Leeds United 1 Ipswich Town 1: McCormack on the spot to offer brief respite to Leeds

Rudderless off the field, through a takeover which has listed badly, they may be, but at least Leeds United possess a captain who is made of the right stuff in Ross McCormack.

The striker fired his 19th goal of the season to save a bit of face for a scarred support with a 63rd-minute penalty, the one crumb from a difficult night.

With Leeds plumbing the depths and looking at a sixth successive defeat for the first time since the hard winter of that wretched 2003-04 relegation campaign, McCormack kept his head to cancel out David McGoldrick’s soft opener six minutes earlier – which arrived courtesy of a horror moment from Paddy Kenny.

How all of Leeds will now be hoping – praying – that the man who Brian McDermott referred to as his ‘talisman’ ahead of the game remains in a United jersey come the weekend.

While McDermott may have expressed his confidence that will materialise, many supporters who have grown a touch cynical given events at the club in recent years will only be convinced of that once the transfer window passes at 11pm on Friday with McCormack still a Leeds player.

Make no mistake, it’s a time of uncertainty and strife for Leeds – eight games without a win now, and reflecting on a month to forget, the chorus of hit seventies song ‘January’ by Scottish band Pilot couldn’t be more appropriate. ‘Sick and tired, you’ve been hanging on me’ as the song goes and how everyone connected with the club will be keen to bid this month good riddance.

The sight of United in disarray on the pitch in shambolic episodes at Sheffield Wednesday and Rochdale may have been painful for fans to endure.

But the total maelstrom behind-the-scenes at the club regarding Sport Capital’s protracted and increasingly fraught-looking takeover bid – which has comfortably assumed saga status – has caused even more angst and bewilderment among long-suffering and punch-drunk Whites supporters.

They were landed another hefty right-hook for good measure before kick-off when Sport Capital consortium member Andrew Flowers revealed that United owners Gulf Finance House had snubbed a revised offer for a majority stake.

He went on to fire a broadside in GFH’s direction, criticising the decision to engage with another potential rival bidder in the shape of controversial Cagliari owner Massimo Cellino.

Planted smack bang in the middle of it all in this increasingly sorry tale are United’s fans, players and McDermott.

The Leeds boss spoke meaningfully about the need for the takeover situation to be successfully resolved for the good of the club, complete with the appropriate duty of care in his pre-match press conference. Football, in his words, was secondary.

And then a football match did begin, of sorts, although plenty of time was afforded home fans wishing to dissect the latest takeover twist in a soporific opening. The one major piece of team news revolved around the shock inclusion of El-Hadji Diouf, starting for the first time since September 21 in place of Luke Varney.

With just over 20 minutes of competitive action under his belt in the past four months, starting with Diouf was a bit of a dice roll. As one might expect, he looked a touch rusty and while the attitude of those in white couldn’t be questioned, the quality was missing.

Ipswich had the most dangerous moments in the first half, with Tom Lees producing the timeliest of challenges to stop Ryan Tunnicliffe pulling the trigger following a dull first half-hour before the same player saw a shot produce a scrambling save from Kenny.

Rudy Austin saw a daisycutter turned away from Dean Gerken before the hosts’ best opportunity of the half saw McCormack glance a header wide.

After the restart, Ipswich again looked the most likely, with Tunnicliffe volleying wide before Jay Tabb was inches away.

The goal Town had been threatening arrived on 57 minutes in a moment which all goalkeepers dread. An initial error from Jimmy Kebe, who was dispossessed in midfield, was compounded when Kenny horribly allowed the most speculative of 30-yard shots from McGoldrick to slip past him.

Some members of the unforgiving home crowd let out boos shortly after, with the air threatening to turn mutinous before a more positive development at the other end when Luke Chambers was penalised for a foul towards the left edge of the box on Cameron Stewart, with McCormack happy to accept the penalty gift.

McDermott threw on Dominic Poleon and Alex Mowatt, but it was a familiar figure in McCormack, who, inevitably, had their main chance to clinch victory when his instinctive shot drew a finger-tip save from Gerken.

Leeds United: Kenny; Byram (Peltier 88), Pearce, Lees, Warnock; Kebe, Brown (Mowatt 63), Austin, Stewart; McCormack, Diouf (Poleon 63). Unused substitutes: Cairns, Murphy, Pugh, Wootton.

Ipswich Town: Gerken; Chambers, Berra, Smith, Cresswell; Anderson (Nouble 72), Skuse, Tunnicliffe, Tabb; Murphy, McGoldrick. Unused substitutes: Loach, Mings, Richardson, Hunt, Wordsworth, Taylor.

Referee: D Webb (Lancashire).