Leeds United 1  Colchester United 2

Leeds slipped further behind in the promotion race with yet another embarrassing defeat, this time at home to Colchester. Although a couple of the players can be satisfied with their performances, overall we were disjointed and seemed lacking in confidence, and we can’t pretend that this was anything other than a deserved defeat.

As I was walking across Holbeck moor in the rain for my pre-match drink in the ‘Britannia’ it occurred to me that I couldn’t see a single soul who was also making their way towards Elland Road. Had the game been called off? When I eventually got the old stadium I could see why the streets had been deserted, as the attendance for the game had sunk to a mere 19,625. Are the Leeds public feeling credit crunched or were they too busy with Christmas shopping? Or is it that Leeds fans are becoming disillusioned with Mr. Mc.Allister and his underachieving squad?

Richardson was out through injury, so Hughes was back for yet another stint as an emergency left back. Delph was recalled after his suspension and Kilkenny was also back in the starting eleven, so Howson and Showumni were dropped to the bench and Snodgrass played alongside Becchio as a central striker. Telfer was again preferred to Lubo and was even made captain for the day, which left us lacking a bit of height at the back against the aerial threat of Colchester’s Clive Platt.

Despite the heavy rain the pitch had help up pretty well and didn’t sink into a Histon-style quagmire, but we still didn’t manage to make much progress with our attempts at a neat passing game. Once again we were lacking in width, and although Delph was working hard in the middle, a lot of his runs were going sideways rather than forwards. And with Becchio and Snodgrass wandering wide a lot of the time, when we did try to go forward there usually was no outlet for a forward pass or a cross.

The first half hour was as dull as dishwater, but then Snodgrass decided to liven things up by putting Leeds in front. He dispossessed a defender midway in the Colchester half and beat a couple of players on the left before scoring with a fierce right foot shot from outside the area. The Essex white next to me managed to miss the goal with a badly-timed trip down the concourse, so not only did he come all that way for a dismal defeat against his local team, but he didn’t even see the only piece of skill Leeds managed in the whole game!

At that stage we thought that the goal would settle Leeds nerves and we would go on to win the game, but the game turned in first half injury time, when Douglas conceded a corner as he tried to shield the ball out. And just as we needed to defend the set-piece, the ref decided to force Rui to go off to change his bloody shirt, with predictable consequences. Hammond took advantage by heading the equaliser past Lucas, and just after the re-start Prutton picked up a booking for dissent, which would prove costly later in the game.

Colchester began the second half brightly, with Douglas having to block an effort from Perkins, and Macca decided to give us a bit more firepower by introducing Christie in place of Kilkenny, who had failed to influence the game from his wide right position. Christie took up some intelligent positions but didn’t see a great deal of the ball, though he did have one late shot scrambled away.

But the game’s decisive moment came in the 66^th. minute, as Leeds went down to 10 men as Prutton picked up a second yellow for bringing down Perkins, as the Colchester man went past him in a dangerous position just outside the box. And then they scored from the free kick anyway, as Yeates curled a superb shot past Lucas into the far corner of the net.

We came close to an equaliser from a well struck free kick of our own, but Walker did well to turn Sheehan’s shot over the bar as it was heading for the top corner. With 14 minutes left Macca decided to sacrifice Hughes to give us a bit more firepower, but Showumni won nothing for us in the air, apart from one weak header that Walker had plenty of time to deal with.

 We did have one more chance when another Sheehan free kick produced a goalmouth scamble, but apart from that we never looked like scoring again, and went down to yet another disappointing defeat. And the good news? Sorry, but there isn’t any, as we’re already four points adrift of the play-offs and the next two games are against sides in the top three. Has Mc.Allister got what it takes to turn this around?

Photo: Action Images

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