Largie Ramazani’s second-half header sealed Leeds a 1-0 win and ensured they avoided an FA Cup upset against Yorkshire rivals Harrogate.
Ramazani’s solitary effort settled the first-ever competitive meeting between the two sides and was all Leeds had to show for their dominance against the League Two side at Elland Road.
Leeds struck the woodwork once in each half through Mateo Joseph and Manor Solomon but struggled to carve out clear chances against their resilient visitors, who are 69 places below them in the Football League standings.
Sky Bet promotion-chasers Leeds have been famously dumped out of the Cup by Crawley, Newport, Sutton, Rochdale and Histon since 2008, but despite the narrow scoreline against Harrogate, they comfortably avoided another embarrassment.
Leeds made the breakthrough just before the hour mark. Solomon skipped down the left and his inch-perfect cross was neatly headed home by the unmarked Ramazani.
Meanwhile, winger Ayumu Yokoyama scored League One leaders Birmingham’s fastest FA Cup goal as they beat Lincoln 2-1, Lyndon Dykes doubling their advantage before Jovon Makama converted a stoppage-time penalty.
Two goals from Demetri Mitchell and a third from Vincent Harper saw League One Exeter reach round four for the first time in 44 years after a 3-1 win over Championship Oxford. The visitors led through Matt Phillips’ goal but finished with 10 men after Tyler Goodrham was sent off nine minutes from time.
Zian Flemming scored twice in extra-time as Championship promotion hopefuls Burnley finally got the better of League One Reading by winning 3-1.
Lyle Foster had put the Clarets ahead but Lewis Wing’s equaliser left Scott Parker’s much-changed team needing Flemming’s late intervention.
Niall Ennis came off the bench to fire Stoke to a 2-1 extra-time victory in their all-Championship clash with Sunderland, who had equalised through Milan Aleksic after Tom Cannon opened the scoring from the penalty spot at the Stadium of Light.
