IF LEEDS UNITED THOUGHT THAT their troubles had bottomed out, they might care to think again. When supporters of the Barclaycard Premiership’s bottom side start asking en masse whether they can play you every week, you know how low your stock has fallen. Worse still, Leeds deserved to lose, as Wolverhampton Wanderers, unbeaten at Molineux since September 20, clawed themselves back into contention for salvation with a barnstorming victory.
Wolves are now four points off seventeenth place with a game in hand; an unlikely escape suddenly starts to sound less than impossible. “That’s how stupid the division is,” Dave Jones, the manager, said. “It’s so unreliable. Leeds have had some great results lately and they probably came here today expecting to win. I think we surprised them.”
Steffen Iversen doubled his season’s tally with the two second-half goals that separated the sides after they had exchanged belated festive gifts in the first, Wolves presenting Michael Duberry with a free header before Alan Smith sliced in an own goal to level matters. “I don’t think we played as well as we’re capable of, didn’t pass the ball as we can,” Eddie Gray, the Leeds caretaker manager, said. “They deserved to win. Every game’s going to be a scrap for us but while the players have given me everything in effort, I don’t believe we’re too good to go down.”
The dismissal of Dominic Matteo in the second period did not aid Leeds’s cause. Not for the first time, the optimists among the Wolves fraternity came to a game believing it was a case of “do or die”. Even the “do” bit of this equation would only mean they could re-enter the relegation battle with a chance of staying up; die, and they would be nine points adrift of one of their main rivals.
As temperatures dipped rapidly from kick-off, home hearts soon turned to ice. Ian Harte sent over one of his inswinging corners and Duberry climbed at the near post to head in. No wonder the Leeds defender lifted his face to the saturnine skies, as if in disbelief. Without a goal in 3½ years until this month, he has now scored twice in four matches.
This appeared the platform that Leeds required to extend their recent run. Since Gray took over after Peter Reid was dismissed on November 10, they had lost only the first of six matches before yesterday. Yet so tight was the relegation frame at the start of play, that only three points separated them, in nineteenth position, from Manchester City, who have led the Premiership this season, in thirteenth.
With cruel irony, it was Smith, the icon of Elland Road, who gifted the home side a way back into this game. Those who question his innate finishing skills might have had something to say about the way he lashed a shot into the top corner in the eighteenth minute. Henri Camara’s corner, low to the near post, was a poor delivery but Smith contrived to slash his attempted clearance back across goal and over Harte’s head.
With all that was at stake, yet with confidence at varying levels, a game that was never likely to be of great aesthetic appeal deteriorated. Passes went astray, the delivery of crosses was shoddy and tackles flew in with alacrity and venom. Three Leeds players were booked in quick succession. When Matteo was dismissed 14 minutes from time, for earning a second booking by felling Lee Naylor, cries of “dirty Leeds” rained down from the stands.
Wolves got their noses in front early in the second half. At last, it came from a measured centre. Shaun Newton combined well with Camara down the right wing and then steadied himself before crossing for Iversen to loop a header over Paul Robinson. If the England goalkeeper was found wanting on that occasion, he made amends when he produced a top-class save to parry Kenny Miller’s header after Naylor’s free kick.
Leeds improved after James Milner’s introduction and Jody Craddock did well to block Smith’s shot from the teenage substitute’s pass. Wolves produced moments of excellent close-passing football, Miller, Paul Ince and Colin Cameron linking well, Camara always a threat, but after they were handed the bonus of playing with a numerical advantage, their play became scrappy. Perhaps it was then that they believed their first victory in two months was in sight.
Camara repeatedly got away when Wolves counter-attacked and a minute into stoppage time, when the Senegal forward cantered from the halfway line and his shot rebounded from the post, Iversen was on hand to touch in the rebound and seal his team’s third win of the season.
Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-4-2): M Oakes 6 — O Luzhny 4, J Craddock 5, P Butler 6, L Naylor 5 — S Newton 5 (sub: H Kachloul, 82min), P Ince 7, C Cameron 6, H Camara 6 — S Iversen 6, K Miller 7. Substitutes not used: A Marshall, Silas, J Gudjonsson, M Clyde. Booked: Naylor. NEXT: Blackburn Rovers (h). FORM: WLLLDL
Leeds United (4-1-3-2): P Robinson 5 — G Kelly 4, M Duberry 5, M Kilgallon 4, I Harte 4 — D Matteo 5 — J Pennant 7 (sub: L Sakho, 82), E Bakke 5, S McPhail 4 (sub: J Milner, 62 7) — M Viduka 3, A Smith 5. Substitutes not used: S Carson, S Johnson, F Richardson. Booked: Duberry, Matteo, McPhail, Bakke. Sent off: Matteo. NEXT: Newcastle United (a). FORM: LDDWDW
Shots on target: (h) 7 (a) 5. Fouls: (h) 11 (a) 14. Offsides: (h) 1 (a) 4
Referee: A D’Urso 5. Attendance: 29,139
