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Leeds suffer shock at home

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Leeds United`s long unbeaten home record came to an abrupt halt at Elland Road on Tuesday night when they were beaten 2-1 by Walsall.

It was Leeds first home league defeat since January last year, stretching back 26 games.

Leeds were boosted by the return to fitness of 24 goal leading scorer Jermaine Beckford who had recovered from an hamstring injury.

In a very poor first half, the best effort fell to Bradley Johnson, after a very neat one-two with Beckford his left foot shot was saved by Ince in the Walsall goal.

The visitors took the lead inside fifty seconds of the restart when Dwayne Mattis drilled home from the penalty spot after good work by Julian Gray.

Leeds were back on level terms less than ten minutes later when Gary McSheffrey`s cross seemed to swerve about three ways and totally bamboozle Ince in the Walsall goal who was caught off his line.

The goal seemed to lift Leeds who had rarely threatened the Walsall goal, Becchio was next to go close but his glancing header was saved by Ince.

Leeds made a double substitution on the hour with Max Gradel and Mike Grella brought on to bolster the Leeds attack.

Leeds were now beginning to be more of a threat but generally the quality into the middle was lacking and good positions continued to go to waste.

Gradel was trying to make his usual impact from the bench and after some good work on the right; his shot was straight at Ince.


The visitors were to score the decisive goal just inside the final ten minutes with what looked a controversial decision from the referee`s assistant.

Clayton McDonald, who should have been sent off earlier in the half after wresting Beckford to the floor, having already receiving a yellow card in the first half, had what looked like a goalmouth effort clawed off the line by Ankergren.

The assistant adjudged that the ball had crossed the line and a goal was given.

Leeds struggled to create a clear chance on goal after this and even five minutes of added time failed to inspire the whites to an equaliser.

A very disappointing performance by Leeds and with the games in hand slowly disappearing they are now beginning to look over their shoulder at Colchester United who closed the gap to three points on the same evening.

Leeds still have two home games coming up in the space of four days and boss Simon Grayson will be looking for a response after one of the worst performances of the season.




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