As the Leeds fans paid their respects to Gary Speed with eleven minutes of chanting, the team were paying tribute to the great man with a resounding win over Nottingham Forest.

After the defeat by Barnsley Simon Grayson thought he’d better strengthen his defence, and Danny Pugh was recalled in place of Sam to give us a bit more cover down the left hand side. The manager also decided to swap the two left footers around from their previous positions, with Pugh dropping to full-back and Aidy White operating further forward. A bigger surprise was that Michael Brown was recalled to a five man midfield, with Becchio playing as a loan striker.

This was always going to be a very emotional night for everybody connected with Leeds United, and we did of course begin with a minutes’ applause for Gary Speed. Leeds began the game at a quick tempo and dominated the early possession as the 4,000 visiting fans in the crowd roared them on. And it’s a good job we came, as there were plenty of empty spaces in the rest of the stadium after Forest’s recent poor form.

As promised, we broke into a chant for Gary Speed in the eleventh and kept it going for eleven minutes. And fittingly, Leeds took the lead just after this period of chanting came to an end. Forest were caught in possession inside their own half and the ball was knocked on to Snodgrass, who hammered it home from outside the box with his left foot.

And Leeds kept up the pressure, with Becchio denied by a last ditch tackle and Morgan fortunate to deflect another Snodgrass shot over the bar. The second goal was coming and it duly arrived just before half time. Snodgrass curled a pass out to Howson, and as the Forest defence backed off to leave him in acres of space, he hit a dipping half volley from twenty yards to leave Camp with no chance.

And after the break we continued where we’d left off, putting the game beyond Forest with the third goal in the 50^th minute as Brown cross curled an inswinging cross into the area and Becchio got his head to it to flick the ball it into the far corner. And it was 4-0 on 67 minutes after Howson beat several players on a run into the box from the right and when Camp couldn’t hold his shot a scramble ended with Clayton knocking the ball into the net from six yards.

Leeds had been so dominant in this game that it took Forest until the final 20 minutes to register a decent chance, when Lymn clipped the bar. But if any proof was still needed that it really wasn’t their night, that came when Andy Reid was dismissed for a second bookable offence in the 79^th minute. They did produce a great shot from McGoldrick which forced McCarthy into a fine save in the closing stages, but Leeds protected the four goal lead without too much difficulty, to record another fine victory on the road.

So that’s an incredible five wins out of six away from home, although we must admit that Forest were desperately poor on the night. If we can only get our home record sorted out and put an end to our maddening inconsistency we might yet achieve something this season.

Photo: Action Images

Tare added 04:27 - Dec 1 Gary was almost ever present 1991-1992 season with Macca 41/42, Lukic had 42 all games. The Man of Men's in terms of soccer prestige, goal against SU is always remembered, in the Tony Yeboah class v Liverpool/Wimbledon. My heart lies with the boys, remember this life is worth living for. Tare
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