Sponsored by
Leeds United v Doncaster Rovers: New boss Warnock off to a flier
Adam Clayton celebrates.
And so begins the reign of Neil Warnock, Leeds United’s new manager and saviour-elect.
His appointment on Saturday – a line in the sand below the name of Simon Grayson – caused no complaints about pedigree, suitability or experience; only a question of whether he had crossed the threshold too late to rescue what remained of the season.
Warnock must have asked himself that as Leeds trailed by two goals to the Championship’s worst team, 54 minutes into another astonishing game at Elland Road. Down and out, or so it seemed until they rallied with the bare-knuckle spirit the 63 year-old so admires.
More of it will be needed if Leeds are to do as Warnock desires by qualifying for play-offs in the earliest stage of his 18-month contract. The club were in no position drop points against Doncaster Rovers and a goal scored nine minutes into injury-time spared them from the consequences of a costly draw. By their fingernails, they are hanging in this race.
Warnock could not resist jumping from of his seat when, with almost 100 minutes on the clock, Luciano Becchio collected the rebound from his own shot and curled the ball past Doncaster goalkeeper David Button. How late it was and how crucial, on an afternoon when United’s season could have been read the last rites.
“If I’m being honest, we’re a long way from being a top side,” Warnock said as he left Elland Road an hour-and-a-half later. “But anything could happen. You never say never.”
Becchio’s goal gave a wild contest a majestic conclusion. What followed at full-time was less honourable as players from either team confronted each other inside the tunnel and began, in the words of one onlooker, “a full-scale brawl”.
It was the result of a running war of words in the last quarter of the match. Leeds defender Darren O’Dea became embroiled in the bickering and Doncaster forward El-Hadji Diouf was unsurprisingly central to it. Diouf and Ross McCormack clashed after the final whistle and as trouble broke out, police officers poured from the pitch and into the fray.
There will be consequences in the days to come but Warnock’s business is football and in that respect he went home with a glow of realistic satisfaction. It was not, as he said, the advertisement of an outstanding Leeds team but victory materialised nonetheless. And for that he was able to claim some credit.
The responsibility for managing United on Saturday fell officially to Neil Redfearn in the last of his four matches as caretaker. But having addressed his new squad before kick-off, Warnock took it upon himself to descend to the dressing room at half-time with Leeds trailing to a 32nd-minute goal.
Doncaster scored again nine minutes into the second half and wasted countless chances to guarantee their victory before Becchio won the game, but the tide turned gradually as Andros Townsend and Adam Clayton levelled the score and reeled Rovers in. The denouement when it came was nothing short of sensational.
Click here to register and have your say on the Leeds United stories and issues that matter to you
It was telling that Becchio ran straight to Redfearn in acknowledgement of the academy coach’s work as caretaker. In different circumstances and with different results behind him, Redfearn might have earned the job that is falling now to Warnock but successive defeats to Brighton and Coventry City made an extension of his tenure untenable.
Beaten in Coventry last Tuesday night, Saturday’s game set Leeds against the latest team to descend to the bottom of the Championship; a club whose modus operandi is a mystery to all who watch them.
The epitome of it is Diouf, a player who looks as out of place as anyone can in the Championship. A lower profile has not changed his personality and he took less than two minutes to pick a fight with the crowd by delaying the taking of the game’s first corner. They were at odds from there on.
Doncaster made nothing of that early chance and neither team made much of the first half-hour. But the visitors would have led in the 10th minute had Andy Lonergan’s right-hand post not rescued Leeds. Habib Bamogo struck it with a clever back-heel after Diouf jumped to head down Tommy Spurr’s free-kick, and the collective sigh of relief around Elland Road was audible.
It was one of several incidents which drew Warnock’s attention to the defensive frailty which Redfearn spoke of so critically after the loss to Coventry. Bamogo’s appearance ended soon after, halted by an innocuous injury and his own reluctance to remain on the field, but the enforced change was ironically to Doncaster’s benefit.
In the 32nd minute, Lonergan parried the ball into the path of Bamogo’s replacement, Mamadou Bagayoko, as James Hayter chased Diouf’s weighted pass, and Bagayoko stroked a low shot into an unguarded net.
Moments like that throughout the season have brought Leeds to the point where Warnock’s expertise is needed. He watched as United muddled through the rest of the half, and the temptation to have his say in the home changing room overwhelmed him. He was out of his seat and into the bowels of the West Stand before the half-time whistle sounded.
His instructions were almost rendred redundant three minutes after the break. Giles Barnes sprinted over 40 yards of clear turf and laid the ball off to Hayter who, with Lonergan to beat and United’s defence nowhere, clattered the ball against the crossbar. United’s stroke of luck was huge but quickly wasted.
With 54 minutes played, Spurr outran Alex Bruce on the left wing and crossed to the far post where Diouf’s unselfish knockdown gave Bagayoko a tap-in. Only then, at a desperate moment, did Leeds react as Warnock would have wanted.
Their next attack stretched Doncaster’s defence and Townsend met Danny Pugh’s lay-off with a deadly strike, driven into the bottom corner of Button’s net. It raised Elland Road’s smile for the first time since confirmation of Warnock’s appointment earlier in the day.
Bagayoko threatened to wipe it clear again when he appeared unmarked inside United’s area at the end of another counter-attack but Lonergan pulled off a frantic save to prevent the striker from converting Simon Gillett’s pass and completing his hat-trick.
The flurry of chances generated a highly-strung atmosphere, and Button clasped Becchio’s header on his line after Townsend and Robert Snodgrass cut into the side of Doncaster’s defence. Leeds rode their own shortcomings as Rovers failed three times to take advantage of a backline in disarray but Button was called upon to pinch the ball from McCormack’s feet after the striker burst into his box.
Leeds searched for a moment of class and it arrived 10 minutes from time when Clayton met Snodgrass’ low cross with a flying volley and hooked the ball into the net off the underside of Button’s bar.
The noise was deafening and the tension rose after a clash of heads between Spurr and United debutant Robbie Rogers caused a lengthy delay on the cusp of injury-time. As the 99th minute arrived, Becchio drove the ball against substitute Mikael Forssell and kept his head to sweep the ricochet into the net. Warnock shared in the pandemonium by clenching his fist, and celebration rapidly descended into violence. Welcome to Leeds.
Leeds United: Lonergan, Bruce, Lees, O’Dea, White, Snodgrass (Rogers 79 (Forssell 90)), Clayton, Pugh (Brown 60), Townsend, McCormack, Becchio. Subs (not used): M Taylor, Connolly.
Doncaster Rovers: Button, Chimbonda, Lockwood, Hird, Spurr (O’Connor 90), Hayter (Robert 89), Barnes, Stock, Gillett, Diouf, Bamogo (Bagayoko 24). Subs (not used): Martis, Oster.
Attendance: 21,181.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
buckstonewhites16
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 02:59 PMLeedsman100 - Bates has pulled a blinder! You are excited by an appointment of another manager - just what he wanted! Go out and get your season ticket and watch the whole sorry charade repeat itself again. Negative posting maybe but I am so sick and tired of this whole Bates melodrama! I know he is pulling money out to an obscene level - the lies are as thick and fast as usual - you even believe the hype about him being the saviour. £95 million is incorrect and you would not be so bombastic about it if you were on of the honest business men who had been paid pennies in the pound! Warnock is only here because the gates have fallen - don't kid yourself! Bates Out!
leedsman100
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 02:28 PMBuckstonewhite, you are so right. What a parasite Bates is, what does he think he's doing rescuing us from bancrupcy and getting rid of our £95M debt and then putting us back in profit for the first time in years. He then gets rid of our Manager who was doing such a great job and replaces him with a man who's track record is getting promotion at nearly every club he's managed. Your articulate post has suddenly made me change my mind and join the Bates out brigade!!!! Congratulations by the way on being the only negative posting today!!
Leedsintheblood
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 12:18 PMBrilliant appointment by Bates. In one move (albeit late in the day) he has improved his own image and given the club a manager of some substance when other clubs were chasing him as well. It may be too late this season but the feel good factor is on its way back to Elland Road now. Warnock is the right man for this club. Fantastic news that will put some numbers on the gates again soon.
buckstonewhites16
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 09:31 AMLEEDS BEAT BOTTOM OF THE TABLE (AFTER ALMOST LOSING)! And we all get excited by Warnock the saviour (oh no he can't be because Bates is...?). It is just (rubbish) business as usual - no investment in players and still (Leeds hating) Bates in charge! I am sick of my club making my skin crawl with the parasites that have infected it! Bates Out!
buckstonewhites16
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 09:30 AMPending Moderation
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.