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[the-independent-spt-yahoopa-blog]

Garry Monk takes responsibility for Sutton United defeat after fielding second-string Leeds side

Garry Monk took full responsibility for Leeds United’s exit from this season’s FA Cup at the hands of the National League’s Sutton United.

In total, Monk made 10 changes from his promotion-chasing side’s midweek win over Nottingham Forest, handing debuts to academy products Paul McKay and Billy Whitehouse.

The likes of Robert Green, Pablo Hernandez and top-scorer Chris Wood were left out of the matchday squad, and after the chastening 1-0 defeat, Monk admitted he may have altered his line-up too much.

“It’s a frustrating result and a frustrating performance but it’s my responsibility, I’m the one who selects the team. I made a lot of changes, it didn’t work and it backfired in that sense. I take full responsibility,” he said.

“It’s me that selects the team. When you make that many changes it sometimes doesn’t help with how cohesive you are.

“Okay, we’ve done that in the cups and reached a quarter final doing that and we’ve done well in league games when we’ve had to do that but maybe today was one step too far or one change too many.”

By contrast, Sutton manager Paul Doswell could hardly have been happier with Monk’s selection, having prepared his players to face a second-string Leeds outfit.

“We guessed nine of them, we had nine of the 11. We went off the Cambridge game and knowing they’ve got a massive game on Wednesday and their overriding priority is to get in the Premier League, I would have done exactly the same as Garry Monk today. The riches of the Premier League mean it’s a no brainer for him.”

The previous highlight of the south London club’s FA Cup history was their 1989 third round victory over then-holders Coventry City, but Doswell was not afraid to rank the achievement of his players higher.

“Now we’ve got to the fifth round and the club’s never done that it’s got to be the best day. I’ve been talking about making more modern memories and it’s brilliant.

“’89, to beat Coventry at that time, a Division One/Premier League club, was an amazing experience but we’ve gone on and done another round now. We’ve beaten a team that 47 years ago beat us 6-0 so we’ve made some progress.”