http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/mar/28/leeds-united-mk-dons-league-one Beckford double keeps Leeds in promotion huntDigg it Observer report League One Leeds United 2 Beckford 37, Beckford 54 MK Dons 0
Louise Taylor at Elland Road A fan collecting tickets at Elland Road was required to produce his passport. It did not seem an entirely excessive demand. After all Leeds have, for a while now, exuded the feel of a banana republic rather than a first world nation. True, Jermaine Beckford took his seasonal goal tally to 31 and a crowd of 27,649 paid a minimum of £23 a ticket to cheer Simon Grayson's side on, but this Leeds revival has surely come too late to earn anything more than a League One play-off place come May. As they stand 10 points adrift of the second automatic promotion place, an imminent return to the Championship, let alone the Premier League's land of milk and honey, is far from guaranteed. How are the mighty fallen. All the talk in West Yorkshire last week centred on The Damned United but, for glamour- starved Leeds fans, the memories of Brian Clough's ill-fated 44-day reign here merely served as a reminder that the past seems very much a foreign country. We are not just talking about the 1970s. Only eight years on from the club's Champions League semi-final against Valencia, it will be regarded as a major achievement if Grayson – the bright young former Blackpool manager who has so impressed since succeeding Gary McAllister – steers Leeds into the Championship. Roberto Di Matteo's MK Dons share similar play-off ambitions but the former Chelsea midfielder's team have hit a sticky patch recently. They barely conjured a chance here and fell behind to Beckford's beautifully struck, wonderfully instinctive first-half volley. Beckford and the much vaunted, seriously "Fab", Fabian Delph – all classy touches on the left of midfield – are the reasons why leading scouts have not totally forgotten the way to Elland Road. Beckford further enhanced his reputation early in the second half. Set up by the influential Robert Snodgrass, he outpaced the defence before defying the advancing goalkeeper Willy Gueret with the most coolly incisive of low shots. "Beckford was the difference," lamented Di Matteo after Leeds had recorded an eighth successive home win for the first time since 1990-91. "A very good, ruthless, team performance; we just have to keep doing this to sustain a play-off place," enthused Grayson. "It's incredible we attracted nearly 28,000, but there's a long way to go before we're back at the top of English football." _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist Visit http://tinyurl.com/ce37mx NOW!
