IF LEEDS UNITED are to escape relegation from the Barclaycard Premiership, Alan Smith and Mark Viduka will have to lead them to safety as they did by overwhelming weak Wolverhampton Wanderers last night. The Yorkshire club had not won since 11 days before Christmas but this almost became a rout.

The fourth goal, a wonderful turn and shot from Viduka in added time, was enough to lift Eddie Gray’s team above Wolves on goal difference at the bottom of the table. Morale will have taken an even greater leap although, with Manchester United and Liverpool to follow, it may soon be back in the dirt.

At least Leeds have ten days before the trip to Old Trafford to savour an emphatic and uplifting end to a run of six league defeats. Steven Caldwell, on loan from Newcastle United, is an improvement on recent centre backs and, if Viduka and Smith remain fit and on form, Leeds have a far more potent attack than the teams around them. There is a flicker of hope with Portsmouth only three points ahead and the two strikers looking sharp.

“The two boys up front are big players for us,” Gray said. “If they keep playing like that and we keep supplying them, we could turn the corner.” Smith and Viduka are good enough to have been on Sir Alex Ferguson’s shopping list before he opted for Louis Saha, and the latter’s return from nursing his sick father in Australia is a huge boost, provided that he shows the same vigour against better defences.

“The two lads up front bullied us,” Dave Jones, the Wolves manager, said.

After a heady night at Elland Road, in the midst of a desperate season, it is back to earth on Friday with another deadline to satisfy the creditors. Whatever becomes of Leeds’s finances over the next six months, and the possibilities are terrifying, the board is not getting carried away by talk of a Ugandan takeover. Michael Ezra, a property tycoon, has yet to prove that he is any more serious than the Bahraini sheikh who offered everything but enough money. More empty promises are not what Leeds fans require.

There have been enough of those from a team that has talked of fighting for survival but, too often, has moped when things have turned against them, although they were were full of defiance last night. In banishing David Batty from the squad for the rest of the season, Gray had removed one malcontent and he will have been reassured by the commitment of the rest.

The opening goal for Smith in the fourteenth minute was his first in the league for three months, so the England forward will not have minded that it was one of his scrappiest. From a looping cross, Caldwell nodded the ball goalwards and, after a scramble, Smith prodded it home with his shin from a yard out.

Wolves had begun cautiously but, forced to respond, they quickly exposed some frailties in the home defence. Paul Robinson looked uncertain and the goalkeeper was slow to get down when Carl Cort chested the ball down for Ioan Ganea to shoot from just outside the area. A familiar foreboding quietened Elland Road as the ball evaded Robinson’s dive.

Almost embarrassed when his weak punch was returned goalwards by Colin Cameron, Robinson will have been grateful to see Smith, Viduka and the two wingers, James Milner and Jermaine Pennant, striving to keep the ball at the other end. Four minutes before the interval, Leeds regained the lead when, from Smith’s flick-on, Jones punched the ball to Dominic Matteo. A swing of the Leeds captain’s left leg and a small deflection put his side back in front, but it was going to take a three-goal victory to lift Leeds from the bottom of the table.

They scored the third in the 62nd minute when Smith’s miscued shot flew across the goalmouth to the far post, where Milner slid in for his second Premiership goal of the season. Soon afterwards, Smith shot wide under pressure, Viduka headed against the crossbar and Pennant blazed over before Viduka’s late flourish.

“We have been on a good run but we didn’t turn up in the second half,” Jones said. “This was an opportunity to open a gap and we didn’t take it. It’s still wide open.”

LEEDS UNITED (4-4-2): P Robinson — G Kelly, D Matteo, S Caldwell, D Domi (sub: I Harte, 46min) — J Pennant, E Bakke, Seth Johnson, J Milner — A Smith, M Viduka. Substitutes not used: S Carson, S McPhail, A Lennon, F Richardson. Booked: Bakke.

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS (4-4-2): P Jones — D Irwin, J Craddock, P Butler, L Naylor — K Miller (sub: J Silas, 62), A Rae, C Cameron, M Kennedy — I Ganea, C Cort (sub: S Iversen, 77). Substitutes not used: M Oakes, M Clyde, J Gudjonsson. Booked: Cameron, Irwin.

Referee: M Dean.