Brighton and Hove Albion 0 Leeds United 2
In the end it was a fairly comfortable win for Leeds at Brighton and Hove Albion. Trundle opened the scoring on the hour, but it’s the second goal from Fabian Delph that will live long in the memory.
Simon Grayson had promised that the two new loan signings Dickinson and Naylor would come straight into the side, and so it came to pass, with Trundle also starting the game as Christie dropped to the bench. The other change was enforced, with Snodgrass out with an injury as Johnson taking his place on the left side of midfield.
Leeds made a bright start and were presented with a great opportunity to take the lead in the ninth minute, when Becchio was bundled over as a corner came into the area. The Argentinian took the penalty himself, stepping up rather casually, but then hit the ball hard and straight, being unlucky to catch Sullivan’s trailing leg as he dived to his left.
After that let-off Brighton came into the game a little bit more, and Casper had to be alert to keep out a shot from Fleetwood after Rui allowed the ball to bounce over his head. But then Casper nearly turned villain himself after being caught in possession by Fleetwood, but the ball bounced kindly for Leeds and Naylor was able to clear the danger.
And the game was getting rather scrappy as it moved into the second half, though Brighton wasted another decent chance when Fleetwood got in the way of a shot from his colleague Forster, generously helping out the Leeds defence in these troubled times.
But a few minutes later Leeds took the lead, as Becchio flicked a long free kick on to Trundle, who backed into a defender as he turned, before shooting past Sullivan. Shortly afterwards an injury to Richardson forced a re-shuffle, with Hughes dropping to right back and Robertson coming on. As Brighton were coming forward in search of an equaliser the tubby one had plenty of space to run into, and he forced a couple of corners as he troubled their defence on the break.
But it was young Fabian Delph who put the game beyond Brighton, with a splendid individual goal seven minutes from time. A corner was cleared out to him on the right touchline just outside our area, and he was allowed to run right into their half, quite untroubled by anything resembling a challenge from the Brighton defence. As they continued to back off, he hammered a left foot shot from 20 yards that curled past Sullivan into the top corner of the net.
After that we had a couple of opportunities to add to our lead. Substitute Christie could only shoot wide after the rounding the keeper, Robinson went wide with a shot from outside the area, and Becchio just failed to get on the end of a cross when just a touch would have done.
Leeds held on fairly comfortably for three points that gets a play-off challenge back on track. The game broke a run of thirteen games in all competitions when we’d failed to keep a clean sheet, and it was also the first time all season that we’d won without Beckford in the side. In truth this wasn’t that great a performance against a limited side, but at least we’re moving in the right direction.