Colchester United 0  Leeds United 1

It was a tight game against Colchester United, but Becchio’s 29^th. minute goal was enough to win the game for Leeds. The home side had a lot of possession throughout the game, but after the opening 20 minutes they rarely posed much of a threat to the Leeds defence.

In the programme the Colchester manager Paul Lambert was suggesting that his side have been unlucky in recent games when they’ve dropped points, and that their performances have deserved better results. I’ve a feeling he may be saying the same thing about this match, after the U’s put Leeds under some early pressure.

One chance for the hosts saw Casper getting down well to turn a shot from Hawley round the post, and Naylor was lucky to get away with a poor back-header that went straight to Platt. But Leeds started to get into the game as the half-hour approached, with Beckford beating the offside trap on a couple of occasions but finding the Colchester defence coming back quickly to snuff out the danger.

At the other end Casper had made another fine save from Yeates, but then Leeds took the lead in the 29^th. minute, with a well-worked goal from Becchio, the Argentinean making space for himself to fire past Cousins with a fierce left foot shot. And Beckford could have scored the second just before half time, but took far too long after Howson had played him through, giving Cousins time to race of his line and smother the shot.

During the break Colchester took the opportunity to remind us of their most famous victory of all time, with their 1971 FA Cup heroes being presented to the crowd. Oh, and a DVD of that game had been on sale behind the main stand before kick-off.

In the second half the play was again very tight, though without as many clear-cut chances as the first, and I wouldn’t say it was the most entertaining 45 minutes football I’ve seen. Leeds seemed to get rather casual at both ends of the field, perhaps feeling tempted to nod off in the warm Essex sunshine. A few decent attacking moves broke down due to sloppy passes, and at times we brought pressure onto ourselves but not clearing the ball as quickly as we could have done.

We had a shout for a penalty on 69 minutes as Becchio claimed to have been pulled down as he tried to meet a cross from Beckford, and then had to receive treatment for an ankle injury. And we thought we’d scored the second three minutes later, but Delph was denied by an offside flag that was so late that the linesman was lucky to make the decision in the right century.

As we struggled to kill the game off I thought that it might be time to give Delph a rest, as he seemed to be flagging a little, and he needed treatment after a hefty challenge from Izzet. We’d been told at the local members meeting on Friday night that he’s carrying an ankle injury, so I thought it might be time to take him off, but instead it was Kilkenny who made way, as Robinson came on to give us another option down the left.

By now tempers were getting a little bit frayed, and after Izzet was spoken to by the referee for another meaty challenge, our former player Maybury got involved in a shoving match with Robinson on the goal-line. Finally, there was a set-to after the Leeds players took exception to a challenge on Snodgrass, which ended with Naylor and Hackney both going into the book.

After all the stoppages it was no surprise that four minutes injury time would be needed, and we almost had some football breaking out, with another chance for Beckford to kill the game off. But this was never going to be his day, and he finished the second half as he finished the first, taking too long after being put through and giving Cousins time to rush out and block his shot.

In the end that miss didn’t matter, and Leeds had held on for the 1-0 win. It wasn’t a vintage performance, but they say that the sign of a good team is to win when you haven’t played well.

Photo: Action Images

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