Leeds boss Simon Grayson insisted he had no choice but to haul off goalkeeper Paul Rachubka after his first-half horror show against Blackpool.

Rachubka had a nightmare against his former club, who went on to win 5-0, making three glaring errors which resulted in calls for him to be substituted by his own supporters.

Grayson admitted that the half-time switch to youngster Alex Cairns was his only option.

“I’ve said before that I think Paul’s a strong character but I had to take him out of the limelight,” said Grayson.

“When you make three mistakes like that, your confidence goes and if I’d been the other manager I’d have been telling my players to get crosses in and get shots in.

“I felt it was in the best interests of Paul, the team and the club to make that decision. But it’s a ruthless thing to do and a hard decision to make.

“They are in the limelight, they are there to be shot at and he made three errors which we were punished by, including going down to ten men.”

Grayson is now involved in a frantic search for a replacement, with Sunday’s trip to his former side Leicester on the horizon.

He said: “What I have to consider for the weekend is do I play Paul, play Alex who’s a young kid or go into the loan market. It might be that we have to do the latter.”