Cheltenham 1 Leeds 0

Leeds had most of the possession throughout this game, only to lose to an 86^th. minute  goal from Steven Gillespie.

After a couple of home defeats in the cup competitions Leeds needed to get the season back on track, and some of the big guns came back into the side to replace the fringe players who featured in those games. Marques and Douglas returned to the starting line-up, while Kishishev and Flo recovered from injury in time to make the bench.

And during the first half it looked as though normal service would be resumed, as we dominated right from the start, with early chances for Beckford and Carole, while Douglas narrowly fired over the top. And it all continued in the same vein, with Douglas forcing Higgs into a fine save on the half hour mark, and Beckford hitting the bar.

After the break Beckford sent two shots narrowly wide, before Cheltenham finally managed a decent chance of their own, with Gillespie shooting narrowly over the bar. Then it was Beckford’s turn to shoot over, before Kandol had a fine header saved by Higgs.

With seventeen minutes left it was time for Wise to go for broke and go try his four forwards routine once again, with De Vries and Flo entering the fray in place of Parker and Prutton. And it seemed to have worked when Higgs couldn’t hold onto a Douglas free kick, and Beckford raced in to nod the ball home. But the joy didn’t last, as the linesman put his flag up for an offside decision.

And having thrown so many men forward, it was inevitable that we’d leave a few gaps at the back, which Cheltenham cruelly exploited with four minutes left, by sneaking down the other end to grab the winner. Lucas came racing to the edge of the area to deal with a through ball, and opted to head clear as he’d lost his bearings and  wasn’t sure if he’d come out of his box. It went straight to Gillespie, who accepted the invitation to lob him from 25 yards.

Daylight robbery, so they say, but we should bear in mind that we’ve ridden our luck in one or two other games, most notably Forest, which we won in similar circumstances. The old cliché is that the breaks will even themselves out over the course of a season. We can console ourselves with the thought that if we can keep the good performances coming the results will surely improve, and the squad can now have a well-earned break before the Port Vale game on Tuesday week.

On! On! On!

Photo: Action Images

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