Leeds United 1 Bolton 0: Warnock proud of Leeds’s ability to dig out triumph

The game was, quite frankly, a stinker with chances few and far between on an afternoon that was every bit as flat as a half empty bottle of champagne left out overnight.

Come the end of the season, however, this victory, achieved via Luciano Becchio’s second-half penalty, could prove to be a huge one for the Elland Road club.

After chastening back-to-back defeats over Christmas to Nottingham Forest and Hull City, it was a given that United needed to bounce back against Bolton Wanderers.

But what taking three points off Dougie Freedman’s men has also potentially done is make a move to Elland Road that bit more enticing for the transfer targets Neil Warnock has in mind.

Certainly, joining a team just a couple of points adrift of the play-off places is a damn sight more attractive than one fresh from two festive drubbings and a poor result against a Bolton side with just two wins on the road all season.

Warnock can also now point to United having won their last five league games at home, many of them against in-form teams, when trying to persuade prospective new signings that their future lies at Elland Road.

He said: “We are a work in progress at the moment and while it wasn’t a classic game against Bolton, we showed great desire.

“In the first half, we were a bit nervous. When you get a drubbing like we did at Hull, it knocks a bit of stuffing out of you. But we grafted and the best move of the match won the game.

“What makes me even prouder is that a virus has been running through the squad.

“We lost Luke Varney and Jerome Thomas overnight, while Ross (McCormack) and Paul Green were struggling and Paddy Kenny could hardly move at the end.

“So, in the circumstances, I thought we were fantastic.”

After the abject failure of trying to clip Hull’s attacking wings with wing backs and a three-man defence three days earlier, Warnock opted for a 4-3-3 formation that incorporated his three main strikers.

For 65 minutes, the tactic failed to ignite Leeds, who looked every bit as insipid going forward as they had in the 2-0 defeat at the KC Stadium.

All that changed, however, when McCormack showed great intelligence by stepping across Tyrone Mears to invite the full-back into a rash challenge.

Mears duly delivered by barging into McCormack’s back just inside the Bolton penalty area to leave referee Philip Gibbs with no option but to point to the spot.

Becchio then stepped up to send Adam Bogdan, who until then had not had a save to make, the wrong way from 12 yards to settle an otherwise drab contest.

There was still time for Leeds to endure the odd nervy moment with a knockdown from Kevin Davies presenting David N’Gog with a chance that the former Liverpool striker wastefully fired over.

But once that 79th-minute opening had been squandered, defeat became inevitable for a Bolton side who up until Mears’s rush of blood had managed most of the few moments of attacking play.

In fact, so poor were Leeds in the first half that the only positives for the home fans to glean were that their team were still on level terms and also still had 11 men on the field.

Sam Byram was the United player fortunate to find referee Gibbs in lenient mood.

He followed his seventh-minute caution for a cynical tug on Chung-Yung Lee by kicking the ball away as Bolton tried to take a quick throw-in.

Under the letter of the law, the young full-back should have incurred a second yellow, but Gibbs thought differently to hand Leeds a reprieve.

By half-time, United were also thankful to Kenny and his left-hand post for denying Bolton a goal that their marginally superior play would just about have deserved.

First, Alan Tate was caught in possession and the ball moved to Chris Eagles, who raced into the area before drilling a shot across Kenny that struck the outside of an upright.

Then, after Kevin Davies had used his strength to keep Byram at bay as he chested a high ball to Eagles, the one-time Burnley midfielder unleashed a ferocious shot that Kenny did brilliantly to turn behind for a corner at full stretch.

At that stage, Bolton looked a much more likely winner, but instead it was Leeds who went on to claim a victory that, come the end of the season, may prove much more important than it was memorable.

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Leeds United: Kenny; Byram, Tate, Pearce, Peltier; Green, Austin, Norris; Diouf (Gray 90), Becchio, McCormack. Unused substitutes: Ashdown, Drury, Lees, Brown, Somma, Hall.

Bolton Wanderers: Bogdan; Mears, Knight, Ream, Alonso; Andrews, Spearing (Butterfield 79), Lee (Afobe 68), Pratley (N’Gog 68), Eagles; Davies. Unused substitutes: Petrov, Ricketts, Sordell, Lonergan.

Referee: P Gibbs (West Midlands).