WITH HOWARD WILKINSON IN THE stands, Brian Deane on the substitutes’ bench and Peter Lorimer in the directors’ box, the past was present at Elland Road. The symbolism was perfect, because memories are obliged to skip a generation. If Leeds United are to rescue themselves, they cannot linger on the glittering folly which propelled them to the Champions League. They require grit, perseverance, a restoration of all the old clichés.

First impressions are fickle — Leeds shared a meaty draw with Newcastle United on the opening day of last season — but Saturday surely provided a foretaste of what will follow; the unfamiliar, an unrelenting battle, lessons in humility. Perhaps the true measure of their sharp decline will come at Gillingham tomorrow. For supporters used to Old Trafford, Highbury and the Olympic Stadium, Kent may feel like a foreign country.

As Kevin Blackwell said, their first away trip since sloping out of the Premiership could easily bring them “a kick up the jacksie” justice, perhaps, for a club still flying by the seat of its pants. The manager’s onerous task has been to construct a team rooted in reality from the debris of overambition, sackings, sales, broken promises and mountainous debt and nobody, Blackwell included, could know what to expect.

At 8.30 on Friday evening, Blackwell was fretting and sweating at the training ground. The following morning brought no time for breakfast. “I’ve been flat out since day one,” he said, “but maybe that helped me. I didn’t have time to think about the magnitude of what this match meant for us.”

And there could be no mistaking the enormity of the occasion. With Gerald Krasner, the chairman, giving warning in his programme notes that it would be premature to think “that all the unpopular decisions are behind us” and the board scrambling to raise revenue, another defeat would have felt like one more nail in the Leeds coffin.

Instead, there was a glimmer of something different, a vision of an alternative future. This may have been a narrow, ugly victory over a Derby County side that avoided relegation to the third tier of English football by a point, but it was characterised by effort, determination and a quality which looked suspiciously like unity.

From Lorimer to Wilkinson, via Billy Bremner, Norman Hunter and Don Revie, it has been the Leeds way.

Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Paul Robinson, James Milner and several others have fled from Yorkshire, but the club may have rediscovered itself in the process. Frazer Richardson, who curled in the game’s only goal in the 71st minute, is a Leeds fan, proud that his parents witnessed his moment. Simon Walton is 16, hungry, and does not even appear on the official squad list.

After a whirlwind stint at Chelsea, Neil Sullivan, the Scotland goalkeeper, made a vital, supreme save from Junior deep in injury time and gave off the impression of surprise and delight at actually playing. Most impressively, there was Danny Pugh, the left winger whose arrival from Manchester United passed unheralded amid the bile and abuse that greeted Smith’s move in the opposite direction.

“Danny is one of those with a great enthusiasm to play for Leeds United,” Blackwell said. “When I gave him the pen to sign his contract, he wouldn’t give me it back. Our fans would always follow us, whether it was to Gillingham or the Arctic Circle, but what they want is desire and spirit.”

Against a club which could provide an object lesson in the harsh, plain facts of relegation, Leeds turned their backs on romance. “Sometimes you have to start again,” George Burley, the Derby manager, said. It will be a strenuous process and not based on what Krasner termed “the ephemeral dream that can disappear when the cold light of day hits”. This was a start.

Leeds United (4-4-2): N Sullivan 8 — G Kelly 6, M Duberry 7, P Butler 6, M Kilgallon 6 — F Richardson 8, J Wright 6, S Walton 6 (sub: L Radebe, 65min 5), D Pugh 8 — M Ricketts 4 (sub: B Deane, 73), J Joachim 5. Substitutes not used: S Carson, S Crainey, S Guppy. NEXT: Gillingham (a)

Derby County (4-4-2): L Camp 6 — J Kenna 5 (sub: M Reich, 79), P Mills 6, M Johnson 6, R Jackson 5 — T Huddlestone 5 (sub: A Bolder, 61), I Taylor 6, M Bisgaard 5, I Idiakez 5 — T Smith 5, M Tudgay 4 (sub: Junior, 61 6). Substitutes not used: L Grant, P Peschisolido. Booked: Kenna. NEXT: Leicester City (h)

Shots on target: (h) 8 (a) 7. Fouls: (h) 10 (a) 11. Offsides: (h) 3 (a) 0

Referee: M Clattenburg 7. Attendance: 30,459