Leeds United 3 Port Vale 0
Leeds were good in patches last night, and that was enough to overcome a very limited Port Vale side, with a superb late goal from Flo giving the scoreline a rather flattering look. But the atmosphere was muted with a disappointing crowd of just over 20,000, so maybe both the fans and the team are all saving themselves for Saturday’s big local derby.
Casper Ankergren had recovered from injury and reclaimed his place between the sticks, but Seb Carole failed in his own battle for fitness, so Westlake took his place out on the left. Kishishev also came into the midfield and I was disappointed that Wise made room for him by playing Hughes out of position at left back, in place of young Ben Parker.
We started brightly enough, and deserved to go in front on 18 minutes, when Hughes raced down the left and sent over an excellent cross beyond the far post, where Prutton did well to climb above his marker to nod it into the net for his first Leeds goal. £1 at odds of 10-1 for first scorer, thank you very much! If only I’d been just a little bit braver and staked my mortgage on it.
At that stage we all thought Leeds would go on to win the game comfortably, but we seemed to sit back and content ourselves with whacking long balls to the front two. Penguin was playing some shocking balls in midfield, and somebody near me in the crowd advised him to “clear off back to Antartica”, or words to that effect. Our main defensive tactic was to catch them offside, which worked well at the start, but Casper had to come smartly off his line on a couple of occasions when it didn’t.
We were close to getting a second when Kandol muscled his way through and Beckford hit the post from his cross, but the crowd was getting restless as half time approached. Luckily we managed to pick up the pace after the break, and deservedly went further in front after 55 minutes. A long pass through the middle from Rui found Beckford on the edge of the box, and he did brilliantly to beat his man as he dragged the ball back, before firing past the keeper into the far corner. Unfortunately the stewards saw fit to drag someone out from the front of the kop for over-celebrating.
Vale produced a couple of shots from Rogers and Laird, but by now Leeds were getting well on top. Kishishev made a fine run down the right, before falling over a defender as he cut inside, to earn a free kick just outside the box. It was a position that invited a left-footed player to have a shot, but although Vale only mustered a two man wall, Westlake still managed to hit it.
Beckford hobbled off after taking a couple of knocks, to be replaced by Flo, and as Kishishev was running out of steam he made way for Howson for the final quarter of an hour. It wasn’t a bad return for the Bulgarian, who produced a lot of good touches, and at times seemed too good for his midfield colleagues to be on the same wavelength. We sealed the win seven minutes from time when a long through was nodded on by Kandol and seemed to hit Flo on the thigh. But it sat up nicely for the Norwegian and his second touch was brilliant, a superb dipping volley that gave Anyon no chance. And we were close to a fourth as the game moved into stoppage time, but a shot from Howson was scrambled off the line.
While I was driving home a Vale fan rang the Radio Leeds phone in to whinge that the ref had favoured Leeds throughout the game, but I hadn’t noticed that myself. In truth, Vale were so poor that we didn’t need any help from the official, while Leeds will need to play better on Saturday.