As Elland Road gathered to pay it’s respects to Gary Speed the Leeds performance to get going, but we improved in the second half to beat Millwall through two goals from Robert Snodgrass.

The eyes of the football world were on Elland Road yesterday, as fans of several different clubs laid their tributes to Gary Speed around the Billy Bremner statue. Clem from the Football League show went round to record the thoughts of the fans, but when he tried to get a “one Gary Speed” chant going for the camera it fell a bit flat. At that stage the atmosphere was a bit too subdued, and most fans round the statue preferred to stand quietly and reflect on the life of Gary Speed.

Inside the stadium we had a video of Speed’s finest moments in a Leeds, and wreaths were laid by both managers and the other members of that famous title-winning quartet, before the minute’s applause. And when the game began, we repeated the tribute of an eleven minute chant, starting in the eleventh minute, though sadly Leeds could manage a goal at the end of the tribute this time.

Simon Grayson elected to keep the same starting eleven who began the comprehensive win over Forest, but as we saw all too often last season, a system of having only one striker is less effective at home. Millwall were content to keep men behind the ball, and Becchio often found himself outnumbered as he struggled to win the ball in the air. So although Leeds had plenty of possession in the early stages, we were struggling to break Millwall down.

We did get one chance when Becchio headed narrowly wide from a corner, and another when Snodgrass beat several defenders with close control in a box, but Mildenhall just got a fingertip to his cross to stop it falling nicely for Aidy White. At the other end we needlessly conceded a corner through a misunderstanding between Mc.Carthy and his defence, but from it the keeper redeemed himself by getting down quickly toturn Henderson’s header round the post.

Millwall were always keen to put their foot in, often when the ball had already gone, so it was inevitable that we would get one or two injuries, with Howson and Brown forced to go off before half time. Sam and Keogh came on in their place, which forced a change of formation back to 4-4-2. This was the first time we had seen the Keogh/ Becchio pairing up front, probably because they are a bit too similar, and more than once they got in each other’s way while going for the same ball. McCormack wasn’t an option because he missed the game to be with his pregnant fiancée.

Much of the first half had been rather dull, but Leeds increased the tempo after the break, and we finally got ourselves in front through the efforts of Robert Snodgrass. First he dragged a shot across the face of goal and just past the far post, but he finally got the goal in the 63^rd minute. A surging run from Clayton was rudely interrupted when he was blocked by a defender 25 yards from goal and Snoddy scored with an excellent free kick, chipping over the wall and into the top corner of the net.

And the Scotsman scored his second two minutes ,as Sam curled an excellent cross into the box from the right and Snodgrass ran into the centre forwards position to guide his header past Mildenhall into the far corner. From that moment on the win was never in doubt, as Millwall never seemed to have the desire or ability to get back into the game, and they could thank Mildenhall for a couple of decent saves that prevented our win becoming even more emphatic.

We were close to a third when Becchio stretched to get a touch on Connolly’s cross and Mildenhall got down to prevent it creeping into the far corner. And in the closing stages Becchio made a complete mess of a chance when put through on goal and got the ball caught under his feet, but at least had the presence of mind to lay the ball back to Sam, whose curling shot was turned round the post by that man Mildenhall.

But in the end these wasted opportunities didn’t matter as Leeds saw out the three minutes of injury time to hold on for the three points and record another fine win in honour of Gary Speed.

Photo: Action Images

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