Sport
Viduka on the spot to fire Leeds a lifeline
Leeds United 2 Manchester City 1
By Tim Rich
23 March 2004
The club is riddled with debt, forced upon it by excessive spending on underachieving players which triggered their chairman's resignation. Their manager's position is uncertain and every fan who left Elland Road last night would have understood the catastrophic consequences of relegation.
Manchester City this morning find themselves in the truly uncomfortable position of owing more money than Leeds United, who are now precisely five points behind them. Once more, they demonstrated the art of outplaying opponents and losing, and Kevin Keegan's voice was laced with emotion and anger not just at the penalty awarded for a foul on Alan Smith outside the area but the dismissal of Daniel van Buyten which followed it. As Keegan noted grimly, this was the second time in successive matches that Alan Wiley had sent off one his players.
Football has an ambivalent attitude to luck; arguing that you cannot buy it, you make your own or that it evens itself out across a season. Leeds, denied a championship under Don Revie through one outrageously bad linesman's decision, required it desperately last night. A penalty which even their manager, Eddie Gray, considered debatable and a goal from a man who had not found the net in more than four years ought to have fulfilled their needs.
Gray, who has been given no guarantee by his new employers whether he or any of his leading players will be at Elland Road next season, admitted Leeds did not play well. "But in our situation you can't afford to be gracious. We gave the ball away too easily. There was a lot of tension and expectation given what's happened with the takeover. The players were nervous."
Since four of Gray's starting line-up last night knew they had no future under the new regime, this was understandable. Given his record of having started five games this season and not having scored since December 1999, Stephen McPhail, a forgotten relic of the David O'Leary years, would be among those considering his options and, like the decisive penalty won by Smith and converted by Mark Viduka, there was a dollop of fortune about his goal.
Unsurprisingly, McPhail was not aiming for the net last night; but he managed to drift in a free-kick which eluded everybody and was palmed in via the post by David James. Smith, as strikers do, instinctively claimed it but, if so, it must have skimmed the highest follicles of his bleached hair.
Keegan has often wondered aloud how a side with so much ability as Manchester City could be so near to the relegation zone but the statistic of one clean sheet in 19 matches offers the most obvious clue.
They should, however, have the firepower to shoot their way clear. Even before Nicolas Anelka's equaliser, the warnings were blaring through the Leeds back four. There was Shaun Wright-Phillips striking the side-netting, Michael Tarnat sending a venomous free-kick on to the foot of the post, Robbie Fowler seeing a deflected shot curl on to the top of the net.
But Anelka is on a different plane to any of them and his goal was surgical; directing a drive between two white shirts into the corner of the net. It should have been a platform for victory; instead it proved not enough.
Gray has always argued that Leeds' fate would be decided at Elland Road, and events seem to be bearing him out with games looming against Leicester, Everton and Portsmouth. Should they be won, Gerald Krasner's business plan for the Nationwide League, which appears to involve selling everything not physically nailed down, might not have to be implemented.
Leeds United (4-4-2): Robinson 6; Kelly 5, Caldwell 6, Matteo 6, Domi 5; Pennant 5, McPhail 6, Seth Johnson 4, Milner 5; Smith 6, Viduka 5. Substitutes not used: Carson (gk), Harte, Radebe, Lennon, Simon Johnson.
Manchester City (4-4-2): James 6, Dunne 4, Van Buyten 4, Distin 6, Tarnat 6, Wright-Phillips 7, Bosvelt 4 (Sun Jihai, 80), Sibierski 5, Barton 4, Fowler 5, Anelka 7. Substitutes not used: Arason (gk), Wanchope, Macken, Sinclair.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire) 4
Viduka on the spot to fire Leeds a lifeline
Leeds United 2 Manchester City 1
By Tim Rich
23 March 2004
The club is riddled with debt, forced upon it by excessive spending on underachieving players which triggered their chairman's resignation. Their manager's position is uncertain and every fan who left Elland Road last night would have understood the catastrophic consequences of relegation.
Manchester City this morning find themselves in the truly uncomfortable position of owing more money than Leeds United, who are now precisely five points behind them. Once more, they demonstrated the art of outplaying opponents and losing, and Kevin Keegan's voice was laced with emotion and anger not just at the penalty awarded for a foul on Alan Smith outside the area but the dismissal of Daniel van Buyten which followed it. As Keegan noted grimly, this was the second time in successive matches that Alan Wiley had sent off one his players.
Football has an ambivalent attitude to luck; arguing that you cannot buy it, you make your own or that it evens itself out across a season. Leeds, denied a championship under Don Revie through one outrageously bad linesman's decision, required it desperately last night. A penalty which even their manager, Eddie Gray, considered debatable and a goal from a man who had not found the net in more than four years ought to have fulfilled their needs.
Gray, who has been given no guarantee by his new employers whether he or any of his leading players will be at Elland Road next season, admitted Leeds did not play well. "But in our situation you can't afford to be gracious. We gave the ball away too easily. There was a lot of tension and expectation given what's happened with the takeover. The players were nervous."
Since four of Gray's starting line-up last night knew they had no future under the new regime, this was understandable. Given his record of having started five games this season and not having scored since December 1999, Stephen McPhail, a forgotten relic of the David O'Leary years, would be among those considering his options and, like the decisive penalty won by Smith and converted by Mark Viduka, there was a dollop of fortune about his goal.
Unsurprisingly, McPhail was not aiming for the net last night; but he managed to drift in a free-kick which eluded everybody and was palmed in via the post by David James. Smith, as strikers do, instinctively claimed it but, if so, it must have skimmed the highest follicles of his bleached hair.
Keegan has often wondered aloud how a side with so much ability as Manchester City could be so near to the relegation zone but the statistic of one clean sheet in 19 matches offers the most obvious clue.
They should, however, have the firepower to shoot their way clear. Even before Nicolas Anelka's equaliser, the warnings were blaring through the Leeds back four. There was Shaun Wright-Phillips striking the side-netting, Michael Tarnat sending a venomous free-kick on to the foot of the post, Robbie Fowler seeing a deflected shot curl on to the top of the net.
But Anelka is on a different plane to any of them and his goal was surgical; directing a drive between two white shirts into the corner of the net. It should have been a platform for victory; instead it proved not enough.
Gray has always argued that Leeds' fate would be decided at Elland Road, and events seem to be bearing him out with games looming against Leicester, Everton and Portsmouth. Should they be won, Gerald Krasner's business plan for the Nationwide League, which appears to involve selling everything not physically nailed down, might not have to be implemented.
Leeds United (4-4-2): Robinson 6; Kelly 5, Caldwell 6, Matteo 6, Domi 5; Pennant 5, McPhail 6, Seth Johnson 4, Milner 5; Smith 6, Viduka 5. Substitutes not used: Carson (gk), Harte, Radebe, Lennon, Simon Johnson.
Manchester City (4-4-2): James 6, Dunne 4, Van Buyten 4, Distin 6, Tarnat 6, Wright-Phillips 7, Bosvelt 4 (Sun Jihai, 80), Sibierski 5, Barton 4, Fowler 5, Anelka 7. Substitutes not used: Arason (gk), Wanchope, Macken, Sinclair.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire) 4