IT WAS hard not to feel some sympathy as the once ebullient figure of Terry Venables walked wearily down the tunnel after the grimmest of second-half stalemates.

Then you looked along the bench against which he leaned throughout the game. The sight of Nigel Martyn, Danny Mills, Robbie Fowler, Seth Johnson and James Milner served to put Venables’ attempts to manage his way through the club’s crisis in some sort of context.

Having sparkled fitfully in the first period, United failed to muster a shot of note thereafter, despite the fact Albion were reduced to 10 men in the final quarter-hour. Had they been awarded a clear penalty, they might have pinched the points.

In the circumstances, Venables’ efforts to accentuate the positive were less than convincing. It had been, he suggested, a game Leeds might have lost back in November, but they had been solid at the back and looked more confident overall: “It was disappointing to drop two points, but if we had been as tight as we were today in other situations this season, we would have been four or five points better off.”

Yet the first half might almost have been regarded as encouraging. Eirik Bakke should have scored in the third minute and Albion goalkeeper Russell Hoult made several outstanding saves in an opening 20 minutes dominated by the home team. Perhaps the best stops were dives to keep out a low shot from Mark Viduka and a volley from Alan Smith intercepted at full stretch as it arced towards the top corner of the net. While the traffic was largely one way, Ronnie Wallwork’s introduction in place of Igor Balis did at least give Albion a little more shape. Had Scott Dobie reacted more quickly to Wallwork’s low cross, the Baggies might even have taken an undeserved lead.

Had they done so, the odds are they would have kept it. Harry Kewell faded, as he so often does, and Viduka expended his energy exploring spiteful blind alleys, while Jason Wilcox might not have been on the field for all the impact he made.

Sniffing an unlikely three points, Albion manager Gary Megson brought on Lee Hughes, and as he chased a long ball with Radebe, the South African clearly handled the ball in the penalty area. Uriah Rennie blew his whistle, but to Albion’s disbelief awarded a free kick against Hughes for pushing Radebe. Andy Johnson’s protests got him a second yellow card.

On came Fowler at last, greeted by the biggest cheer of the afternoon, with just over 10 minutes in which to make an impact, but again it was Albion who might have pinched it, Wallwork’s thumping drive five minutes from time bringing a decent tip-over from Paul Robinson.

Like Venables, however, Megson professed himself reasonably satisfied: “We rode our luck early on and we had our backs to the wall in the last 20 minutes, so we won’t be complaining the officials lost us any points. A draw was probably a fair result.”

Leeds United: Robinson, Kelly, Radebe, Matteo, Lucic, Smith, Bakke (S Johnson 69min), Okon (Fowler 79min), Wilcox (Milner 69min), Viduka, Kewell

West Bromwich Albion: Hoult, Moore, Gilchrist, Gregan, Balis (Wallwork 35min), McInnes, Koumas (Sigurdsson 77min), A Johnson, Clement, Dichio, Dobie (Hughes 63min)

Referee: U Rennie

Attendance: 39,708

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