Leeds United: Peltier’s happy with goal if not the result
Yorkshire Evening Post 28/12/13Lee Peltier is hoping his goal against Blackpool will be the first of many for Leeds, but the team comes First, as he tells Phil Hay.
Lee Peltier is not the sort of player who haggles over goal bonuses. His most recent strike before Boxing Day was so long ago that he could hardly visualise it. “It must have been at Leicester or something like that,” he said, unable to remember where or when.
It was indeed at Leicester, scored in the final month of his one and only season in the Midlands. Even that owed much to Doncaster Rovers goalkeeper Carl Ikeme who fumbled Peltier’s weak cross into his net. His first Leeds United goal was such a collectors’ item, taken with a cute header against Blackpool on Thursday, that his team-mates asked if he’d buried it by mistake.
Goalscoring has never been Peltier’s forte – seven to his name in eight years as a professional and one in 67 appearances for Leeds – but it is a weakness in his game that Brian McDermott wants him to think about. The wing-back profited from his own ambition at Bloomfield Road, drifting quietly into Blackpool’s box and meeting Danny Pugh’s cross with a precise finish from a difficult angle. “It was a terrific goal,” McDermott said.
Peltier’s 25th-minute effort was worth no more than a point, to his frustration and that of his manager. An organised performance fell foul of Blackpool’s first shot on target, a deflected strike from Tom Ince which wrong-footed Paddy Kenny and level the score a 1-1 midway through the second half. Until that moment, Peltier’s first goal in 20 months was opening the door to United’s first Boxing Day win for four years.
“I’m buzzing about the goal and I’m just gutted it wasn’t the winner,” Peltier said.
“I honestly can’t remember the last one I scored. It must have been at Leicester. All the lads have been caning me, saying I didn’t mean it and that I meant to aim it over the crossbar.
“But it was a great ball from Pughy and the gaffer’s been on at me to get myself into the box more. I stay back for corners and so on and I don’t get forward as much as I would like to but I think I’m decent in the air and decent at set-pieces. I saw the chance at Blackpool and it paid off.
“The result frustrating, though. Their goal was a deflection and to honest I think Paddy was about to pick it out the air. It didn’t look like it was going to bother him at all. Apart from that I don’t think they hurt us. But you take the point.”
It made for a steady start to the post-Christmas schedule, rather than a rousing one. A victory of any type at Bloomfield Road would have lessened the pressure on tomorrow’s game at Nottingham Forest, the second half of a peculiar, luck-of-the-draw system in which United drew the short straw and landed two away games immediately after Christmas. Both Blackpool and Forest had the luxury of a home fixture on Boxing Day and again this weekend.
McDermott admitted after Thursday’s match that his priority was to reach January and the start of the transfer window with a play-off position in United’s hands. “We’re trying to stay in the top six,” he said, and their draw at Blackpool did exactly that. A similar result at Forest – the only Championship side who Leeds are yet to play – might not be enough to do the same again.
“We’re still scoring goals and we’re still creating opportunities,” Peltier said. “I think the main thing is that you keep on taking points from every game – one point here, three points there. Whatever you can get you take it, so long as it keeps on moving you up the table.
“Forest had a bit of a dip of form before Christmas but the expectations there are very high with all the money they’ve had coming in. But we’ll be looking to get three points tomorrow. And if not that, we’ll make sure we take a point again.”
Leeds will have Luke Murphy available after suspension and Marius Zaliukas fit and available despite two inadvertent attempts to break his legs. The Lithuanian was the victim of a reckless tackle by Barnsley’s Marcus Tudgay last weekend – a challenge which earned Tudgay a straight red card – and was pole-axed again by Kirk Broadfoot in the final minute of Thursday’s draw. Broadfoot’s dismissal was Blackpool’s ninth of the season.
“It was a horrendous tackle which could have really hurt him,” Peltier said. “It was worse than the one against Barnsley.
“I’m just happy he’s alright because he’s been a great signing for us. We call him Ivan Drago (the fictional Russian character in Rocky IV).”
More contentious than that incident was referee Scott Mathieson’s refusal to dismiss Broadfoot for a 68th-minute foul on Ross McCormack as United’s leading scorer ran in behind Blackpool’s defence and shaped to shoot.
Mathieson booked Broadfoot amid strong protests from Leeds and McDermott later accused the official of missing a “certain sending off.” It was a pivotal moment with the game level and delicately balanced.
“I thought it was a clear red card,” Peltier said.
“Ross was in on goal and in the form he’s been in, it would have no surprise at all to see him stick it in the back of the net. The ref obviously decided to give a yellow card but I think 90 per cent of people there will have thought it was a straight red.”
The benefit of the doubt given to Broadfoot was symptomatic of a week in which Leeds have waited in vain for something to fall for them. Their result at Blackpool was a creditable result away from home but followed on from a more costly draw with Barnsley at Elland Road. McDermott’s decision to field Peltier at at Bloomfield Road was a bold one on account of the defenders ineffective outing against Barnsley. The 27-year-old had been substituted after 45 minutes last weekend, replaced by Sam Byram, but he took less than half-an-hour of United’s Boxing Day fixture to justify his inclusion again.
Peltier has started all but four league games this season and most of them in his preferred position on the right side of defence. Byram’s prolonged battle with injury helped to tip the balance of the fight for that particular role in Peltier’s favour but McDermott has had Byram available for the best part of two months. United’s player of the year has barely featured.
“Sam’s a good player and obviously I’ve got to do what I’m doing to get the nod ahead of him. But I’m working as hard as I can because I love playing here. I’m buzzing that the gaffer’s got confidence in me and wants me to be in the team. But me and Sam are good mates and all the lads get on. That’s part of the reason why things are so good here,” said Peltier.