THEY PLAYED “Glory, Glory Leeds United” at half-time, but for the Elland Road faithful the glory days are becoming an ever more distant memory.

After losing to Rotherham last Monday, this defeat completed a miserable week for the Yorkshire club and left them in 19th position in the Championship.

Writing in the match programme, their manager, Kevin Blackwell, said: “Right now the whole club seems to be at a point where, if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.” Prophetic words indeed. A Gary Kelly own goal and a screamer from Lilian Nalis ensured a fourth home League defeat against a Leicester side who are showing signs of resurgence under their new manager, Craig Levein.

Leeds began the stronger side and, after five minutes, they almost took the lead through David Healy’s header, but Stuart Taylor in the Leicester goal made the first of a series of stunning saves.

After weathering the early storm, Leicester twice forced Neil Sullivan to make smart saves: first tipping over Joey Gudjonsson’s free kick and then palming away a crisp shot by David Connolly.

Two minutes into the second half, Leicester made the breakthrough. Keith Gillespie swung in a corner and Dion Dublin had two stabs at the ball before it fell to Nalis, who lashed it into the roof of the net from 15 yards.

It was the midfielder’s fifth goal of the season, but Levein singled out the contributions of Taylor, Dublin and Nikos Dabizas. “Coming here we had to rely on the centre-backs and the goalkeeper having a good match, and those three did especially well,” he said.

Leeds responded to going behind by producing their best spell of the match but, as Blackwell rued later, they failed to take their chances — and they found Taylor, who is on loan from Arsenal, in splendid form.

Brian Deane, who scored four here against QPR two weeks ago, was the chief culprit. After 58 minutes he headed wide after Sean Gregan had nodded on a corner, and shortly afterwards he met a Simon Walton cross perfectly only to see Taylor brilliantly tip his header over the bar.

His most glaring miss came on 73 minutes, when the substitute Frazer Richardson laid the ball back for Deane to waft his shot over the bar from four yards.

The miss proved costly when, five minutes later, Kelly’s own goal put the game beyond Leeds. Gillespie curled in a dangerous cross and, as the full-back dived to intercept, his header found the corner of Sullivan’s net.

“I am not naive enough to believe it means anything more than three points,” Levein said. “But we will build on it.”

STAR MAN: Stuart Taylor (Leicester)

Player ratings. Leeds: Sullivan 6, Kelly 5, Carlisle 6 (Joachim 76min, 6), Butler 6, Kilgallon 6 (McMaster 83min, 6), Wright 6, Gregan 6, Walton 6, Oster 7 (Richardson 65min, 7), Healy 7, Deane 6

Leicester: Taylor 8, Makin 6, Dabizas 7, Dublin 7, Stewart 7, Gillespie 7 (Blake 83min, 6), Gudjonsson 6, Gemmill 6 (Williams 89min, 6), Nalis 7, Scowcroft 6, Connolly 6 (Morris 80min, 6)

Scorers: Leicester: Nalis 47, Kelly og 78

Referee: U Rennie

Attendance: 27,384

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