PETER RIDSDALE can be accused of many things, but the man whose financial profligacy was responsible, most Leeds United fans believe, for almost driving their club out of existence, does not lack nerve.

Now deputy chairman at Cardiff City, he turned up at his old stamping ground smiling, waving and ignoring the chants that suggested he might be less than welcome. The variety and venom of those chants can only have made the satisfaction of seeing his new club prevail all the greater. It was unfortunate for Ridsdale, although only in one respect, that the first half was one in which the Leeds supporters needed no encouragement to turn their attention from the pitch to the directors’ box, because for a team coming into the game with the confidence that stemmed from having won their previous four matches, they were appalling.

Dave Jones’s decision to start with what was essentially a five-man midfield, albeit with Jason Koumas playing in the hole behind solitary striker Cameron Jerome, flummoxed Leeds from the start. Had Cardiff been a little less cautious, they would have won surely by more than the single goal scored by Koumas after half an hour.

Joe Ledley had volleyed Rhys Weston’s cross into Neil Sullivan’s stomach from close range and Jerome headed a Koumas cross just wide when the palpably unfit Sean Gregan fouled Koumas as he ran towards the Leeds penalty area. The Wales international picked himself up and curled the free kick around the Leeds wall and beyond Sullivan.

STAR MAN: Jason Koumas (Cardiff City)

Player ratings: Leeds United: Sullivan 5, Kelly 5, Butler 6, Kilgallon 5, Harding 5 (Pugh 56min, 5), Healy 4, Miller 6, Gregan 3 (Douglas 68min, 5), Lewis 6, Hulse 5, Blake 4 (Moore 75min, 5)

Cardiff City: Alexander 6, Weston 6, Cox 6, Loovens 6, Barker 6, Cooper 6 (Ardley 83min, 5), Whitley 6, Boland 6, Ledley 6, Koumas 8, Jerome 7

Scorer: Cardiff City: Koumas 30

Referee: G Salisbury

Attendance: 20,597

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