We made hard work of beating an MK Dons side who played over 45 minutes with 10 men, but won it through a Snodgrass header in injury time.

With Becchio about to become a father he was allowed to take the day off and Grella came into the side, the other change from Tuesday night being Bromby’s return while Lubo dropped back to the bench.

Off the field we officially had the backing of 4,119 fans in the away end, and I’m reliably informed that MK Dons were willing to give us an extra section, but were prevented from doing so by the local authority. Supposedly this was for safety reasons, due to our nasty habit of standing up throughout the game, but the result was that a few groups of Leeds fans ended up getting tickets in the ‘home’ stands. So maybe the local authority didn’t manage to create a safer situation after all.

Much of the first half was forgettable, with MK Dons working hard to deny us space, and Leeds resorting to banging long balls forwards. More than once a high ball was launched towards Grella, who can hardly be expected to win the ball in the air with a big centre half towering over him. After only nine minutes we suffered the first of several injuries, when Crowe limped off with a hamstring injury to be replaced by Lubo, with Bromby moving to full back.

Some of the Dons forward play was even more aimless than ours, with a couple of balls sailing straight over the top and through to Higgs, but they did manage to force our keeper into a couple of saves. Their best effort came when Puncheon went past a couple of defenders cutting in from the right and sent in a fierce left foot drive from outside the area, but Higgs got down well to turn it round the post. Our best chance of the half fell to Beckford, who volleyed over the bar from a narrow-ish angle after a flick-on by Lubo.

But the most significant moment of the first half came right at the end, when Puncheon launched into a two-footed challenge on Doyle, and after several other Leeds players showed their displeasure, referee Andy D’Urso produced the red card. You could say it was a bit harsh, as he got the ball, but referees have been told to told to clamp down on that sort of tackle, as once a player goes in two-footed he can’t control the challenge. Anyway, D’Urso owed us one after his dismissal of Alan Smith in that infamous FA Cup tie in Cardiff (and yes, I am bitter enough to hold that against him after all these years!)

There was poor start to the half-time entertainment, with a few six years olds dancing appallingly to some rap record or other. But it improved with a far more exciting competition where some other kids tried to kick the ball through an MK Dons logo-shaped hole in the middle of a gigantic blow-up sofa.

After the interval we had far more of the possession, as we would have expected against ten men, but with MK’s remaining players battling hard, we still found it hard to create any decent chances. Grayson made his second change after 55 minutes when Robinson came on for Hughes, leaving Johnson to drop to left-back, but we still didn’t look like breaking them down. Robinson still looks overweight, despite his promise to work on his fitness over the summer, and more than once lost possession while trying to beat the whole defence rather than passing the ball.

And I thought Grella was a little bit selfish a few minutes later when he dispossessed Dons’ keeper Gueret and turned and shot over the bar from a narrow angle, when he might have been better to play the ball across the face of the goal with the keeper out of position. In the midst of all this, D’Urso started to annoy the home crowd by handing out a few more harsh bookings for the home players, so it’s nice to see someone else suffer from his incompetence for a change.

With 20 minutes left Higgs had to go off with a thigh problem, giving Casper a rare appearance between the sticks, which meant that we had no substitutes left when Beckford started hobbling towards the end. Grayson told Lubo to get forward as an extra body up front, but the Dons could have nicked a goal themselves as Ibhere shot into the side netting from Douembe’s cross.

As we moved into injury time I had already composed the final paragraph of my report, and I was going to say that I would have settled for a draw before the start, but was disappointed that we couldn’t beat ten men. But everything changed in the third minute of stoppage time, as Johnson lifted a free kick across the area and Snodgrass ran in unchallenged to head the ball past Gueret into the far corner.

A few pockets of Leeds fans jumped up to celebrate in the home stands, but the stewards didn’t have time to move in to throw them out, so it was thoughtful of the Leeds team to score the opening goal so late, to ensure they could stay to see the full game. No doubt the MK Dons fans will be gutted to lose right at the end after battling for so long with ten men, but they say that the sign of a championship-winning team is to win when they haven’t played well. Let’s hope it’s true.

Photo: Action Images

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