Leeds arrested an early season slump by inflicting a first league defeat on much fancied Forest, goals from Luciano Becchio and youngster Dominic Poleon secured a much needed boost for Neil Warnock's depleted troops.

Becchio's naming on the team sheet led to a huge sigh of relief on the terraces, the Argentine had limped off during the midweek defeat to Hull. Warnock also named Lee Peltier in the centre of defence, switching Tom Lees to right-back. Aidy White dropped to the bench, replaced by Adam Drury and youngster Dominic Poleon made his full home debut taking latest boo-boys target Luke Varney's place in the starting line-up.

Forest, wearing an away strip which looked uncannily like our own little blue number did have an early goal ruled out for foul play, however Leeds started solidily and unlike Tuesday night kept our shape better.

We were rewarded for our endeavour and organisation on 14 minutes, El Hadji Diouf who turned in yet another sound performance whipped over a cross from the right, Sam Byram stabbed it goal wards but it rebounded to the feet of Luciano Becchio to slam his seventh of the season into the roof of the net.

On 26 minutes Leeds doubled their advantage, Becchio battled on the edge of the box and when it seemed he was going up a dead end, he managed to wriggle the ball out wide to Poleon who smashed home inside the near post on a day he will never forget.

Becchio should have ended the contest before the break but blazed a side footed chance well over when it was easier to score.

Forest introduced Lansbury and McGuigan at half time in a desperate attempt to claw themselves back into proceedings. They were rewarded on the hour when Greg Halford launched a long throw into the area and Dexter Blackstock slipped in to back header Forest back into the game with Kenny maybe too slow off his line.

Kenny however did pull off two brilliant saves to deny Forest the equaliser, their most likely threat however seemed to be the free-kicks referee Andy D'Urso gave on the edge of the Leeds area. Lewis McGuigan supposedly their dead-eye free-kick expert had three bites at the cherry and to be fair none of them troubled Kenny.

Leeds simply killed time. Warnock was forced to reshuffle when Lee Peltier limped off with an ankle injury, the introduction of Aidy White on the right flank helped to take some of the pressure off the back line and six minutes of injury time saw Warnock's men come through the test admirably.

After Tuesday's morale sapping loss to Hull, the result combined with the presence of several businessmen in the Directors Box who Ken Bates admitted in his pre-match propaganda were part of the consortium wishing to invest in Leeds and confirmation from the great white bearded-one himself that negotiations are at an "advanced stage" and both parties are "planning for the January transfer-window" -left departing Leeds fans with an unusual heady feeling.

Photo: Action Images

TimWhelan added 21:30 - Sep 22 A great turnaround after Tuesday night, a much better performance and atmosphere in the stadium. My favourite bit of the day was when they showed the first half highlights on the screen and after Becchio's goal the commentator said "He doesn't miss those!"....Except he just had done by putting the ball over the bar from six yards out just before half time!
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