Blackburn Rovers v Leeds United: Resilient Whites just lack a cutting edge
By Phil Hay
It was possible at the start of last week that Leeds United’s manager was days away from becoming an ex-Leeds United manager.
Neil Warnock could see a scenario where he woke up this morning unemployed, unattached and packed off to Cornwall.
Instead, his players dug deep enough to claw four points from two games and delay a separation which, to gauge by Warnock’s comments, will come to pass if and when Leeds no longer have an interest in the play-offs. He left Ewood Park on Saturday night with mixed emotions: underwhelmed by the result but pleased with the week behind him.
United’s goalless draw with Blackburn Rovers – their first goalless draw since Warnock’s first game as manager, 12 months and 55 matches ago – was taken from the chapter of the textbook entitled “goals win matches”. His players were organised, aggressive and defensively sound but incapable of drawing blood. Warnock counted three instances which looked to him like gift-wrapped chances, the best falling to Ross McCormack early in the second half.
Three months ago, their performance at Ewood Park would have represented encouraging progress but Leeds are counting down fixtures at a rapid rate and running out of time to profit from their improvement.
Middlesbrough, a club who lost their bottle in 2012, relinquished sixth place on Saturday after another defeat but still retained a five-point start on United.
Little wonder that Warnock was inclined to talk about the two that got away in Lancashire.
“We were super at the back and good in midfield,” Warnock said, “but you’ve got to take your chances. Tom Lees should have scored, Ross McCormack should have scored, Luke Varney should have scored.
“But this side has only played together for two games on the trot and if I’d had this side from the start of the season, we’d be a lot higher up the table. I’m pleased we’ve got 13 games left to have a go.
“We’ve come away from home to a tough place, dominated large parts of the game and gone away disappointed. It’s a start.”
February 23 was late in the day for Warnock to be talking about a start. It is not long since United’s boss – out of contract in June – was talking in a manner which suggested he was finished. The 64-year-old is more than 50 matches into his tenure and might have no more than 13 left but he gave the impression at Ewood Park of a coach who had finally established an agreeable line-up.
United’s win over Blackpool last Wednesday decreed that Warnock should name an unchanged team, trusting again in the attacking tendencies of central midfielders Michael Tonge and David Norris and the hard, forward running of McCormack, Varney and Steve Morison. As it did against Blackpool, the formation hemmed Blackburn in and exposed the fragility of a team who, their recent results notwithstanding, are the epitome of a paper tiger.
Tonge and Norris bullied a veteran in Danny Murphy whose star is dimming and a junior in Ryan Lowe whose star is still to properly rise, giving Leeds a monopoly on possession. Blackburn’s moment came and went on the hour when Lee Peltier coughed up the ball to Murphy and opened the door for Jordan Rhodes to run forward and shake the side-netting.
Otherwise, Rovers’ £8m striker was sacrificed in a hopeless pursuit of chances.
Nothing in Blackburn’s broken display suggested that their dalliance with promotion is any more credible than United’s. Their new manager, Michael Appleton, was philosophical at full-time.
“When I walked into the club, no-one had any thoughts of getting in the play-offs,” he said. “Then you win a couple of games and people start to talk about it.
“It was a good game to watch and a good game to be involved in.
“You could see it was a game that both teams wanted to win. But if either side got a winner, it might have been harsh on the other.”
In respect of his own players, Appleton was being generous. They were on the wrong end of most of the fixture’s chances and spared only by United’s inconclusive finishing.
The chance from six yards which Lees scuffed into the hands of Blackburn goalkeeper Jake Kean after five minutes of the game was a sign of things to come.
Paddy Kenny had his own saves to make but nothing beyond the routine. Colin Kazim-Richards forced him into a diving block with a volley from 16 yards midway through the first half but the threat to Kenny was meagre. Kean, in contrast, found himself exposed on enough occasions for Warnock to believe that a goal should have come.
McCormack had the opportunity of the afternoon on 48 minutes, played into space inside Kean’s box by Morison after Kazim-Richards lost the ball in a tackle on the halfway line. McCormack took a touch and steadied himself but cracked a shot into the advertising hoardings behind Kean’s net.
Warnock sensed that Leeds’s moment would arrive again and it did, dropping to Varney in the final 10 minutes.
Again, the winger snatched at the ball and scuffed it into Kean’s gloves with Appleton’s defence in disarray. A full bench sat behind Warnock but he chose to resist any substitutions and turn a deaf ear to chants of “Warnock, make a change” from the away crowd.
It seemed churlish to criticise him on an afternoon when his players let Blackburn slip the hook, despite manoeuvring Appleton’s side into the position where United wanted them.
Warnock was in no mood to talk about promotion afterwards, saying: “We’re a long way from that. I’m just glad to be in a job this week!
“It’s just one game at a time for us. Lose last Wednesday and lose on Saturday and I’d have been in Cornwall on Monday. So I’ll worry about anything else later.”