Ross the boss as Whites triumph
By Phil Hay
Crystal Palace must be sick of the sight of Luciano Becchio. Leeds United cannot get enough of him.
A trademark goal on his return from injury helped avert the type of demoralising day that his club and his manager could scarcely afford to suffer.
Leeds made no secret of their regret at losing Becchio to hamstring surgery midway through July and his cameo as a substitute against Palace
explained why. United were sliding helplessly towards a fourth Championship loss when Becchio’s conversion of his first chance rejuvenated a grateful team.
The striker’s 71st-minute goal restored parity at 2-2 and gave Leeds the chance of winning a game they might have lost several times over by then. Ross McCormack followed Becchio’s lead with an 83rd-minute finish, his second of an eventful match. How United’s victory materialised will matter less to Simon Grayson than the fact that it did.
On the balance of the first half alone, his players should not have been in a position to chase a win in the last 20 minutes. Their performance prior to Becchio’s goal failed to dampen the widespread feeling that United’s boss is handicapped by an insufficient choice of players, and Leeds were menaced by Palace’s front three of Wilfried Zaha, Jermaine Easter and Sean Scannell.
But his need for a victory after a spate of poor results in August was urgent, particularly once Palace established a 2-1 lead midway through the first half. Becchio’s comeback ensured that it arrived.
The Argentinian had missed the start of the season after a recurrence of an injury originally sustained in April and his clinical header reiterated his extreme value to Leeds. The matter was never open to debate. Becchio’s 20 goals last season were crucial and Saturday’s no less so to a manager in Grayson who has strayed into one of the more challenging periods of his tenure.
For Palace, their demise was familiar – beaten at Elland Road by two late goals as they were by Becchio’s brace last December. Their boss, Dougie Freedman, might rue his refusal to make more of his strong collection of substitutes while Leeds were trailing in the second half but they at least have evidently improved since last season finished. It is still impossible to say the same of Leeds.
Grayson’s answer to a thin squad has been to embrace the junior corps at Elland Road, and Saturday brought a debut for 17-year-old left-back Charlie Taylor.
His appearance in United’s Carling Cup ties last month and his regular proficiency in reserve games last season made him a viable replacement for Aidan White, one of three players removed from Leeds’ line-up. Grayson had planned for Max Gradel’s absence since his sale to St Etienne and an injury to Adam Clayton – to date United’s stellar midfielder – hastened the recall of Michael Brown. Brown’s display showed the effects of a restricted training schedule.
Taylor was similarly given no time to settle or hide, ending Palace’s first attack with a sliding tackle in front of Zaha and disrupting their second by nodding the ball behind as Patrick McCarthy waited to attack a free-kick at the far post. His third act was to lay on Leeds’ opening goal with absolute precision.
The quality of Taylor’s cross from the left wing stretched a Palace defence whose imposing height was more convincing than their mobility, and McCormack planted a header across Julian Speroni and into the corner of his net. Taylor’s ecstatic reaction outdid McCormack’s.
A lead after eight minutes was an ideal scenario for Grayson but his players held it for only four minutes. They were found wanting when Mile Jedinak’s free-kick dropped to an unmarked McCarthy who made hard work of controlling the ball but found time to lash a volley past Andy Lonergan from four yards out. It was another goal to be filed in the category of soft.
For much of the first half-hour, Leeds swung between the encouraging and the concerning. Brown’s risky pass across the face of his own box needed the reprieve provided by a deflection off Jonathan Parr which bounced away from goal but Ramon Nunez’s 21st-minute free-kick from the right wing was punched off Palace’s goalline by Speroni. Snodgrass clipped the rebound against the outside of a post from a hopeless angle.
But United conceded again within seconds, cut open by a quick and simple move. Parr’s throw-in found Easter tearing away from Patrick Kisnorbo and Tom Lees, and his low cut-back gave Scannell as easy a chance as the forward is likely to see this season. He could not miss from point-blank range, despite the scrambling defenders around him.
Leeds chanced their arm in the aftermath of that goal as Parr failed to convert Zaha’s cross on the volley and Scannell guided a header inches over Lonergan’s crossbar. The goalkeeper would not have been in a position to stop a more accurate finish.
On either flank United were vulnerable, and Nunez struggled to give Taylor the protection afford to previous left-backs by the tireless Gradel. He enraged Snodgrass in the 35th minute by shooting ambitiously from 20 yard while the Scot looked for possession on the right wing but his slipped pass to McCormack seven minutes before half-time put Palace under rare pressure, forcing an anxious clearance at Andy Keogh’s feet inside the six-yard box.
The first 45 minutes in their entirety still amounted to a forgettable half. Thoughts of Becchio and Mikael Forssell – the two strongest assets on Grayson’s bench – were already creeping in as the interval neared. Only by a foot did Scannell fail to claim a goal identical to his first when Dean Moxey eluded the besieged Lees and whipped a cross in front of Lonergan.
The former Preston keeper was called on in the final minute of the first half after Easter dispossessed Taylor – by now carrying a yellow card for a sliding tackle on Zaha – and laid it off to Zaha at the edge of the box. Lonergan met the resulting shot with a desperate swipe of his hand, waving it over his bar.
The keeper’s work was never likely to be done by then and his low save in the 50th minute – nudging an Easter effort wide – was a vital intervention at the end of another lightning counter-attack from Palace. Becchio’s introduction came soon after, as it had to, alongside that of Forssell.
Snodgrass gave Elland Road a glimmer of hope with a curling free-kick which Speroni punched away but Parr could as easily have scored when Freedman’s players broke quickly to the other end of the field. Lonergan made his presence felt again in the 67th minute with a fine block from Scannell.
But Becchio took it upon himself to weigh in as he has so many times before when he met McCormack’s minute free-kick with a brilliant header, guided into the top corner of Speroni’s net. Becchio ran straight to United’s physiotherapist, Harvey Sharman, in a show of gratitude for many months of rehabilitation and hard work.
For the first time in almost an hour, Leeds sensed that the game was theirs to win. It proved to be so in the 83rd minute when Forssell held his balance and nodded a Snodgrass cross into the path of the irrepressible McCormack who angled a volley past Speroni on the turn. It did not convince anyone that all is perfect in the Leeds United household but it gave Grayson and his players a better night’s sleep.
By Phil Hay
Crystal Palace must be sick of the sight of Luciano Becchio. Leeds United cannot get enough of him.
A trademark goal on his return from injury helped avert the type of demoralising day that his club and his manager could scarcely afford to suffer.
Leeds made no secret of their regret at losing Becchio to hamstring surgery midway through July and his cameo as a substitute against Palace
explained why. United were sliding helplessly towards a fourth Championship loss when Becchio’s conversion of his first chance rejuvenated a grateful team.The striker’s 71st-minute goal restored parity at 2-2 and gave Leeds the chance of winning a game they might have lost several times over by then. Ross McCormack followed Becchio’s lead with an 83rd-minute finish, his second of an eventful match. How United’s victory materialised will matter less to Simon Grayson than the fact that it did.
On the balance of the first half alone, his players should not have been in a position to chase a win in the last 20 minutes. Their performance prior to Becchio’s goal failed to dampen the widespread feeling that United’s boss is handicapped by an insufficient choice of players, and Leeds were menaced by Palace’s front three of Wilfried Zaha, Jermaine Easter and Sean Scannell.
But his need for a victory after a spate of poor results in August was urgent, particularly once Palace established a 2-1 lead midway through the first half. Becchio’s comeback ensured that it arrived.
The Argentinian had missed the start of the season after a recurrence of an injury originally sustained in April and his clinical header reiterated his extreme value to Leeds. The matter was never open to debate. Becchio’s 20 goals last season were crucial and Saturday’s no less so to a manager in Grayson who has strayed into one of the more challenging periods of his tenure.
For Palace, their demise was familiar – beaten at Elland Road by two late goals as they were by Becchio’s brace last December. Their boss, Dougie Freedman, might rue his refusal to make more of his strong collection of substitutes while Leeds were trailing in the second half but they at least have evidently improved since last season finished. It is still impossible to say the same of Leeds.
Grayson’s answer to a thin squad has been to embrace the junior corps at Elland Road, and Saturday brought a debut for 17-year-old left-back Charlie Taylor.
His appearance in United’s Carling Cup ties last month and his regular proficiency in reserve games last season made him a viable replacement for Aidan White, one of three players removed from Leeds’ line-up. Grayson had planned for Max Gradel’s absence since his sale to St Etienne and an injury to Adam Clayton – to date United’s stellar midfielder – hastened the recall of Michael Brown. Brown’s display showed the effects of a restricted training schedule.
Taylor was similarly given no time to settle or hide, ending Palace’s first attack with a sliding tackle in front of Zaha and disrupting their second by nodding the ball behind as Patrick McCarthy waited to attack a free-kick at the far post. His third act was to lay on Leeds’ opening goal with absolute precision.
The quality of Taylor’s cross from the left wing stretched a Palace defence whose imposing height was more convincing than their mobility, and McCormack planted a header across Julian Speroni and into the corner of his net. Taylor’s ecstatic reaction outdid McCormack’s.
A lead after eight minutes was an ideal scenario for Grayson but his players held it for only four minutes. They were found wanting when Mile Jedinak’s free-kick dropped to an unmarked McCarthy who made hard work of controlling the ball but found time to lash a volley past Andy Lonergan from four yards out. It was another goal to be filed in the category of soft.
For much of the first half-hour, Leeds swung between the encouraging and the concerning. Brown’s risky pass across the face of his own box needed the reprieve provided by a deflection off Jonathan Parr which bounced away from goal but Ramon Nunez’s 21st-minute free-kick from the right wing was punched off Palace’s goalline by Speroni. Snodgrass clipped the rebound against the outside of a post from a hopeless angle.
But United conceded again within seconds, cut open by a quick and simple move. Parr’s throw-in found Easter tearing away from Patrick Kisnorbo and Tom Lees, and his low cut-back gave Scannell as easy a chance as the forward is likely to see this season. He could not miss from point-blank range, despite the scrambling defenders around him.
Leeds chanced their arm in the aftermath of that goal as Parr failed to convert Zaha’s cross on the volley and Scannell guided a header inches over Lonergan’s crossbar. The goalkeeper would not have been in a position to stop a more accurate finish.
On either flank United were vulnerable, and Nunez struggled to give Taylor the protection afford to previous left-backs by the tireless Gradel. He enraged Snodgrass in the 35th minute by shooting ambitiously from 20 yard while the Scot looked for possession on the right wing but his slipped pass to McCormack seven minutes before half-time put Palace under rare pressure, forcing an anxious clearance at Andy Keogh’s feet inside the six-yard box.
The first 45 minutes in their entirety still amounted to a forgettable half. Thoughts of Becchio and Mikael Forssell – the two strongest assets on Grayson’s bench – were already creeping in as the interval neared. Only by a foot did Scannell fail to claim a goal identical to his first when Dean Moxey eluded the besieged Lees and whipped a cross in front of Lonergan.
The former Preston keeper was called on in the final minute of the first half after Easter dispossessed Taylor – by now carrying a yellow card for a sliding tackle on Zaha – and laid it off to Zaha at the edge of the box. Lonergan met the resulting shot with a desperate swipe of his hand, waving it over his bar.
The keeper’s work was never likely to be done by then and his low save in the 50th minute – nudging an Easter effort wide – was a vital intervention at the end of another lightning counter-attack from Palace. Becchio’s introduction came soon after, as it had to, alongside that of Forssell.
Snodgrass gave Elland Road a glimmer of hope with a curling free-kick which Speroni punched away but Parr could as easily have scored when Freedman’s players broke quickly to the other end of the field. Lonergan made his presence felt again in the 67th minute with a fine block from Scannell.
But Becchio took it upon himself to weigh in as he has so many times before when he met McCormack’s minute free-kick with a brilliant header, guided into the top corner of Speroni’s net. Becchio ran straight to United’s physiotherapist, Harvey Sharman, in a show of gratitude for many months of rehabilitation and hard work.
For the first time in almost an hour, Leeds sensed that the game was theirs to win. It proved to be so in the 83rd minute when Forssell held his balance and nodded a Snodgrass cross into the path of the irrepressible McCormack who angled a volley past Speroni on the turn. It did not convince anyone that all is perfect in the Leeds United household but it gave Grayson and his players a better night’s sleep.