It was a scrappy game, but Johnson and Killenny both got their first Leeds goals, which were enough to see off AFC Bournemouth.

Leeds began with the same line-up as at Swindon last week, so new signing Freedman and the returning Hughes getting no further than the bench and Richardson continuing out of position at left back at the expense of Sheehan. I thought that the midfield could be a bit lightweight in the absence of Hughes, but in fact they competed well in the blustery conditions.

But one concern was Marques, who was muscled out of the way a couple of times by a powerful centre forward, and a better side than Bournemouth would have made more of the opportunities this created. Leeds should have wised up to this and swapped the central defenders, so that Michalik could have taken care of the larger of the two strikers. In the third minute Rui was booked after pulling back a forward on the edge of the box, but for once a Leeds wall stood firm, and Kilkenny was able to block the free kick and hack the ball to safety.

After eleven minutes Leeds took the lead, thanks to an horrendous mix-up in the heart of the Bournemouth defence. A long hoof down the field by Prutton eluded our forwards and seemed to be harmless as it dropped between Forde and Young on the edge of the area. But the goalkeeper and defender both went for the ball and took each other out, leaving the ball to run through for Johnson to tap it into the net. Young had come off worse in the collision, but was able to continue after treatment.

But Bournemouth were determined to battle back from this setback and we allowed them several chances. Richarson was having trouble with the lively Vokes, who was able to make some decent runs into the area. And when Rui was again beaten on the edge of the area the ball was played through to an unmarked Vokes, who thankfully blazed well over the bar.

We did manage further chances of our own, with Howson shooting narrowly over and Beckford just wide, and just before half time Kandol got his bearings completely wrong, heading embarrassingly far wide when he was right in front of goal. But at half time the bloke behind me said that if we hadn’t been gifted that goal we’d all be pretty unhappy about the first 45 minute, and I understood exactly what he meant.

The entertainment during the interval was a mixed bag. First they played the classic ‘Tiger Feet’ by ‘Mud’, perhaps in the hope that some music from 1974 would encourage the team to play like the Leeds side of that era. But then we had ‘chairman’s choice’ inflicted onto us, a truly abysmal dirge by some farmers campaigning about the prices they get from the supermarkets.

By the time the football resumed the rain had come lashing down, and the playing surface was getting worse, so we had the strange sight of four Leeds players rushing over to the touchline to change their boots, fortunately having time to do so due to an injury to a Bournemouth player. And the front rows of the east stand went rushing back to get out of the wet, and were lucky that the crowd was sparse enough to allow them empty seats to move into.

Vokes missed a couple more chances for Bournemouth, but we went further in front on 63 minutes. Howson won the ball in midfield and slipped it through to Kilkenny, and the Bournemouth defence were generous enough to back off and give him plenty of time to hammer the ball past the goalkeeper from outside the area. This time the visitors did seem to lose heart, and never really threatened our goal for the rest of the game.

About the most entertaining moment of the final 20 minutes was the steward at the front of the kop with the silly hairstyle getting hit by the ball, followed by a chant of “He’s got bird shit on his head”. The game wasn’t helped by the conditions, but by now it had petered out as a spectacle, so Macca took the chance to give Hughes and Freedman a run out, the latter not quite as fat as we’d feared, and showing some nice touches. Elding also came on right at the end after Kandol was carried off, but there’s no indication the big man’s injury is anything serious.

We can’t complain about getting two wins from successive games, but this was still an unconvincing performance against a side who are well and truly in the mire at the bottom of the table. The result took us up one place into seventh, but we will have to play better against the stronger sides we will meet before the end of the season.

Photo: Action Images

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