Bristol Rovers 2 Leeds United 2

Leeds away draws are like the buses, you wait six months for one, and then two come along at once. Leeds seemed to be comfortably in command in the second half, and just when we seemed about to celebrate the first away win for two months, Jo Kuffour's last minute equaliser meant we had to settle for a point.

As expected, Simon Grayson made just the one change to the starting line-up, with Johnson having to serve a one-batch ban and Howson coming back from his own suspension to replace him. But the hosts made the better start and were rewarded for their early pressure when they took the lead in the 14th. minute. Pipe sped past Parker down the wing and got the cross in as Rui raced across, and in the centre Hughes got between Naylor and Douglas to flick the ball over Casper.

But thirteen minutes we were level, though the equaliser came a little against the run of play. Snod got down the wing send over a deep cross, and an unmarked Becchio arrived at the far post to head the ball past Phillips into the net. Leeds grew in confidence after that goal, and looked like taking control as half-time approached. A good cross from Howson would have found Delph and Becchio in front of goal, had it not been for a defender’s vital touch.

And we kept up the good work after the break, with Snodrass finding Beckford from a free kick, only for Phillips to pull off a fine save. But you can’t keep a good man down, and Snod finally scored from a free kick in the 58th minute. This time he curled the ball over the wall and into the corner of the net, even though Phillips managed to get a hand to the shot.

Once in front, Leeds seemed to be completely in control of the game, knocking the ball about at will in midfield, but without creating any further clear-cut chances. We started to feel that it might be one of those games where we’d need another goal to kill them off, but the best we could manage was a couple of long-range efforts from Beckford.

And sure enough, Rovers fashioned an equaliser out of the blue with a well-worked goal in the last minute. A long ball was flicked on to Jo Kuffour, who did well to turn past Naylor, before running on to hammer the ball past Casper into the corner of the net. There were still four minutes of injury time to be played, but that wasn’t enough for Leeds to force a winner, and we had to make do with just a point after looking likely to take all three for so long.

But I don’t think this is the disaster that some people are making out, as it’s still a reasonable result against a side with a good record on their own ground. Although Scunthorpe went above us, the best news of the day was Oldham’s surprise home defeat by Colchester, which meant we would still be in the play-off places if we won our game in hand over the Latics.

At least the performance was better than some we have recently managed away from home, and as long as we can keep the home form going we should be OK for finishing in the top six.

Photo: Action Images

Swansea City Polls