Phil Hay's Verdict: Late Derby raid is cruel twist in Leeds United's on-going play-off drama

Cruel it was and the tense wait for a victory goes on after a game which yielded only a 2-2 draw. The Championship is not likely to hang around for them much longer.

Leeds can hear the clock ticking on their season and they dabbled with an overdue victory at Pride Park, edging in front with a classic smash-and-grab header from Pierre-Michel Lasogga and taking the lead for a second time 10 minutes from time. Samuel Saiz was back by then and, in an instant, Leeds and their head coach saw what they had missed.

Gjanni Alioski drove United into a potentially decisive 2-1 lead, heading in at the second attempt after his first shot was saved by Derby County goalkeeper Scott Carson, but Saiz’s play in the build-up, launching a counter-attack from inside his own half, showed why Leeds regressed so badly during his six-match ban.

The Spaniard brought that suspension on himself, caught spitting during Leeds’ FA Cup defeat at Newport County in January, and Leeds’ existence has been entirely downhill since then, but Paul Heckingbottom sent him on to settle last night’s game in the second half and Saiz looked to have delivered. Alioski pounced and Heckingbottom’s side celebrated like a squad whose last victory was delivered by Father Christmas, at Burton Albion on Boxing Day.

The knack of holding firm has gone, though, and Derby, having equalised for a first time through Andreas Weimann just before half-time, reeled Leeds in again in the 92nd minute when Kasey Palmer appeared in the right place to prod a shot past Felix Wiedwald. United needed something special from Pride Park, as they need something special from every game now. Few results have stung like this.

Saiz saw much go on during the course of his untimely suspension: manic football, brutal results and the sacking of Thomas Christiansen two-and-a-half weeks ago. Speaking to Danish media yesterday, Christiansen blamed Saiz’s suspension for dragging him down and leaving him prone to a phone call from the boardroom. The game at Derby showed why.

It was too late for Saiz to do right by Christiansen but a good time for him to make amends with others. He did as much as he could last night with flashes of the magic which kept promotion on the agenda in the first half of United’s season.

Heckingbottom conceded on Tuesday that six weeks without a sniff of a game was bound to have softened Saiz’s match fitness and when push came to shove, Leeds’ head coach named him on the bench. It was a big call but Heckingbottom is making them at regular turns.

Eunan O’Kane, Heckingbottom’s captain in his first game in charge, was reduced to running laps of the pitch before kick-off and didn’t even make the squad.

United were set up to accommodate Saiz, back in Christiansen’s preferred 4-2-3-1, but the shift in system was less significant at first than a change in the aggression of their pressing. Derby looked for space to play but took time to find it as the game settled with a succession of speculative shots at both ends.

There were 17 minutes gone before the first scare, a corner from Tom Lawrence which fizzed through Wiedwald’s six-yard box as Tom Huddlestone looked for a tap-in at the far post.

Wiedwald was left in goal by Heckingbottom despite his aberration of a missed punch in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Bristol City and Leeds kept him away from the firing line by defending en masse.

There were hints of chinks in Derby’s defence but no more at first than a goalbound volley from Pablo Hernandez which struck a County body long before it reached Carson. Leeds, however, looked vulnerable to crosses, some invited by errors, and David Nugent was close to an opening goal in the 22nd minute when Gaetano Berardi – recalled after a two-game ban – lost possession to Tom Lawrence whose cross found Nugent lurking four yards out. The striker threw himself at it but glanced a header wide.

Gradually, Derby’s pace and direct running began to wear Leeds down.

Adam Forshaw came perilously close to heading the ball into his own net after attempting to head the rebound from a corner into Wiedwald’s arms. And Weimann hooked a lob onto the roof of the net having controlled a fine pass over the top from Joe Ledley. With County’s momentum building, Leeds broke it by scoring in the 35th minute.

Their attack went from back to front in a matter of moments, with Liam Cooper playing the ball across the field to Dallas and Dallas lobbing it into the path of Lasogga. At close range, the German cushioned an easy header past Carson. It was the first time since December 23 that United had drawn first blood in a Championship match.

The lead was almost negated seven minutes later when Lawrence advanced and beat Wiedwald with a dipping shot, shaking the face of the crossbar. The importance of reaching half-time was palpable but Leeds failed by seconds, picked off by Weimann in the second minute of injury-time.

The Austrian pounced after Cooper allowed a long Huddlestone pass to skim off his head, bringing the ball down and driving it under Wiedwald. More of Pride Park breathed with relief, much as the first half had belonged to Derby in the main. Heckingbottom’s team-talk was changed in an instant.

The temptation to bring on Saiz was there and Heckingbottom held off for only 10 minutes after half-time, compelled to act with Leeds sitting deep and inviting Derby onto them.

Nugent came closest to taking advantage, glancing Lawrence’s delivery into Wiedwald’s arms, and the forward should have punished De Bock for an awful back pass on 62 minutes, slashing an effort wide after Weimann found him unmarked.

Saiz, though, brought a change of pace and urgency and left Derby on their toes. One burst forward in the 71st minute forced a corner and Hernandez’s cross from the scraps fell perfectly for Cooper who drove a header over the bar. Lasogga then bundled a volley wide as County began to tire and the pressure told 10 minutes from time, in a situation where Leeds were themselves on the back foot.

Palmer, who had come off Derby’s bench, lined up a free-kick from 25 yards but drove it lazily into the wall and Saiz led the cavalry, riding one challenge, skipping superbly past another before laying a pass into the path of substitute Alioski. Carson blocked the winger’s first strike with his legs but could do nothing to stop Alioski guiding the bouncing ball over the line.

Alioski needed that and Leeds needed that but the season is not fated to go as they want. In the second minute of injury-time, Derby played a corner shot and looped the ball into the box in the hope that a ricochet would present itself. One fell to Palmer who stabbed it in and atoned for his earlier blunder. Leeds, no matter their effort, can find no absolution of their own.