For the first hour of this game it looked likely that Leeds would come away with all three points, but a couple of late errors at the back gifted the game to Blackburn Rovers.

As expected it was the Leeds fans who created most of the atmosphere for long periods of the game, with an incredible away following of 6,839 in a total crowd of 21,432. Blackburn had a few fans in the corner of both of the stands either side who tried to make some noise, but even that was rather boys pen sort of stuff, and we had to wonder whether anyone was alive in any of the remaining home sections of the stadium.

Neil Redfearn elected to keep the same starting eleven who began the last match with Blackpool two weeks ago, and many of us were thankful this meant sticking with Cooper and Pearce in central defence, with Bellusci available but confined to the bench.

The start of the game was lively, but without much goalmouth action at either end in the early stages. Blackburn were having a bit more of the possession, but at that point the Leeds defence was looking solid, although I thought that Marshall was giving Byram a difficult time whenever they attacked down that side. Their best effort was a shot from Cairney that clipped the bar.

But Leeds began to get into the game with some good passing moves, and an excellent spell just after the half hour mark brought us the opening goal. First Adryan created space for himself and hit a curling shot from distance, which was heading for the top corner until Steele got across to tip the ball over the bar.

As we kept up the pressure, Cook had a shot deflected away for another corner, and when Blackburn failed to clear, Doukara scored from a narrow angle. Leeds seemed to be well in control for the rest of the half, and the large Leeds following dared to hope that a rare away victory could be on the way.

The only change at half time was Silvestri’s top, presumably because his original outfit was a bit too similar to the dark blue kit of the outfield players, so he came out sporting what looked like a green training ground jersey. I first noticed that when he was called on to make a fine save from Jordan Rhodes.

Blackburn were looking a bit more determined in the second half, as we might have expected, but Leeds kept coming forward and kept playing plenty of neat football. Cook sent a shot straight at Steele and Mowatt worked himself into a good position for another of his trademark left foot belters from outside the box, but disappointingly sent the ball wide.

We started to show signs of running out of puff, but still looked likely winners as the game moved into the last 20 minutes. Yet that all changed with a disastrous misunderstanding between Cooper and Silvestri, who left it to each either to deal with a through ball and neither touched it, so it ran through to leave Jordan Rhodes the simple task of walking the ball into the net.

At last the Blackburn end woke up, and they actually started to make a bit of noise as Rovers forced a couple of corners to put us on the back foot. Bellusci came on for Beradi to give the back four a bit more protection, so perhaps Redfearn had read all the comments on twitter that Bellusci could play as a defensive midfield player. And we were close to regaining the lead as Adryan’s through ball saw Atenucci beat the offside trap for once, but agonisingly his shot came back off the post.

Then Blackburn’s Cairney picked up a second yellow for a bad challenge on Cooper, and against 10 men it seemed that Leeds would be the more likely side to take the points. The Blackburn fans mindlessly booed Cooper from then on, as if it was his fault that Cairney had clattered into him when the ball had gone, despite already having been booked.

But Luke Varney had come on for Blackburn (and was informed he was “too shit to play for Leeds”) and we all know about his dishonesty in the penalty box when there’s the chance of winning a penalty. I remember him rightly booked for a dreadful dive when he was playing for us at Palace, so it’s all the more frustrating that it worked out for him when he was playing against us.

Certainly it was naïve of Byram to make the challenge and give Varney the chance to fall over his leg, but that doesn’t make it right for him to go down, it’s still cheating. And the fact that a lot of players do it these days doesn’t make it OK. Anyway, Jordan Rhodes sent Silvestri the wrong way from the spot, and we had three minutes plus injury time to save the game.

There were five additional minutes, but despite Sharp coming on as an extra striker and Silvestri going up for a corner right at the end we couldn’t force an equaliser past the massed ranks of Blackburn defenders.

At the end we could hardly believe we’d lost, as we’d played so well for much of the game, but lost we had. If we can keep up the progressive football going forward and cut out the defensive errors we can start to climb the table, but if we are to stand any chance of making the play-offs after our poor start we need to pick up points in games like this.

Photo: Action Images

Derby County Polls