Leeds fine run continues at Leyton Orient
Sunday, 6th Apr 2008 16:22

Leyton Orient 0 Leeds 2

Leeds produced one of the best performances of the season to claim a deserved victory, as Leyton Orient looked a pale shadow of the side who could have won at Elland Road in October. Over the last four games Mc.Allister’s boys seem to have finally developed a good understanding and are starting to play the kind of football he wants.

The boss stuck with the same eleven who started the victory at Doncaster on Tuesday night, and it certainly worked out for him, with Leeds on top right from the start. After only 12 minutes Freedman had the ball in the net with a great volley from the outside of his foot, but his effort was ruled out for offside.

But four minutes later Leeds really were in front, after being awarded a free kick over on the right, level with the edge of the penalty area. Johnson took it and drove it across the area with pace, and Huntington got the faintest of touches on the ball to divert it past the keeper into the net.

And Leeds stayed on top for the rest of the half, showing some excellent flowing football coming forward, with Howson at the heart of most of our best moves. It took Orient 20 minutes to muster a decent shot on goal, when Mkandawire fired over the bar, and most of the other chances came at the other end. Howson was denied by Morris after Sheehan had put him through, and the Orient keeper also did well to save from Freedman and Beckford.

Orient weren’t getting much joy against Lubo and Huntington, but they did create a couple of chances as the half came to an end. The best of them fell to Boyd, but he could do no better than to shoot straight at Casper. And the O’s must have regretted this miss five minutes after the interval, when Leeds went further in front. A long ball from Michalakic sent Freedman away down the left, and he beat a defender to cross for the unmarked Beckford, who had the simple task of hammering the ball past Morris from ten yards.

Shortly afterwards there was an amazing goalmouth scramble, with Johnson, Beckford and Freedman all having shots blocked on the line, before play was finally stopped with Kilkenny on top of the ball and players scrapping all around him. Leeds lost a bit of momentum after an hour when Beckford limped off with an ankle injury, to be replaced by Kandol, so let’s hope it’s nothing serious.

Orient’s best chance of the game resulted from a mix-up between Frazer and Casper, but with our noble custodian stranded out of his goal, Demetriou could only shoot wide. After that they were reduced to shooting from distance as Macca brought Prutton and Hughes on to shore things up, and with all substitutes used up, Huntington had to play the last few minutes with a big bandage to cover a head injury.

Sheehan tried another of his long-distance free kicks in the closing minutes, but this time the keeper was equal to it. That was the last decent chance of the game, and Leeds had held out for another decent victory. The force is with us, and we seem to be running into form just in time for the business end of the season. If we get the 15 points back we look good for automatic promotion, but failing that we must should at least be the form team going into the play-offs.