THERE WAS SO MUCH HATE infiltrating Elland Road on Saturday, it all became rather blurred. They started the afternoon greeting Lee Bowyer as “scum” as their not-long-lost enemy stepped off the visiting team’s coach and finished it, outnumbered by stewards, chanting “We thought you were Leeds, we were wrong” to Peter Ridsdale, the chairman charged with selling the crown jewels. In between times, West Ham United showed Leeds United’s angst brigade what a real crisis looks like.

In their respective soap operas, Leeds are in less of a lather than West Ham because at least they will be hanging on to their Barclaycard Premiership meal ticket. Leeds won this game because they were more willing to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. In footballing parlance, they wanted it more.

This factor was epitomised by the man who has stepped into the shoes left empty when Bowyer decided to decamp to West Ham in a 17-match self-promotion campaign. You know: cropped-haired midfield terrier, puts a foot in, gets around the park, passes short and simple, pushes on to support the front men, winds up opponents, has the capabilities for an England call-up. Terry Venables, for whom the Leeds fans have run out of hate, would have sold Seth Johnson, too, but the Leeds manager can be grateful for a failed medical at Middlesbrough.

Johnson scored his first goal for Leeds — indeed, his first for 2½ years — when surging on to a one-two with Gary Kelly to direct a shot, right-footed, from 20 yards that deflected past David James off Ian Pearce. “I know Ian’s lost a bit of weight,” the goalkeeper said. “Maybe if his Harris was still a bit bigger it might have deflected wider for a corner.”

From Leeds’ own downsizing, Johnson has grabbed his returning opportunity with both hands. Frédéric Kanouté, in contrast, wasted his by using his hands to grab then slap Johnson and get sent off. There goes his comeback. It was suggested that the return of their first-choice striking partnership would enable West Ham to start outscoring opponents — you cannot expect this defence to keep too many clean sheets — yet Paolo Di Canio and Kanouté were shamefully ineffective.

Yes, they were well shackled by Michael Duberry and Dominic Matteo. True, they are both just returning from long-term injuries. But they simply did not put enough in and that set the tone. Joe Cole did show spirit and, at the start of the second half, was unfortunate when one fine shot rebounded from the inside of a post and another was saved by Paul Robinson on a day when both prospective England goalkeepers performed well. But Jermain Defoe showed more in his 17 minutes than his talented elders mustered in 70.

When you have Tomas Repka slicing back volleys from 20 yards to allow James to stake his international claim, then the extent of West Ham’s problems becomes clear. They do not have serious injury problems — Leeds sustained three more on Saturday as Raul Bravo, in a polished debut, injured a foot, Eirik Bakke, deputising manfully up front, an ankle and Matteo a hamstring — and they have not yet had to offload their best players. But they have won once in 17 Premiership matches and talk of winning six of their remaining 11 appears fanciful.

“If you want Premiership survival, you’ve got to do it,” James, man enough to face the media, said. “It’s no good talking about the quality of the players we have, if we’re not going to perform as a team, we’re going to go down, it’s as simple as that. Anyone thinking about staying in the Premiership is going to have to start performing. We’ve got ten days together after the internationals in midweek and that gives us time to do the work to put out a team that’s going to win games. We’ve got West Brom next and that’s the big one.”

West Ham also have still to play Sunderland, Bolton Wanderers and Birmingham City and James was relieved that Bolton were held at The Hawthorns. “The good thing is West Brom have pulled Bolton back and that keeps the pack of four teams somewhat together,” he said. “After all, it’s no good us finishing the top of three.”

Leeds United (4-4-2): P Robinson 6 — D Mills 5, M Duberry 6, D Matteo 6 (sub: M Kilgallon, 90min), R Bravo 6 — G Kelly 6, P Okon 6, Seth Johnson 8, J Wilcox 5 — E Bakke 6 (sub: J McMaster, 90), J Milner 7. Substitutes not used: N Martyn, I Harte, N Barmby. Booked: Bravo, Okon. NEXT: Newcastle United (h). FORM: WLLDLW

West Ham United (4-4-2): D James 6 — G Johnson 5, T Repka 2, I Pearce 3, R Brevett 5 (sub: T Sinclair, 83) — L Bowyer 5, M Carrick 4 (sub: D Hutchison, 90), S Lomas 5, J Cole 7 — F Kanouté 3, P Di Canio 2 (sub: J Defoe, 73). Substitutes not used: R van der Gouw, C Dailly. Booked: Brevett, Bowyer. Sent off: Kanouté. NEXT: West Bromwich Albion (a). FORM: LLWLLD

Shots on target: (h) 6 (a) 3. Fouls: (h) 14 (a) 14. Offsides: (h) 5 (a) 3.

FAN FARE

A good win in the circumstances, but the club is in a mess. Ridsdale, Venables, Okon theyre all as bad as each other Leeds were more willing to roll up their sleeves and get dirty

Janine Carter, Leeds United

This Leeds side was there for the taking, but bad luck and Kanouté’s rashness is likely to cost us dear

Gavin Hadland, West Ham United