The final throes of March fostered the spirit of co-operation. Players were bought and players were sold.

The imminent arrival of a firm deadline put paid to the hard-nosed bargaining and poker faces that are a prerequisite for so many transfer negotiations.

Clubs were not naive enough to allow themselves to be fleeced, but if a deal was workable it was generally done.

Only managers with extreme confidence or a chronic shortage of money would allow March to end without a tentative enquiry.

FIFA's system of transfer windows has altered the timing and the dynamic of what is now a twice-yearly frenzy of bidding, but the emergency loan market invented by the Football League still makes the last Thursday in March the final port of call for clubs with a twitch.

The closure of that particular exchange, however, occurred with near-silence yesterday.

At Elland Road, the last hours of the loan market were a non-event.

Gary McAllister enquired about the possibility of signing one particular player without success, but to judge by his comments he was not especially concerned by the negative response.

A bonus if it happened, no problem if it didn't. A number of his managerial colleagues adopted the same attitude.

It is, after all, a nervous club that requires an urgent influx of loaned players five weeks before the season ends, and as talented a player as United might have been pursuing yesterday, McAllister does not need anything more than the squad which is already at his disposal.

Within the pool at Elland Road are four capable strikers.

McAllister is still in possession of six experienced defenders, despite sending Ben Parker and Matt Heath on loan elsewhere.

And as for his midfield, his range of options is bordering on the ridiculous.

There are few areas of the squad which are genuinely lacking strength.
McAllister promised, as managers do, that he would only recruit players with more ability or different talents to those already present at Elland Road and to his credit United's boss has been as good as his word.
His only notable signing – ignoring Stephen O'Halloran, who returned to Aston Villa as swiftly as he departed – was that of Dougie Freedman which, after three matches, appears as astute a piece of temporary business as any manager in League One has completed.
The loan market can be extremely restrictive, but Leeds have undoubtedly captured a diamond in Freedman. The striker offers everything that was otherwise missing among McAllister's group of forwards – vast experience and an effective link with the midfield – and his form has justified the persistence with which United's manager forced through his transfer from Crystal Palace.
Freedman was a player that United needed, and a player whose influence is likely to be worth comment at the end of the season.
It was, for Leeds, an excellent acquisition but the point at which McAllister's recruitment was destined to stop.
He has more than sufficient resources to see Leeds through to the end of the season, and a flurry of activity yesterday would have depicted him as a manager who lacked faith in his troops.
Confidence is something that McAllister and his players appear flush with after last weekend's victory over Walsall.
Their convincing performance may prove to be something of a watershed.
A manager who believes in his squad tends to see results, and it seems that McAllister's is exactly as he would want it.