Leeds had to come from behind to seal a draw with Ipswich Town in a largely dull encounter, but at least we secured our first point of 2014.

There was one enforced change from the line-up who began the game with Leicester 10 days ago, as Luke Varney had asked not to be selected for fear of picking up an injury and jeopardising his proposed move to Blackburn. So Diouf came in and we took the field without an obvious target man for the two wingers to aim for with their crosses.

If we were hoping that the spirited performance against Leicester was the start of a revival of our season then we were to be largely disappointed. Much of the game was passionless and there wasn’t much atmosphere from the crowd of 20,461, though to be fair to ourselves, there wasn’t a great deal to for the fans to get excited about.

Most of the Leeds crosses were easily dealt with by the Ipswich defence, and without any height in our attack we really needed to move the ball quickly along the ground, but when we tried that too many moves broke down through mis-hit passes. Jimmy Kebe was to become the scapegoat for the poor performance, yet he actually began the game quite well by beating players a couple of times as he went down the wing, though it wasn’t to last.

As we approached the half hour mark Ipswich began to have more of the game, with Kenny having to make a fine double save and Lees doing well to make a last ditch tackle as the visitors seemed likely to score. The best effort we had in the first half was a fierce long range shot from Austin that Gerken turned round the post, though I thought it was going wide anyway.

The game picked up a little bit In the early stages of the second half, but still neither side looked like scoring. Then out of the blue Ipswich were presented with the opening goal in the 57th minute, thanks to individual errors by two Leeds players. Kebe was dispossessed rather too easily on the Leeds right, but there seemed no danger when McGoldrick tried a tame shot from outside the area. I was expecting a routine catch by Kenny, so it took me a good couple of seconds to realise it had somehow gone straight through him into the net.

But Leeds recovered from the shock and were presented with the chance to equalise five minutes later after Stewart was pulled down as he made his way to the by-line. Mick McCarthy thinks the penalty was harsh, but I’ll have to say no comment, as it was at the other end of the field and they didn’t show a replay on the big screen. Ross McCormack stepped up and smashed the ball into the roof of the net as Gerken dived the wrong way.

McDermott decided to throw some younger players into the fray to go for the win, so Mowatt and Poleon replaced the two old stagers Brown and Diouf. But Kebe stayed on, to general amazement , as by now he seemed to be running short of fitness and confidence, and he certainly was tracking back to help the defence. Even before his part in the Ipswich goal the fans were getting on his back, and one of the kinder comments in the later stages was that he was a “plank of wood”.

But with Poleon doing plenty of running up front we started to carve out some chances and McCormack twice went close to getting a winner. Firstly he reacted quickly as a Poleon effort came back to him inside the box, but a defender did well to deflect it wide, then Gerken did well to turn another of his shots round the post.

But we couldn’t keep up this pressure, and the game just fizzled out. The final substitution was the strangest of the lot, with Peltier replacing Byram, when I would have taken Kebe off and pushed Byram forward. The ref found four minutes of injury time from somewhere, but much to my frustration Leeds showed no urgency to take advantage and grab a late winner, so that was that.

I suppose we could take the positives and say that at least the draw ended our run of defeats in all competitions, and that we managed our first goal in five games. And I also think that the new formation will work much better once Smith is available and the two wingers get back to fitness. But overall you have to say that this was a frustratingly poor performance and that Ipswich didn’t look much better.

As I drove home I listened to the phone-in on Radio Leeds, with plenty of calls from fed-up Leeds fans and the post-match interview with Brian McDermott, who is clearly unhappy at the way he is being undermined by the on-going saga with the take-over. The one crumb of comfort was the calls from Huddersfield fans saying how badly their playing at the moment and that alone has given me a bit of hope for Saturday. We can only hope that game is a little bit better.

Photo: Action Images

gerrycwmbran added 18:56 - Jan 29 Cameron Stewart worked hard throughout the game and was 200% better than the Leicester game when he was never in the match. Kebe is not fit by his own admission. He was bound to tire but still tried despite the spiteful comments of some fans. Brian was going to take him off BUT Byram was injured 5 minutes earlier and then took another knock right in front of the dugout and had a job to walk let alone run. I think the team as a whole deserve some credit after the S*** that they have had to put up with this week - not least from the antics of the Italian crook around the ground and in the media. I just pray it works itself out by saturday and Huddersfield - and hopefully with the Haigh consortium who at least have shown they want the club to suceed when putting money in the club BEFORE they own it so that it could continue trading when the GFH funds dried up. And lastly we MUST BACK BRIAN THIS WEEKEND and let them know what we think of Italy! MOT gerry cwmbran

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