It certainly wasn’t the one of the most entertaining games I’ve seen, and the best you could say about it is that coming away from Middlesbrough with a draw could almost be considered a decent result.

Many years ago I was listening to John Peel reading the football results at the start of his show when he said “Middlesbrough 0 Leeds 0. Well that sounds really riveting; I wish I’d been at that one!” I couldn’t help thinking of that comment today when it was very much the same story, and more than a few of the 20,424 crowd would have been regretting their decision to come along to the game.

The omens for an entertaining afternoon weren’t good, as Boro had failed to score in their last five games but had conceded only one in the last four, the latter statistic owing much to the fine form of Shay Give during his loan spell from Aston Villa. Their manager Aitor Karanca declared himself unhappy with recent performances in his pre-match interview and demanded an improvement, reminding me of Brian McDermott’s comments after our own shocking spell at the start of the year.

McDermott made five changes, with two of them enforced as the injured Kenny and Byram made way for Butland and Peltier. Cameron Stewart was available after missing the Brighton game for reasons to do with the regulations governing loan spells, and Scott Wooton and Noel Hunt also came into the side.

The first half was incredibly dull. Boro had more of the possession but showed little idea of what to do with it, though we did our best to help them by making a series of over-hit backpasses, perhaps to make sure Butland didn’t fall asleep. When Leeds did go forward our two wingers tended to lose possession far too easily, and we struggled to give McCormack any sort of service.

Our prospective owner Massimo Cellino was watching from the stand and l don’t know what he made of it all, though his dark sunshades seemed a bit unnecessary for an afternoon on Teesside in February. As the game wore on Hunt claimed a penalty after he and a defender collided as they both tried to reach a cross from Stewart, but it would have been very harsh if the referee had agreed with him.

The two sides created their best opportunities of the half in it’s closing minutes, both from outside the area.. First Murphy fired narrowly wide at the end of a decent Leeds move, then at the other end a corner was cleared straight to Butterfield, and we were lucky his fierce shot curved towards Butland and our new keeper was able to tip it over the bar.

Thankfully the game improved a little in the second half, but the first bit of entertainment was the sight of Warnock coming close to scoring an own goal. He got into a complete muddle trying to clear a cross and hit the ball backwards, but thankfully Butland was alert enough to stop the ball going in. Warnock was grinning as he ran back upfield, which I don’t like to see when a player has just made an absolute howler.

Leeds had the next chance as Peltier’s cross found Kebe in a good position, but Kebe needed to get a much firmer contact to direct the ball towards goal, and instead it just drifted wide of the far post. At the other end Graham tried an overhead kick after a miscue from Kamara, and for once Butland failed to hold the initial shot, though he was very quick to pounce on the ball to snuff out any further danger.

Photo: Action Images

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