Leeds looked impressive going forward, especially in the first half, but our continuing problems at the back ensured we went down to a heavy defeat at Ipswich Town.

Neil Redfearn had one enforced change to make, with Jason Pearce coming back for the injured Bellusci, but otherwise he elected to go with the same eleven who started last week's win at home to Derby. And they made a bright start, with the opening ten minutes giving no hint of the harrowing afternoon to come.

The Leeds contingent in the crowd were in good voice and provided most of the atmosphere as the game kicked off, and the team responded by putting the Ipswich defence under pressure with a couple of good passing moves. And it took only four minutes for Leeds go in front.

A long ball down the left was just over Doukarra's head as he strained to reach it, but it ran kindly for Warnock, and his cross found Antennuci completely unmarked, giving the Italian the simple task of tapping the ball home. A surprisingly soft goal for a team second in the table to concede, but we weren't going to worry about that.

We continued to go forward, with Adryan looking lively as he made some dangerous runs through the centre. But any thoughts we may have had of being able to sit on that lead for the remainder of the game disappeared in the 12th minute when Ipswich equalised, slightly against the run of play up to that point. A cross from the right saw Daryl Murphy out-jumping Pearce to head the ball past Silvestri into the corner.

Leeds kept going forward to try to get back in front, and one slick passing move set up Bellusci for a fierce shot from outside the area that was bravely blocked by an Ipswich defender. But nearly every time we come to Ipswich we seem to have one major refereeing decision go against us, and this season's duly arrived in the 26th minute with a distinctly soft penalty.

As Warnock and Anderson jumped for the ball on the edge of the area the latter seemed to back into Warnock and then fall over, but the referee pointed to the spot. While the Leeds section protested that "now you've got to believe us, the football league's corrupt", McGoldrick stepped up and sent Silvestri the wrong way from the spot.

A few minutes later Murphy was only just wide, but at that stage it still looked like we had a chance of getting back into the game as we continued to go forward, and Bianchi sent a dangerous ball across the face of goal that just eluded Antenucci. Had we got to half-time only one down Redfearn might have had time to re-organise, but Ipswich scored a crucial third just before the break.

For much of the half Warnock had been sucked into the centre, leaving Mowatt with too much of the defending on that side, and once again Ipswich took advantage, with another goal coming from a move down that side. Silvestri had his arm up to appeal for offside as Murphy was played in, but the linesman didn't oblige, and the shot went through Silvestri's legs to put the tractor boys two in front.

And things got worse three minutes after the break, as Ipswich got their fourth from a Berra shot from close range. By now a rout looked quite possible, with Ipswich full of confidence and working hard to close Leeds down in all areas of the field. Against such opposition our passing needed to be a lot better than it was, and by now we were giving the ball away far too often and putting ourselves under even more pressure.

The first substitution saw Austin coming on for Doukarra, which hardly seemed a positive move, but Redfearn probably thought we needed more of a physical presence in midfield so we didn't get overrun completely. The next change saw Sharp replacing a tiring Adrian, and he put in a busy performance but usually found himself crowded out by Ipswich defenders without adequate support.

I suppose we can be grateful that we got through the rest of the game without conceding any more goals, though Ipswich had further chances from Skuske and Bishop. As time ran out we kept going to try to get at least one consolation, but produced little more than a couple of long-range shots from Austin, one of which was so bad it went for a throw-in.

After three minutes injury time the referee put us out of our misery with the final whistle, and we had gone down to yet another away defeat. We can console ourselves that in theory this was one of the hardest games of the season, away to the team second in the table, but if we are ever going to get results in games like this we will have to defend an awful lot better than we did today.

Photo: Action Images

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