THIS being the season of goodwill, the atmosphere was markedly warmer at Elland Road yesterday, although the thaw was not so much down to the old boy with the white beard as James Milner, whose second goal in three days had an exultant crowd telling Everton that they could stick Wayne Rooney where the sun doesn’t shine.

Milner, on as a first-half substitute for the injured Harry Kewell, will be 17 on Saturday, and is threatening to upstage the Goodison tyro, who is two months older. His first senior goal, at Sunderland on Boxing Day, may have been on the scruffy side, but his second yesterday was a real gem, leaving William Gallas in his wake and Ed de Goey helpless. Critics of the transfer window would do well to bear in mind that without it, promising young players such as these might not get their chance.

Deemed too young at the start of the season to be nominated in Leeds’s squad for the Uefa Cup, Milner is still on YTS wages of £80 a week and is in the throes of negotiating a new contract, effective on his birthday, that would boost that figure to £800 a week. It is an embarrassing contrast with the £60,000 wage packet lavished on Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who never seemed likely to add to his modest tally of six Premiership goals.

The other scorer was Jonathan Woodgate who, on his return, had a marvellous match, looking every inch an England centre-half.

The Leeds crowd has swapped calling for Terry Venables’ dismissal for the more traditional Marching on Together. Three wins and a draw from the past four league games have relieved the pressure on the manager and a top 10 finish ought not to be beyond them. Not that Venables was about to get carried away. “Don’t make it sound like a success story, because it’s not,” he said. “But we’re starting to believe in ourselves, and I’m looking forward to Wednesday (and Birmingham’s visit already.”

Asked about Milner, Venables said: “You’ve all got a nice little story in a very special young man. He’s intelligent, he’s a good footballer and he can finish . . . great credit due to the people at our academy, because I don’t have to teach him what to do, he knows already.”

For Chelsea, previously unbeaten in 11 league matches, one point from their past two is a “blip” which could easily develop into something more significant, with a journey to Arsenal next on the agenda.

Ranieri’s rotation policy was behind their seven changes, made partly with the New Year’s Day match at Highbury in mind. A case of counting chickens? “After the match, I knew it was a mistake,” Ranieri said, “but beforehand I thought I had 18 players in fantastic condition, so why not?” Chelsea produced the first three goalscoring attempts, the best of which had Gianfranco Zola only inches wide with a 25-yard free kick.

Towards the middle of the first half, Leeds started to make good, incisive progress of their own. De Goey came up with a top-class save to keep out Kewell’s left-footed drive from 18 yards, then did even better, reaching high to his right to repel the firm header with which Alan Smith met Jason Wilcox’s corner from the right. The initiative had changed hands, and after 29 minutes Woodgate made a surging foray down the left before delivering a cross of which any winger would have been proud.

Gallas’s desperate intervention deflected the ball wide of the far post and Chelsea were undone by the consequent corner, taken short by Gary Kelly to Wilcox. From the right, he delivered a left-footed centre which Woodgate headed home from seven yards, the ball hitting the top of Marcel Desailly’s head on its way in.

As the first half went into the second minute of added time, Eirik Bakke’s pass found Milner on the edge of the penalty area. The boy stepped inside Gallas, whom many judges are lauding as the best defender in the Premiership this season, before driving handsomely across De Goey and into the keeper’s left-hand corner. The Leeds players buried the scorer under an avalanche of bodies.

Ranieri sent on an extra striker, Hasselbaink, for the second half, and Chelsea would have pulled one back after 55 minutes but for the excellent challenge with which Wood-gate distracted Enrique De Lucas in the act of shooting, one-on-one with Paul Robinson. Leeds threatened to wrap it up with back-to-back headers 10 minutes later, when Woodgate and then Mark Viduka were just wide.

Leeds Robinson, Kelly, Woodgate, Mills, Lucic, Bakke (Seth Johnson 85), Smith, Okon, Wilcox, Kewell (Milner 31), Viduka (Fowler 83).

Subs Not Used: Martyn, Duberry.

Booked: Smith, Okon.

Goals: Woodgate 30, Milner 45.

Chelsea de Goey, Ferrer (Hasselbaink 45), Desailly, Gallas, Le Saux, Stanic, Morris, Lampard, Gronkjaer (De Lucas 45), Zola, Gudjohnsen.

Subs Not Used: Babayaro, Terry, Pidgeley.

Att: 40,122

Ref: G Barber (Hertfordshire).

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