THIS is a good time of year for pantomime and Paul Gallagher was Stoke City’s reluctant villain last night. The Scot missed an early penalty and Eddie Lewis made sure he paid for it by snatching a scarcely deserved winner for Leeds United in the second half.

It may have been a lucky victory, but the Yorkshiremen are rapidly emerging as the most credible challengers to Sheffield United, who are second in the Coca-Cola Championship. Leeds are up to third and enjoying the sort of form and fortune which is the stuff of promotion contenders.

“I’m delighted because this was a game where we really had to battle hard,” Kevin Blackwell, the Leeds manager, said. “Stoke are full of big players and we had to deal with that. Even their ball-boys are over six feet.” Blackwell’s good humour was understandable, because if his side can play this badly and win, then who knows what they might achieve when they perform to their potential.

United never looked comfortable against Stoke’s snappy passing and quicksilver movement and only the form of Neil Sullivan, the goalkeeper, kept the home team at bay.

That and Gallagher’s powder-puff shooting. His penalty, awarded after Gary Kelly had upended Mamady Sidibe, was hit with all the force of a miniature Christmas cracker and Sullivan’s save down to his left was routine. The former Scotland international had to be more athletic to deflect a low drive from Hannes Sigurdsson on to the post, although he was helpless soon after when Michael Duberry clattered the crossbar.

Having spurned so many chances to win, it was inevitable that Stoke should lose and they did when Lewis rifled in from close range after Jonathan Douglas’s right-wing cross had caused panic.

“The whole game rested on the penalty,” Jan de Koning, the Stoke assistant manager, said. “I’m convinced that had we scored the first goal we would have scored many more because space would have opened up. But only one side deserved to win this match and that was Stoke City.”

Blackwell was not about to disagree, but his analysis of Leeds’s Premiership credentials was slightly awry. “To win promotion you’ve got to have a bit of luck, a lot of balls and play good football,” he declared. His team showed only two of those qualities last night, but they were still enough to keep Leeds marching on.

STOKE CITY (4-4-2): S Simonsen — J Halls (sub: L Buxton, 75min), C Hoefkens, M Duberry, M Broomes (sub: H Sigurdsson, 82) — L Chadwick, D Russell, D Brammer, P Gallagher — M Sidibe, S Bangoura. Substitutes not used: E De Goey, P Sweeney, K Henry. Booked: Chadwick, Gallagher.

LEEDS UNITED (4-3-3): N Sullivan — G Kelly, P Butler, M Kilgallon, D Harding — J Douglas, S Derry, E Lewis — D Healy (sub: L Miller, 66), R Cresswell, R Blake (sub: R Hulse, 82). Substitutes not used: D Pugh, F Richardson, I Bennett.

Referee: M Halsey (rep: C Sarginson, 46min).