THERE WERE STILL FIVE MINUTES of mediocrity remaining when Rio Ferdinand shuffled out of the directors’ box and made his way down the row, preferring to beat the rush to the players’ lounge rather than risk getting caught in a stampede at the end. The suits smiled sympathetically as he passed them, as if to suggest that his friends on the pitch were letting him down in his absence, and, to complete the delusion, those players doubtless conveyed the same thoughts when they met him afterwards.

Ferdinand’s is a curious existence these days, training with his Manchester United team-mates all week and then sitting silently in the stands as they struggle without him on match-days. Nobody at Old Trafford dares to suggest that his “innocent mistake” was worthy of condemnation, but, as he listens to the derision directed at Wes Brown, John O’Shea and others after yet another defensive catastrophe, it must occur to Ferdinand that he is more responsible for the collapse of their title challenge than any of them.

It is five months today since Ferdinand slipped out of the club’s training ground and into the biggest drugs controversy British football has known. Rather than submit to the UK Sport doping testers, he spent his afternoon shopping. The FA suspended him for eight months — a sentence he started last month in the hope of having it reduced at an appeal in March — but, while he continues to pick up his £70,000 wages every week, United are labouring without him. For the first half of the season, with Ferdinand in fine form, they defended well enough to compensate for their shortcomings elsewhere after a summer of curious transfer activity. When Ferdinand limped out of a match away to Wolverhampton Wanderers last month, they were drawing 0-0 and on course to move at least two and possibly four points clear at the top of the Premiership. Now, after Alan Smith registered the tenth goal against them in the past five league matches, they find themselves seven points adrift of Arsenal.

To attribute their latest slip-up entirely to Ferdinand’s absence would be to overlook other factors — Sir Alex Ferguson’s mystifying omission of Roy Keane from the starting line-up and a spirited performance from Leeds United — but his suspension is looking like a turning point in the title race. With Gary Neville suspended for the next three league matches and Mikaël Silvestre suffering ankle and knee injuries on Saturday, Ferguson’s reluctance to buy a defender during the transfer window is increasingly unfathomable.

Not that all is well elsewhere in Ferguson’s team. Ruud van Nistelrooy was subdued on Saturday, perhaps irked at being asked to play alone up front as Louis Saha was rested, while Nicky Butt failed to make the most of a rare opportunity in midfield. Kléberson, given the luxury of a free role behind Van Nistelrooy, plumbed new depths of ineptitude before making way for Keane, who, having played just once in the past fortnight, brought a zest that his team-mates, many of them tired after midweek internationals, had lacked.

Ferguson’s team played so poorly on Saturday that Leeds might even have won at Old Trafford for the first time since 1981 had they not been without Paul Robinson, their first-choice goalkeeper, and Mark Viduka, their leading goalscorer. It would be easy to say that Scott Carson, Robinson’s 18-year-old deputy, acquitted himself well on a daunting full debut, but he was not tested before the 64th minute, when he spilt Gary Neville’s cross, allowing Paul Scholes to give the home team an undeserved lead.

Defeat would have been harsh on Leeds, who, while lacking ambition, showed enough character to warrant a point. That spirit, to nobody’s surprise, was epitomised by Smith, who, having chased lost causes all afternoon, claimed his reward within three minutes of Scholes’s goal, leaping to head Didier Domi’s cross past Tim Howard. It was the forward’s second goal in as many games since he was restored to the front line from an unfamiliar midfield role.

Eddie Gray, the Leeds caretaker manager, volunteered that it was fitting that Smith, “a young Leeds centre forward”, should score on the day that the club mourned the death of the great John Charles. The comparison may be questionable, given that Charles was as renowned for his fair play as his latter-day equivalent is for his ill-discipline, but Smith paid his respects in the best possible way — as did the 67,744 crowd who put aside the longstanding hatred between the clubs by observing an impeccable minute’s silence.

“Big John was a terrific man as well as a wonderful player,” Gray said. “All the players were sad he died and I think they’ve produced a performance that he would have been proud of.”

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): T Howard 5 — G Neville 6, J O’Shea 4, M Silvestre 5 (sub: W Brown, 25min 4), Q Fortune 4 — N Butt 5, P Neville 5 (sub: O G Solskjaer, 71) — P Scholes 6, Kléberson 3 (sub: R Keane, 58 6), R Giggs 6 — R van Nistelrooy 4. Substitutes not used: C Ronaldo, R Carroll. Booked: G Neville. NEXT: Fulham (a). FORM: DLWWLD

Leeds United (4-4-2): S Carson 4 — G Kelly 6, S Caldwell 7, D Matteo 7, D Domi 6 — J Pennant 5, E Bakke 6, S Johnson 6, S McPhail 5 — A Smith 7, J Milner 5 (sub: L Sakho, 73). Substitutes not used: L Radebe, I Harte, S Olembe, S Allaway. Booked: McPhail, Pennant. NEXT: Liverpool (h). FORM: DWLLLL

Shots on target: (h) 7 (a) 3. Fouls: (h) 12 (a) 17. Offsides: (h) 1 (a) 3

Referee: M Halsey 7. Attendance: 67,744