UNDER grey Yorkshire clouds, Leeds United began their campaign to overcome the bitter disappointment of having to spend at least another season out of the top level. They eked out a victory through a David Healy penalty, scarcely deserved, just before half-time. They won a match of high work rate, total organisation, keen intensity . . . maybe you have the picture already. Perhaps you can spot the missing words such as “entertainment”, “skill levels” and “adventure”.

Make no mistake, there is a gulf so painful now between the Premiership and the rest of English football that even here, among teams such as Leeds and Norwich who so short a time ago belonged to the elite, there is an enforced economy that once was reminiscent of clubs far lower in the professional pyramid. The difference between Premiership football and the Championship is personified in Robbie Earnshaw, a little bundle of energy, pace and ambition, not always coordinated with his capacity to think and deliver. So swift and mobile is the Welshman, so elusive for tall and cumbersome defenders such as Paul Butler, that Leeds could seek him here, seek him there, but never quite track him or subdue him.

Alas, Earnshaw was squandering chances. He might well have had a hat-trick inside the first half-hour. Darren Huckerby, using his thrust down the left, intercepted a poor pass from Shaun Derry and gave Earnshaw ample opportunity to beat the goalkeeper. But Tony Warner, there in emergency and on a month’s loan because of Leeds’s parlous state, read the mind of Earnshaw and was equal to the diffident shot.

Earnshaw’s second chance was scooped wide with the outside of his foot, again with the goal gaping. His third shot was brilliant, curled around the advancing Warner and deserving a better fate than to caress the inside of the post and roll excruciatingly across the face of the goalmouth. In that movement, Butler’s attempt to bring down Earnshaw rightly earned a yellow card.

But Leeds came back into it. Their own elusive forward, Healy, was beginning to find space, not least when the wingers Steve Stone and Eddie Lewis, and the overlapping right-back Gary Kelly, were willing to feed him. But for Paul Gallacher in the Norwich goal, Healy might have scored twice. He did so five minutes before half-time with a perfectly executed penalty. Tracking back into the penalty area and committing a woeful attempt at a tackle, Lee Croft left his leg dangling in front of Stone. The crafty winger took full advantage; it was a soft penalty but a true one, and it was struck with unforgiving finality by Healy.

Blackwell was first to readjust after the interval and his team began to command midfield. Stone created a chance, Gallacher was hesitant, Horsfield should not have been, but the centre-forward contrived to miss from six yards. The final chance came at the death, Paul McVeigh setting it up only for Earnshaw to hit over the bar.

Star Man: Tony Warner (Leeds United)

Player Ratings: Leeds United: Warner 8, Kelly 7, Butler 5, Kilgannon 5, Crainey 5 (Moore 86min, 4), Stone 6, Bakke 6 (Westlake 78min, 6), Derry 5, Lewis 7, Healy 7 (Carole 69min, 6), Horsfield 5

Norwich: Gallacher 6, Colin 5 (Thorn 82min, 4), Shackell 6, Doherty 6, Drury 7, Croft 5 (McKenzie 56min 6), Safri 6, Etuhu 6, Robinson 6 (McVeigh 71min, 6), Huckerby 7, Earnshaw 6

Scorer: Leeds: Healy 41 pen

Referee: G Laws

Attendance: 22,417

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