Port Vale 3 Leeds United 3

Leeds recovered from a poor start to dominate long periods of this game, get failed to hold on to the lead and claim the win. A couple of refereeing decisions went against us, but even so, we really need to be beating sides as poor as Port Vale.

Well, I did say in the awaydaze that “the Vale fans are less aggressive than their dear neighbours from across the city”, and that was just about proved correct. There was almost a bit of bother before the game when a gang of locals tried to get at the Leeds fans who were massed outside one of the pubs, but the police managed to ensure that order was maintained.

At the turnstile I saw one Leeds fan refused entry because he was too drunk, though quite a few more inebriated souls managed to sneak past the stewards and get in. Inside there was quite a strange atmosphere, with about 3500 Leeds fans making up almost half the crowd. The home areas of the ground were almost deserted, apart from chavs corner to our left, and the half of the main stand that had been finished.

Macca responded to the Cheltenham defeat by dropping Richardson and Kandol, starting with Freedman up front and employing Hughes at left back. And quite predictably it didn’t really work. The defence looked unbalanced with a right footer at left back and Kenton out of position at right back, while pulling Hughes out of midfield left us a little bit lightweight in that department. For most of the first half hour Leeds were dreadful, and Vale seemed to be cutting through us quite easily for a side at the bottom of the table.

In the fourth minute Rui stood still appealing for a flag that never came, but thankfully Casper was quickly off his line to save from Rodgers. We nearly scored with our first shot on target, a dipping shot from Kilkenny that the keeper just managed to tip over the bar, but had we scored it would have been against the run of play. Vale began to run out of steam after their bright start, but Leeds didn’t have much of a clue either, and the game was getting so dull I was starting to envy the drunk who hadn’t got in.

But Freedman was looking a class apart from the dross around him, although he wasted one promising opening by shooting straight at the keeper. A few minutes later he was brought down when rounding the keeper, but despite our furious appeals the ref gave us no more than a corner. The incident finally woke Leeds up, and when the  keeper failed to gather the corner, it dropped kindly for Marques and the Angolan pounced to smash the ball into the roof of the net.

A few minutes later it was 2-0, when a fine move ended with Kilkenny crossing to the far post, Johnson cutting inside a defender and Freedman turning well to steer the ball inside the far corner. At the start of the second half we seemed to be controlling the game comfortably, and the keeper made decent saves from Prutton and Beckford to prevent us extending our lead. But out of the blue the game turned again in the 63^rd. minute, thanks to another controversial incident.

Hughes was harshly judged to have handled when he blocked a far post header, and while he certainly jumped with both arms out wide, the TV replay suggests the ball hit him in the middle of the chest. Harsley did his best to hoof the penalty over the bar, but just got it into the roof of the net. And a few minutes later Vale took advantage of some slack marking to equalise, when a ball whipped in from the right found Whittaker in acres of space and he had the simplest of tasks to knock the ball past Casper.

Mc.Allister responded by introducing first Carole and then Kandol to try to get back in front, and once again Leeds took control of the game. Carole’s wing play started to stretch the Vale defence, and Kandol’s presence gave them further problems, though it was Marques who had the next good chance when he had a header cleared off the line. It seemed only a matter of time before we scored again, and when we got the third in the 86^th. minute we surely had the game in the bag. Carole collected a short throw and sent over a deep cross beyond the far post, where Freedman was on hand to head the ball past Anyon into the far corner.

Beckford almost killed them off with a fourth goal when the keeper got his fingertips to a shot from a narrow angle, but even with this let off we still didn’t think the win was in any danger. But for some reason the ref allowed four minutes of injury time (even though there hadn’t been any significant stoppages) and that was long enough for our brittle defence to throw it all away.

Once again it was due to poor marking. As a free kick was chipped into the area and Perry climbed up on Hughes’ shoulders to knock it down for Rogers, who was allowed to run into the six yard box unchallenged to knock it past Casper. So in a week when we played three teams near the bottom of the table we had only gained four points, when most of us would have expected nine.

Although the Leeds end was chanting Mc.Allister’s name at 2-0 and 3-2, I think once again he got his tactics wrong yesterday. He has to start using his players in their proper positions and playing like a team, as well as giving the side a bit more width. This result dropped us down into tenth place, and at this rate I can’t see Macca’s contract being renewed in the summer.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters