Run comes to an end

The game a few weeks ago turned on a poor free kick decision against Jon Harley that should have gone the other way and this time round they won it with a penalty and an equally ridiculous free kick award.

If you don’t score, you don’t win, and it was certainly during the first half that we should have won this game as we outplayed the home side from almost first whistle to last after kicking off with a line up that none of us could have predicted.

Brian Jensen came back in after his one match ban at the expense of loan goalkeeper Lee Grant but in front of him the Clarets played with a back five. In a 5-3-2 formation it meant a recall for Frank Sinclair whilst Nathan Dyer played up front. The two players left out were Wade Elliott and Garreth O’Connor.

We were still level after eleven seconds this year but came close to falling behind after just four minutes when Kilgallon hit the bar. It was to be the only time Leeds really threatened us throughout the entire first half.

For the Burnley fans stood, yes stood, at the old scratching shed end of Elland Road most of the action was at the far end of the ground as Burnley put the home defence under some enormous pressure.

We got forward in numbers and the young Dyer caused them no end of problems and you wonder just how they would have coped with him had the somewhat immobile Sean Gregan played in the centre of defence. Every time he was in possession we looked dangerous and he came close to scoring himself with a shot that was deflected onto the roof of the net.

Apart from that the best effort of the half came from my choice as man of the match, James O’Connor. His prompting from midfield was excellent and he was getting up to support the front players. He ended one attack with a stinging shot that Sullivan did well to save.

We won a whole series of corners and came close to scoring – but you need to score when you get on top like this in a game and when the half time whistle blew it was still level at 0-0. We all seemed happy with the first half performance but a goal or two would surely have ensured that the points were coming home with us.

Leeds started the second half a little brighter. Rob Hulse had the ball in the net just three minutes in but the assistant’s flag had long been up for offside. However, in their next attack they took an undeserved lead.

Eddie Lewis was playing on the left hand side for Leeds so at some stage we probably could have predicted that we would concede a penalty with Lewis the player going down. That’s exactly what happened but this was nothing like the one at Deepdale earlier in the year and looked a clear penalty after poor defending by Michael Duff who did not have the best of games.

David Healy took the spot kick and despite the Beast going the right way it sneaked into the corner. It was virtually Healy’s only contribution on the night as he had yet another poor game against the Clarets.

This was the test, we’d dominated for much of the first hour and were behind, we needed to react and although we weren’t to get an equaliser it was very much a test that we passed as we continued to play the better and more inventive football.

Just five minutes after the goal we thought we’d equalised. We won a free kick, a rare event in itself, on the edge of the Leeds box on the left hand side and Jon Harley put it right into the far corner giving Sullivan no chance.

Referee Bates was having none of it, I think the Leeds defence must have told him they weren’t quite ready, and so he insisted that we take the free kick again, this time we worked it across the box and saw a shot well saved.

That it was from a free kick was somewhat significant because free kicks were to dominate the rest of the game and I’ve never seen a referee conned as often as homer Bates was during that last half hour. It appears Blackwell’s main tactic is to win free kicks rather than to actually play any football and Hulse in particular seems to have no other tactic than to win free kicks when there are no fouls.

It had to happen, and it did. From one of the free kicks that wasn’t, up stepped Robbie Blake from 20 yards to curl one into the top corner, as we know he can, and it was game over at 2-0.

We’d played so well up to that point, it was hard to take that we were behind, but the second goal killed us and we never really threatened again although we still had much of the play. Leeds on the other hand just continued to go down and win free kicks unfairly.

Steve Cotterill made two substitutions but I thought they should have been made earlier and we ended the game playing too many high balls into the box that neither Dyer nor the disappointing Ade Akinbiyi were ever likely to win.

A win would have taken us to fourth in the league, the defeat has seen us drop four places to tenth. Leeds are the side in fourth place, they have now taken six points from us, but no one will convince me they are a better side than us, Blake or no Blake.

It would have been good to go into the Crewe game on the back of five wins but it’s not to be, but this for much of the game was a good performance from the Clarets that probably only needed a first half goal. And we’ve even got enough players in the squad right now to change things round.

The teams were,

Leeds: Neil Sullivan, Gary Kelly (Jonathan Douglas 89), Paul Butler, Matthew Kilgallon, Dan Harding, Liam Miller, Shaun Derry, Eddie Lewis, David Healy (Frazer Richardson 79), Rob Hulse, Robbie Blake (Danny Pugh 90). Subs not used: Ian Bennett, Sean Gregan.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff (Wade Elliott 79), Keith Lowe, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, John Spicer (Danny Karbassiyoon 79), Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Nathan Dyer, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Lee Grant, Garreth O’Connor, Gifton Noel-Williams.

Referee: Tony Bates (Stoke-on-Trent).

Attendance: 21,318.