Leyton Orient 2  Leeds United 2

We should have had this in the bag, but allowed Leyton Orient to snatch the draw which will surely extinguish our last remaining hopes of automatic promotion.

Leeds were forced to make a couple of changes to the starting line-up, with Sodje and Beckford failing to recover from minor injuries sustained in the Colchester game, so Rui and Dickinson came in as replacements.

Leeds made a good start and were rewarded with the opening goal after 19 minutes.  Unusually, this came through Delph popping up on the right hand side, where he played a good ball through for Snodgrass to pick his spot and place the ball past Jones into the far corner.  Parker was close to extending our lead with a shot just over the top, but Orient were enjoying more of the possession as half-time approached, and Smith was only just wide with a shot from outside the area.

Then Delph picked up his tenth booking of the season, which will bring him a two game suspension, to take effect after the two games of the easter weekend. Personally, I don’t think this is as much of a disaster as some are making out, as he has looked rather tired in the last couple of months, and with a break he will be that much fresher for the play-offs.

After half-time it was more of the same, with Delph and Howson going close, and the pressure told on the hour, when Demetriou handled on the line to keep out a header from Becchio. Demetriou was inevitably sent off and this time Snodgrass was able to take the penalty (with no repeat of Becchio’s antics of the Yeovil game, when he insisted on taking the kick on the basis that he was the one who was denied a goal in the first place). Snod sent the keeper the wrong way, and surely we were now cruising. Weren’t we?

But we saw at Crewe how poor we are defending decent lead against ten men, and within five minutes Orient were back in the game. Dickinson seemed to have left his brain in the dressing room, as he gave away a needless free kick on the half-way line (getting booked for his troubles) and then another just outside the area. Thornton accepted the gift, and his free-kick pulled a goal back with the help of a deflection.

 Still, we didn’t seem to be in any danger, and continued to play some decent football in their half of the field. A neat passing move ended with Howson hitting the post, and Jones saving from Snodgrass as the Scot pounced on the rebound. Then Dickinson was substituted before he could get himself sent off, to be replaced by Robinson.  

But with only five minutes left, Orient grabbed the equaliser on one of the few occasions they managed to get down to our end. A free kick was cleared out to Robinson, but the tubby one lost possession, and when it was played back across the face of goal, Casper managed to drop it and Church was on hand to knock the ball in. The goal was a complete mess from our point of view, all very disappointing when all we need to do was close the game down for the last few minutes.

Grayson made his second and final substitution in the 90^th. minute, with Hughes replacing Kilkenny. A strangely negative change, (assuming he was still looking to win the game and not settle for a draw), as Grella might have been a much better option against a tiring defence. The referee played four minutes of injury time, but we couldn’t force a winner and finished with a very disappointing return of only one point from our game in hand.

Automatic promotion now looks all but impossible, but at least we can console ourselves with the thought that we’ve now got a cushion of six points over seventh placed Tranmere. Surely this will be enough for us to claim a place in the play-offs. Won’t it?

Photo: Action Images

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