri in the Leeds goal - allowing Pascal Struijk to finish the job.

Wembley, and another slice of Hammers history - so tantalisingly close - will have to wait another year,

Premier League survival may be the name of the game for them this season but home quarter-finals in the FA Cup don't come around that often - even for the Premier League's middle classes - yet West Ham did not play with the urgency you would expect until they were almost a busted flush at 2-0 down.

Leeds, on the other hand, seized the day with a determined display and a goal in each half and looked destined to secure an unremarkable passage into the semi-finals.

But the drama was just beginning as first Matheus Fernandes and then Axel Disasi plundered goals you just could not see coming.

An air of freedom pervaded from the outset in a way that will probably not be there on the last day of the season if there is still relegation at stake when these two meet again.

A breezy start from Leeds saw Noah Okafor arrow in a low shot that Alphonse Areola turned aside and Taty Castellanos then forced Lucas Perri into a good reflex save after latching onto Bowen's cutback. Then a burst from halfway from Adama Traore ended with a pass out for Bowen to force the keeper into another low stop.

But the Irons faded after that early promise and it was soon obvious they would miss the creativity of an injured Crysencio Summerville.

Leeds were not afraid to go on the attack and they drew first blood when Japanese international Ao Tanaka received a ball in from Okafor and twisted past Soungoutou Magassa before beating Areola with a shot that deflected off Diasasi and bounced over the line off the crossbar.

The lead very nearly doubled after a rapid counter-attack which saw Okafor feed Anton Stach haring into the inside right channel, but - with Max Kilman closing in to make the final shot difficult - Areola managed to jut out a right hand to deflect the effort behind.

The Hammers badly needed a reset at the interval and Thomas Soucek - fresh from Czech World Cup qualification - was introduced at the interval, along with Pablo.

The crowd needed lifting and it took a while before they started to get energised. But they did when Castellanos lunged forward to meet a Traore cross in from the left and headed against the base of a post.

Alas, the new-found surge of optimism was to be undone when VAR alerted red Craig Pawson to the monitor to take a second look at Kilman's careless tackle on sub Brendan Aaronson in the West Ham penalty area.

There had been a claim that the defender's late challenge on Stach in the first half could have been punished with a penalty award. There was no getting away with it this time. Dominic Calvert-Lewin made no mistake from the spot.

More goals might have followed for the now rampant visitors, with Wilfried Gnonto's backheel inches wide and another sub, Seb Bornauw, forcing Areola into a hurried push over the bar.

With 11 minutes of injury time signalled after the 90, there was still some hope though, and after Bowen had thundered a shot against the inside of a post, Fernandes was on hand to pick up the pieces and nudge over the line.

Surely they couldn't, could they?

Traore believed so and when his ball in from the left looped through the air, Disasi lifted a foot acrobatically to steer the ball into the net. How those very many early leavers must have been regretting their haste to get away from the scene of the crime.

Where was the game heading now? Castellanos had the ball in the net moments after extra time had begun after Perri had miscalculated the height of a launched ball and gifted the Hammers striker an open goal. An offside decision spared the keeper's blushes.

The flag also came to Leeds' rescue after Pablo followed up after Bowen thudded another shot off the inside of a post. The latter was comfortably offside.

It was a game that seemed to have everything - and there was to be another twist when Areola came off injured after landing awkwardly. On came Herrick for his debut. The 20-year-old's only previous experience was at Boreham Wood and the Hammers U21s.

The script writers seemed to be setting us up for a tale of glory but the young stopper had no chance with the four shots that beat him after he had saved Piroe's kick in the shoot out. So near and yet so far.

Hammers: (4-2-3-1) Areola (Herrick 120) - Walker-Peters, Disasi, Kilman, Diouf (Scarles 105) - Potts (Souckek h/t), Magassa (Pablo h/t) - Bowen. Mateus Fernandes, Traore (Mayers 120+5) - Castellanos (Kante 105)

Leeds: (3-5-2) Lucas Perri - Rodon (Bornauw 52), Struijk, Bijol - Bogle (Piroe 105), Tanaka (Gruev 69), Ampadu, Stach (Aaronson 39), Justin - Nmecha (Calvert-Lewin 69), Okafor (Gnonto 69)