Yorkshire Post 25/10/08
Leeds United 3 Walsall 0: Fabian Delph double lights up Elland Road
GARY McAllister is under no pressure to sell Fabian Delph and for that Leeds United and their supporters should be hugely grateful.
How fortunate that Delph's confirmation as one of the game's brightest young midfield prospects should come during a season when the club's finances are much healthier than they were in those dark days when the club was teetering on the brink of extinction.
A procession of big names, including Academy products like Alan Smith, Harry Kewell and Jonathan Woodgate, left to help chip away at those massive debts and the club went into freefall.
Now, it seems, the only way is up as McAllister's mixture of old heads and young, vibrant starlets strut their stuff on the Elland Road stage in second place, just three points off the lead.
McAllister rightly refers to Delph as 'Fab' – a nickname that becomes more appropriate with every game the Bradford-born teenager plays. Not only did Delph delight his Leeds audience with two goals struck from distance with that cultured left foot; he also helped create the goal that saw Luciano Becchio become the first Leeds player since Mark Viduka to score in four successive matches.
Argentine Becchio continues to provide the perfect foil for Jermaine Beckford in a potent Leeds attack which chiselled away incessantly at Walsall's defence until it inevitably cracked.
Walsall manager Jimmy Mullen, who joined McAllister in acknowledging the quality of Delph's two goals, was right when he said his side created the two best chances of the first half, Casper Ankergren making an excellent save to deny Jabo Iberhe before Iberhe narrowly failed to connect with Richard Taundry's cross a few yards out from goal.
Ankergren was drafted in when David Lucas was taken ill on the morning of the game and the Dane's save came at a vital time before Leeds's patience was rewarded as Delph took centre stage.
