Leeds United 1 Bristol City 0: Joy of six is diluted by Leeds’s lukewarm offering

The biting cold may have had something to do with that, the plunging temperatures at Elland Road come Saturday tea-time having made the prospect of 
either retiring to a warm pub or a car with the heaters on full blast hugely enticing.

A largely sterile contest could also have played its part in the 18,146 crowd hanging around only fleetingly to salute United adding Bristol City to a list of recently vanquished visitors to LS11 that boasts three of the Championship’s current top five in Leicester City, Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough plus Ipswich Town and Bolton Wanderers.

Perhaps the biggest factor, however, in such a notable achievement passing without its due recognition is the unmistakeable sense among the dwindling 
Elland Road faithful that Leeds are treading water right now.

Twenty one days of the January transfer window have yielded just one new arrival on loan – albeit the talented Ross Barkley of Everton – plus a rash of unwanted speculation concerning the 
futures of Luciano Becchio and Sam Byram.

The lack of new faces is not through any lack of effort on the club’s part, as manager Neil Warnock made clear in the wake of the win over Sean O’Driscoll’s Robins when he said: “Shaun (Harvey, chief executive) is making a lot of calls and I know he is speaking to people on Monday.”

However, until those calls come to a successful conclusion with a stellar signing or two, it is difficult to envisage the generally pessimistic mood of a sizeable majority of supporters lifting any time soon.

One man who could not fail to notice during the victory over Bristol City just how flat things have become down Elland Road way is Neil Kilkenny, the Australian international who left Leeds in the summer of 2011 for Ashton Gate after failing to agree a new contract.

A member of the last United team to enjoy such a fruitful run at home when Simon Grayson’s men ended the 2008-09 regular campaign with 11 straight wins in front of their own fans, the 27-year-old midfielder said: “It (visiting Elland Road) is probably not as intimidating because the ground is half empty now.

“That is obviously disappointing for the fans and the players, as players come to Leeds because it is a massive club.

“When I played here, we used to get 30,000 most weeks. But I heard over the PA system that the crowd was 18,000.

“I don’t know what has gone on over the year-and-a-half that I have been away.

“But it is disappointing for the club because they have got a great fan base and it is a great club.”

Asked what playing at Elland Road was like during his three-and-a-half years with United, Kilkenny, clutching former team-mate Davide Somma’s shirt, replied: “It is a place that can get daunting (for the home players) when results aren’t going too well.

“But, at the same time, you need to have the guts and take it. That’s what we did and why we succeeded.

“In my last season at Leeds, we finished seventh and just three points off the play-offs.

“It was a massive disappointment as we should have got in the top six.

“We will see if they can beat that this time because they didn’t last year.

“A club the size of Leeds needs to push on, as the fans demand success.”

If United are to deliver the success their fans crave, there can be little doubt that they will have to improve hugely on their efforts against Bristol City.

In fact, perhaps the best that can be said about a win that kept the Robins rooted to the foot of the Championship is that the three points did, at least, mean Leeds had bounced back from their 
annual capitulation at Barnsley just a week earlier.

Not, however, that Warnock’s side looked to have got that chastening Oakwell defeat out of their systems during the first half.

Despite the United manager sending out an attack-minded line-up, the home side laboured to such an extent that when two shots on goal arrived in quick succession from El-Hadji Diouf and Ross McCormack just before the interval they were greeted with ironic cheers from the home fans.

Bristol City, considering their lowly position, could be much more content with their display during those opening 45 minutes as Richard Foster tested Paddy Kenny with a fierce shot and Liam Kelly went close following good work by Ryan Taylor.

The visitors were also unfortunate not to take the lead two minutes after the restart when a drilled cross by Foster forced Tom Lees into a difficult clearance that saw the ball fly goalwards before Kenny spared his team-mate’s blushes with a fine reflex save.

It proved the turning point of the afternoon with Leeds, after gradually exerting more and more pressure on the visitors, making the breakthrough midway through the second half.

A fine cross from Barkley was the catalyst, the quality of the delivery allowing McCormack to rise high above Foster to meet the ball at the far post with a powerful header that gave Heaton no chance in the visitors’ goal as Warnock’s men clinched a sixth straight home win in the Championship.