AT THIS stage of the season, momentum means so much. Leeds United, in the relegation zone since October, are on an upward curve after two successive victories. Certainly, the 5,000-plus visiting supporters who saw their team grind out victory at Ewood Park are adamant that their traumatic season will have a happy ending.

Their optimism is shared by Eddie Gray. “There are a few teams fighting at the bottom and we have players who believe in themselves,” the Leeds caretaker-manager said. By beating Leicester and Blackburn within five days, Gray’s team have hit form at just the right time and are within touching distance of safety. Only goal difference now separates Leeds from Portsmouth and Blackburn, the teams immediately above the bottom three.

It is a position that even Leeds United’s most ardent followers might have struggled to believe could happen during the darkest days of the campaign. Beaten 6-1 at Ports- mouth in Peter Reid’s final match in charge and without an away win since November until yesterday, Leeds have finally allied steel to the skill provided by the likes of strikers Mark Viduka and Alan Smith.

Graeme Souness, the Blackburn manager, said the Leeds forwards’ contribution was decisive in a match that ended in Rovers’ 10th home defeat of the season. That assessment did not do Leeds justice. They harried and hustled an anxious Blackburn into mistakes and always possessed a greater cutting edge in attack.

The tone was set within the first 84 seconds, when Stephen Caldwell, Leeds’s Scottish defender, headed his first goal for the club from a Gary Kelly cross. In their previous away fixture, at Birmingham City, Leeds also took an early lead but finished up on the receiving end of a 4-1 thumping. However, they showed more resilience yesterday.

Souness had billed the match as the biggest in his four years in charge at Ewood Park. Such an important game could not have had a worse start. “We gifted them a goal,” he said. “It was like a dream come true for them and made it so much more difficult for ourselves.”

Leeds, with Dominic Matteo patrolling the midfield with menace and their defence giving ample protection to goalkeeper Paul Robinson, who was violently ill less than half an hour before kick-off, launched only sporadic raids on the Blackburn goal, but they could have finished the game as a contest long before they did. James Milner struck the crossbar and Mark Viduka rolled a shot just beyond the far post.

The game was decided in a 60-second spell just before full-time. Robinson made a splendid diving save from Andrew Cole, and in Leeds’s next attack they made the three points safe, Viduka sweeping the ball into the net following good work from a lively Jermaine Pennant.

In stoppage time, Craig Short capitalised upon a rare defensive lapse by Leeds, heading home unchallenged, but by then the die was cast. With Leeds the only team in the bottom six to win yesterday, and Smith ensuring he will not be suspended for the relegation run-in by avoiding a caution at Ewood Park, the day could scarcely have gone better for the Yorkshire club.

“The players worked extremely hard but we’ve got to build on this victory and take it into the Everton game on Tuesday,” Gray said.

Even when Souness complemented his side, he was damning them with faint praise. “I can’t fault the players’ effort, and we huffed and puffed,” he said. “As long as we keep working like that, we’re in with a fighting chance. We are now just outside the bottom three on goal difference, so it’s very much game on.”

Souness may have been satisfied with his team’s application, but one angry Blackburn fan took off his replica shirt after Leeds’s second goal and hurled it onto the pitch.

Gray acknowledged the importance of Caldwell’s early strike. “It made it an uphill struggle for Blackburn after that,” he said. “We managed to contain them well and then we had the opportunities in the second half to finish it.

“James (Milner) and Mark (Viduka) had chances, while Paul (Robinson) when he was called upon did his job, even though he nearly never played because he has been ill for the last couple of nights and has not trained since Tuesday.”

Blackburn Friedel, Neill, Amoruso, Short, Gray, Emerton, Tugay, Flitcroft, Reid (Gallagher 45), Cole, Stead (Jansen 68).

Subs Not Used: Todd, Andresen, Enckelman.

Booked: Gray, Flitcroft.

Goals: Short 90.

Leeds Robinson, Kelly, Caldwell, Duberry, Harte, Pennant, Seth Johnson (Bakke 56), Matteo, Milner, Smith (McPhail 90), Viduka.

Subs Not Used: Radebe, Simon Johnson, Carson.

Booked: Matteo, Milner.

Goals: Caldwell 2, Viduka 89.

Att: 26,611

Ref: S Dunn (Gloucestershire).

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