Leeds United v Crystal Palace: Whites back in the groove
By Phil Hay
When the relief of the final whistle washed over him, Neil Warnock gestured appreciatively to the directors’ box at Elland Road. A clap, a wave, a nod and a wink, all of which said this win was for them.
There are ways of impressing incoming owners and Saturday’s defeat of Crystal Palace was Leeds United’s gift to GFH Capital, gratefully given and gladly received. Four days after edging its takeover beyond the point of no return, the firm’s representatives were made to feel that their money was in the right place.
Two of them attended the game – new Leeds director David Haigh and soon-to-be-board member Salem Patel – and the result ensured a pleasant meeting with Warnock afterwards. They kept a low profile throughout their visit, leaving comment about the takeover to Ken Bates and attention post-match to Warnock and his team but United’s manager refused to let them go unmentioned. “These people have given me a massive lift,” he said.
There was little doubt that completion of the first stage of GFH Capital’s takeover, setting the stage for a full buy-out next month, influenced the victory over Palace. A minor bounce occurred in the size of the attendance, just 1,800 up on the crowd for United’s previous home fixture, but the atmosphere soared. Palace found no way to settle and their 14-game unbeaten run fell apart. The club’s manager, Ian Holloway, talked of the “energy of the takeover” in United’s football.
Beyond that, Warnock felt more tangible benefit from the deadline-day transfers which brought Alan Tate and Jerome Thomas to Leeds on Thursday. Thomas’ loan from West Brom, he claimed, was salvaged by GFH Capital after a late “hitch” and both players were central to Palace’s demise, Tate as an unflappable centre-back and Thomas as a quick, penetrative winger. Leeds looked refreshed and re-enforced if not quite transformed.
“I could tell how pleased everyone was with the two new players at training on Friday,” Warnock said. “Just having them around the training ground made the point that we were having a go.
“The new owners were instrumental in the Thomas deal. There was a hitch late on and it looked like it wasn’t going to go through but within five minutes they made it go through. I’m delighted that we’ve won for them.
“The takeover alters everybody’s outlook and this was our best performance of the season – by a mile.”
Warnock realised that it needed to be, against the Championship’s form team. Palace led the division on Saturday morning, driven forward by five straight wins and an undefeated sequence reaching back to August; the consistency and league position Warnock aspires to. Palace make for unlikely pace-setters in name alone but they are well-placed on merit. Holloway was unimpressed by chants of “top of the league, you’re having a laugh” as a rare loss arrived.
United’s circumstances were largely incomparable. They approached the game with little optimism but came out the other side with a first win in seven games and no further injuries or suspensions to fret over. A good day all round. Second-half goals from Luciano Becchio and Paul Green were more than Palace could deal with and Peter Ramage’s late header did nothing more than create bedlam during six minutes of injury-time. “They were up for it,” Holloway said afterwards. “Neil will be pleased.”
Palace’s problem lay in the effectiveness of United’s tactics. Warnock’s line-up had a more ambitious feel to it, not least because of Thomas’ inclusion, but their positioning was tight and constraining. Twenty five minutes passed before Palace started to settle. At no point did they ever seem comfortable.
“They were like the Leeds of old to begin with,” Holloway said. “Bang, bang, bang, right at you.” Palace’s goalkeeper, Julian Speroni, kept out a low shot from David Norris with a strong right hand and stood in the thick of the contest for half-an-hour but it was a measure of Palace’s explosive quality that Speroni’s counterpart, Paddy Kenny, had more to do.
United’s keeper maintained parity with two fine saves in the 31st minute, beating away Jonathan Parr’s shot before climbing to his feet and meeting Glenn Murray’s volley on the rebound. They were as crucial as his two-handed parry from Owen Garvan 10 minutes earlier. Wilfried Zaha, the outrageously talented England international, started to creep from his shell and Yannick Bolaise did too. So much of Palace’s expectation weighed on those two players.
Their season is bound to suffer in patches from the raw and carefree attitude of a winger like Zaha but it is impossible not to appreciate the 20-year-old’s brilliance or the speed with which his brain engages his feet. It was impossible, too, to overlook Zaha’s frustration as he emerged second-best from a direct confrontation with Sam Byram, United’s blossoming right-back.
Warnock trusted Byram to keep Zaha tied down and the teenager wound the rope with exceptional skill. For all that Jerome’s pace and drive earned him the man-of-the-match award, the champagne ought to have gone to Byram. Neither Zaha nor Palace’s 15-goal striker, Glenn Murray, made much of their afternoon at Elland Road and that fact in itself explained the result.
It also transpired that when Leeds leaned on Holloway’s defence, the foundations beneath it cracked. Seven minutes into the second half, Lee Peltier hooked a deep cross into Speroni’s box and Green beat Parr to a header at the far post. The ball bounced in turn off Ramage and Damien Delaney and Becchio attacked the rebound with a finish which flashed into the roof of Speroni’s net.
The decisive second goal was similar in nature, created through nothing more creative than another high ball launched towards goal. A weak clearing header dropped to Green who hit it on the volley and saw a deflection divert it past Speroni. The keeper gave his defence one of those looks and fished the ball from his net again.
Warnock teased Palace by using Dominic Poleon and Ross McCormack as substitutes but Poleon’s introduction was costly. When he allowed Jermaine Easter the run of the right wing on 86 minutes, Ramage ran in to meet Easter’s cross with an unstoppable header. Predictably, injury-time descended into chaos as Michael Tonge cleared a goalbound header from Murray and Warnock replaced Poleon with another substitute, Michael Brown, amid a flurry of attacks on Kenny. In pouring rain, United’s defence held.
“I was struggling to see another win coming when I looked at a few of our performances,” Warnock admitted, “but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. The lads have been trying. They just needed a lift like Jerome and Tate gave us.
“Confidence is a thin line and you could see that Palace hadn’t lost for so long. You could see that in the way they play. But we played some good football and we deserved the win.”
