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Derby 3 Leeds 1: Takeover is given the thumbs up but Leeds again fall to Derby jinx
THE only glimmer of weekend cheer for Leeds United was news that the takeover of the club will go through a week on Friday.
The Football League have approved the appointment of three of GFH Capital’s staff to the board at Elland Road, setting up the completition of the buy-out on December 21.
The Dubai-based firm’s Hisham Alrayes and Salem Patel will join deputy chief executive David Haigh as directors of Leeds after passing the Football League’s Owners and Directors’ Test.
On the field, Leeds failed to secure a fourth straight win, instead suffering an eighth consecutive defeat to Derby.
Leeds manager Neil Warnock thought it might have been different if Derby midfielder Jeff Hendrick had been shown a red card instead of a yellow for a 35th-minute lunge on Ryan Hall.
“How Hendrick did not get a red card I will never, ever know,” he said.
“It’s a horrendous challenge, it’s a career-threatening challenge and to get a yellow card for that, I do not understand the game.
“They’re even saying Ryan Hall got up quickly, as if that’s a crime. What do we tell them to do, stay down and roll around? It was bad at the time but it’s even worse when you watch it again.
“I thought we were poor for the first half-hour, but we withstood that and I didn’t think they could improve, but I thought we could be 100 per cent better in the second half and I thought we were.
“The second goal was always going to be the winner and we couldn’t quite manage it. You need the rub of the green at times, but it would have been entirely different with 10 men.”
There was little to warm the fans on a cold afternoon until Derby took a quick free-kick inside the Leeds half in the 15th minute and an astute pass from the outstanding 17-year-old midfield player Will Hughes sent in Connor Sammon to beat Paddy Kenny with a low shot from 12 yards.
Leeds had been second best but they scored just before the interval when Lee Peltier crossed from the left and Luciano Becchio headed on for Paul Green to turn the ball in against his former club.
Hughes almost restored Derby’s lead in the 59th minute when he beat two defenders and fired in a shot which Kenny turned away.
Kenny was beaten in the 66th minute when Leeds failed to clear a corner and Richard Keogh drove in a low shot which went in off Buxton inside the six-yard area.
Davies came off the bench to settle the game in the last minute of stoppage time, when he bent an unstoppable shot from just inside the area to keep Derby’s amazing run against Leeds going.
Derby County: Legzdins, Brayford, Keogh, Buxton (O’Brien 79), O’Connor, Coutts, Hendrick, Hughes (Freeman 90), Jacobs, Sammon, Robinson (Davies 82). Unused substitutes: Fielding, Tyson, Doyle, Bennett.
Leeds United: Kenny, Byram, Lees, Tate, Peltier, Green, Tonge, Norris (White 80), Hall (Varney 68), Becchio, McCormack (Diouf 74). Unused substitutes: Ashdown, Pearce, Brown, Gray.
Referee: S Mathieson (Cheshire).
Man of the match: Will Hughes.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Sunday 26 May 2013
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 5 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: South
