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Fab finish sets up United romp
As an 18-year-old prodigy, it is only natural that Fabian Delph is described in dispatches as one for the future.
So promising a career can Leeds United see in the midfielder that they presented him with a new four-year contract on Friday – longer than the deals held by virtually every other player at Elland Road – but Delph is no less a part of the club's present than he is of their long-term vision.
The England Under-19 star scored his first senior goal yesterday with the style befitting of a player who is considered to be United's most valuable prospect, and his 30-yard finish and consummate performance became the catalyst for the league victory which Gary McAllister was yearning for.
Not since the opening day of the season, when their visit to Scunthorpe brought a 2-1 victory, had Leeds taken three points from a League One match. And though McAllister's assessment of his team's form had been calm and considered, it would not have improved his mood to see United walk into successive away fixtures at Swindon and Carlisle with another meek result behind them.
Delph helped to dismiss that scenario by opening the scoring with a gloriously instinctive strike in the 27th minute, and an equally rasping goal from Alan Sheehan winded Crewe beyond the point of recovery before the first half was out.
Goals from Jonathan Douglas, Jermaine Beckford and Andy Robinson in the second simply added the gloss the scoreline deserved, even allowing for a bizarre period of injury-time which saw Lubomir Michalik sent off and Crewe score twice.
McAllister had asked his players to play with authoritative confidence, and their display was dominant in the extreme. However hopeful Crewe were of causing an upset before kick-off, they looked out of their depth by the end of the first half and were out on their feet at the final whistle.
United's defence was shuffled again by the addition of Paul Telfer at centre-back and Sheehan on the left-hand side, but the absence of a recognised defender among their substitutes made McAllister's intentions clear.
Paul Huntington and Bradley Johnson were demoted, not only from the starting line-up but from the 16-man squad, in the only changes from the side held to a 2-2 draw by Bristol Rovers last Saturday.
Of comparative interest was the appearance for Crewe of Anthony Elding, the striker dispensed with in July after the briefest of permanent spells with Leeds. Elding had the game's first chance but otherwise did little to strengthen the claim that McAllister was wrong to sell him.
There were few players who fared better before Delph's strike, and the early exchanges ironically suggested that goals might not be plentiful.
Neither keeper made a save worth recording until the 25th minute when Steve Collis' parry kept out a low shot from Beckford, the calm before the storm.
Elding's first chance was handed to him by Beckford, whose back pass ran away from Sheehan and rolled directly to his former team-mate.Elding drove into the box but, with too many players between him and David Lucas, his low shot deflected wide. Of greater merit was Byron Moore's 11th-minute volley which dropped close enough to Lucas' crossbar to have United's keeper backtracking hastily. It was, however, a momentary display of inspiration in a first half which lacked any magic from Crewe.
Glancing headers from Luciano Becchio and Douglas, both falling far beyond Collis' goal, were the only products of United's possession until Andrew Hughes involved the crowd with a headed effort which had Danny Woodards jumping urgently to nod the ball away from his goalline.
The sign of a chink in Crewe's defence quickly enthused Beckford, who brought a high ball under control and drove it against Collis' body, but Crewe's keeper had no answer to the stinging finish from Delph.
The midfielder had few options in front of him when the ball was played to his feet 30 yards from goal, but a deft sweep of his left foot
steered a bouncing shot over the out-stretched arm of Collis and into the net with the help of a post. Delph ran straight in the direction of McAllister, the man who had instigated the contract signed on Friday, and celebrated his first senior goal with all the pleasure he was entitled to. Crewe knew then that their afternoon was turning sour.
From the moment of Delph's goal to the sound of the final whistle, Lucas saw little of the visiting attack, and he was able to bask in a rare ray of Yorkshire sunshine as Sheehan increased United's lead with a finish as scintillating as that which had gone before.
Like Delph, Sheehan did not pose an obvious threat outside the box, but he took the ball from Hughes and cracked a fierce shot at Collis, who could only flick the ball onto the crossbar and over his line.
McAllister would not have said as much at the interval, but it seemed certain as Collis lay on his back for a second time that the contest was at an end. That fact would have been beyond debate had Becchio headed Hughes' cross either side of Collis, rather than into his midriff, and Beckford's sliced effort not skimmed the outside of the post. But with 45 minutes remaining, the game became a question of the margin by which Leeds could improve their goals-for column.
Douglas added a third goal four minutes into the second half with another blistering shot from long-range, the Irishman's effort flying to the left of Collis and into the corner.
Beckford was felled by a risky challenge moments later. There was little prospect of referee Trevor Kettle turning a 50-50 decision in United's favour but it did not step Beckford from scoring his eighth goal of the season 60 seconds after Robinson stepped from the bench to find him with a teasing cross.
And though Robinson was himself denied by the bar, the winger completed the win in the 83rd minute with a curling finish.
In a late flourish, Crewe scored twice after Michalik was dismissed for a second bookable offence, but goals from Billy Jones and Eugen Bopp four minutes into injury-time could not disguise their deficiencies, or United's dominance.
Leeds United: Lucas, Richardson, Michalik, Telfer, Sheehan, Douglas, Kilkenny (Robinson 65), Delph, Hughes (Howson 65), Becchio (Snodgrass 69), Beckford. Subs not used: Ankergren, Prutton.
Crewe Alexandra: Collis, Woodards, Baudet, O'Donnell, Jones, Moore, Bailey, Schumacher, Rix (Bopp 63), Zola, Elding (Donaldson 63). Subs not used: Abbey, Pope, Miller.
Referee: T Kettle (Berkshire).
Attendance: 20,075.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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