McCormack’s double revives Leeds

Telegraph 4/12/13
By Steven Sutcliffe at Elland Road
Ross McCormack was back to his imperious best to score a goal in each half as Leeds United ran out comfortable winners against managerless Wigan Athletic.
The Championship’s top striker scored in the 15th and 77th minutes as Leeds made amends for their defeat at Blackburn on Saturday and homed in on the top six.
Leeds lost at the weekend at Ewood Park but at home they have been virtually impregnable this season (only Queens Park Rangers and Burnley have won there) and taken maximum points from their past four home games. Luke Murphy served notice of their intentions in the seventh minute but his shot was well held by former England goalkeeper Scott Carson.
Wigan – whose set-up was more cautious than carefree with Grant Holt, James McLean and Callum McManaman on the substitutes bench – struggled to cope early on as the home side’s little-and-large forward pairing of Matt Smith and Ross McCormack, the division’s top scorer, made life uncomfortable with the intelligent runs.
It was no surprise, therefore, when Leeds took the lead in the 15th minute after Smith had forced Leon Barnett to concede a corner. Alex Mowatt’s perfectly weighted centre was headed down by Tom Lees and McCormack applied the flicked finish that sneaked past several defenders on the line.
Ben Watson and James McArthur galvanised Wigan and the on-loan Manchester United forward Will Keane twice had chances to level matters, while Emerson Boyce miscued a header that should have restored equilibrium and with that went the stand-in-manager Graham Barrow’s hopes of taking anything from the game.
It was left to Scottish forward McCormack to confirm victory with a sweeping free-kick that his team-mate Jason Pearce claimed to have touched four minutes later.