LOVE him or loathe him, you cannot ignore Alan Smith. Branded a “foul-mouthed thug” and a “provocateur” by Hapoel Tel-Aviv’s players in the build-up to this game, the striker responded by scoring four times as Leeds United cantered into the Uefa Cup third round. You could almost taste his revenge.
Hapoel’s pre-match assault on Smith’s character was always fraught with danger. A maelstrom of passion and purpose with a peroxide rinse, he is one player who does not need additional motivation. By the end of this battle on neutral ground, it was Hapoel who were rewriting the book of cynicism, indulging in dives and petulant swipes at their nemesis. Josef Abukasis earned the red card that his frustration had rendered inevitable after picking up a second booking for dissent and only ambivalent officiating by the Austrian referee saved others from following suit.
Smith wallowed in his success. Although Hapoel’s harping had been unwarranted, he knows that he is sometimes his own worst enemy. But when the raw rage is kept bubbling beneath the surface, he is indispensable. Having never scored a hat-trick for Leeds, this was sweet vindication.
Smith had been sufficiently concerned by Hapoel’s comments to call a meeting with Peter Ridsdale, the Leeds chairman. “I wanted to know that if something did happen then I would have the full backing of the club,” he said, explaining the thumbs-up he raised to the directors’ box at full-time. “It was just about my discipline and the chairman and gaffer (Terry Venables) told me not to let it wind me up. There is no better way to show them.”
It had all started ominously, though, with Leeds conceding a goal after only 70 seconds. Shorn of three quarters of their regular back four, one wondered how they would settle against a side that had exhibited an adventurous streak in the first leg. Abukasis’s unerring 25-yard free kick plucked at their nerves. For half an hour, Leeds struggled. They passed and probed but created little, while the rusty limbs of the makeshift pairing of Michael Duberry and Lucas Radebe wavered on the edge of further embarrassment.
Cue Smith. His first strike sent his team-mates smiling into the comfort zone and, with Hapoel now needing to score three, the pressure lifted.
Harry Kewell stuttered towards his true ability and Ian Harte, so often the brunt of terrace angst, had an assured game. Venables could even blood two of the club’s promising youngsters. Matthew Kilgallon and Frazer Richardson made their debuts, although the injury sustained by the indomitable Radebe is a concern.
Leeds had other problems in the opening stages. Even without Pini Balili, the striker who had been so effective at Elland Road, Hapoel carved Leeds apart on several occasions. Omri Affek rattled the bar with a left-foot drive with the score at 1-1 and Duberry looked like a man who had not started a game since March.
Abukasis was the catalyst for Hapoel’s best work with his thoughtful use of the ball and surging breaks, but by the end he had departed, Leeds were rampant and Venables heaped praise on his hero for the turnaround. “We know he has got to look at certain areas, but he has and sometimes your reputation can go ahead of you,” he said.
“To see Alan score four was wonderful, but he has got to deliver performances like that on a consistent basis.”
Equally pleasing was the way that Leeds reacted after conceding such an early goal. “So many teams could have dropped their heads, but the way they responded was great,” Venables said.
“I keep saying our performances have been getting better. People have doubted that, but we have an excellent spirit here.” Eight goals in two games and the fact that a string of first-teamers were absent last night should fuel such optimism.
Inevitably it was Smith who changed the atmosphere in Fiorentina’s sparsely populated stadium. A neat one-two with Bakke saw him burst into the penalty area and his low, angled drive crashed in off a post. Leeds were as good as home. An Exocet by Harte against the bar suggested that there was more to come; Smith delivered.
After 56 minutes he scored a goal that highlighted the tenacity that makes him such a favourite of Sven-Göran Eriksson, the England head coach. With Shavit Elimelech, the goalkeeper, favourite to reach a ball close to the byline, Smith chased what seemed a lost cause and prodded the ball goalwards. It spun inches over the line before it was hacked away. Seven minutes later, Smith completed his hat-trick. Kewell floated a delicious ball across the box and, although Elimelech parried Smith’s header, the 22-year-old nonchalantly stabbed home the rebound.
The 2,000 travelling fans lapped it all up, embracing their cult hero by chanting his name throughout. Smith, however, was not finished and he nodded home a fourth. In one game he had scored more times than he had managed all season and delivered the perfect riposte to Hapoel’s dissenters.
HAPOEL TEL-AVIV (4-4-2): S Elimelech — R Halis, A Domb, S Gershon, Y Hillel — O Affek (sub: B Luz, 46min), J Abukasis, G Halmai, S Toema — S Clescenko (sub: K Udi, 46), A Knafo (sub: P Balili, 62). Substitutes not used: G Salem, K Saban, A Halfon, S Abutbul. Booked: Abukasis. Sent off: Abukasis.
LEEDS UNITED (4-4-2): P Robinson — G Kelly (sub: F Richardson, 65), L Radebe (sub: M Kilgallon, 62), M Duberry, I Harte — N Barmby, L Bowyer, E Bakke (sub: S McPhail, 55), J Wilcox — A Smith, H Kewell. Substitutes not used: N Martyn, M Bridges, J Burns. Booked: Wilcox.
Referee: F Stuchlik (Austria).
