Leeds United 1 Peterborough 1: Play-offs move further out of Leeds’s grasp

A TENTH season outside the Premier League is surely beckoning for Leeds United after another frustrating, if entertaining, stalemate for Neil Warnock’s men.
Sam Byram scores Leeds's equaliser.Sam Byram scores Leeds's equaliser.
Sam Byram scores Leeds's equaliser.

Following on from the recent trio of draws on the road that had seen a potential nine-point haul turned into just three by the concession of late equalisers, United lost further ground against one of the Championship’s lesser lights.

Worse still, Leeds being held by a Peterborough United side, who belied their lowly status with a hugely impressive attacking display, came on a night when one of the clubs in the West Yorkshire club’s sights suffered a setback of their own, seventh-placed Brighton & Hove Albion losing at Barnsley.

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All in all, therefore, a disappointing start to the 10-game run-in that Warnock believes can take his side into the top six – a point illustrated by the muted reaction of the 24,240 crowd at the final whistle.

A few booed, a few clapped. But the overwhelming reaction was one of resigned silence, almost as if those who had braved a cold night sensed that a potentially fatal blow has been inflicted on United’s attempt to gatecrash the play-offs.

Certainly, the manner in which Peterborough were able to create chance after chance of their own as play raged from one end to the other hardly suggested that Leeds have the quality to make a late dash to reclaim a Premier League place that was surrendered in 2004.

In truth, Posh could – just like Leeds – consider themselves unfortunate not to claim all three points with a combination of some lacklustre defending by the home side and the quality of Dwight Gayle allowing Darren Ferguson’s side to play a full part in an engrossing contest.

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The tone was very much set in the first half, an extraordinarily open affair that saw chances aplenty created at either end. Both teams played their part in this, not least in how neither looked comfortable when asked to defend even the most basic of situations.

Never was this more apparent than with the game’s opening goal on 15 minutes as Leeds were undone by a simple punt forward by Posh goalkeeper Robert Olejnik that the home defence inexplicably failed to deal with.

The upshot was Gayle being able to claim possession before firing a tremendous shot that beat Paddy Kenny at his near post.

Leeds could not even claim to have been unfortunate to fall behind with Peterborough having served notice of their attacking threat just two minutes earlier when more sloppy defending had afforded Gayle a chance that he almost took with a shot that crashed against the crossbar.

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Posh, to their credit, continued to press once ahead and United were grateful to Kenny for keeping out Lee Tomlin’s effort with a flying save before the hosts finally sprang into action once the game had entered the second quarter.

First, Stephen Warnock volleyed narrowly wide after being picked out by a floated cross from Luke Varney.

Then, after Ross McCormack had shown a tremendous turn of skill to get to the byline, Jason Pearce headed the Scot’s cross over after being picked out inside the six yard box.

It was a let-off for Posh, who were then grateful to see Paul Green shoot straight at Olejnik in the visitors’ goal and Steve Morison hook an effort wide following more sloppy defending by Ferguson’s men.

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The end-to-end nature of the game continued after the restart as Posh opened up the home defence with ridiculous ease courtesy of a neat one-two between Gayle and Tomlin which ended with the first-half goalscorer firing narrowly wide.

Varney then missed by a similar margin at the other end as the Leeds striker met Tonge’s cross at the near post with a firm header.

Once again, it was a let-off for the visitors and, once again, they failed to heed the warning as another mistake – this time by goalkeeper Olejnik – allowed United to equalise just before the hour.

A deep inswinging corner by Warnock created the opening for Byram, who gleefully smashed the ball into the roof of the net from close range. Olejnik, however, was guilty of initially leaving his line in the hope of catching the ball en route to the back post only for it to fly over his net and towards the grateful Byram.

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Varney had the ball in the net 15 minutes from time, but was rightly pulled back for offside.

It was Peterborough, though, who could consider themselves most unfortunate not to claim a late winner with Warnock cynically dragging Tomlin to the floor as Kenny raced recklessly from his line.

The left-back was booked for his troubles, a punishment that was also meted out to Green for an even more cynical foul on Gayle as he looked to be through on goal.

Leeds also had Kenny to thank for keeping out a stinging drive from Gayle to ensure the home side at least claimed some reward from last night.

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Even so, time has to be running out now for United, who simply cannot afford to drop any more points this weekend when Huddersfield Town head to Elland Road for the final game before the international break.

Leeds United: Kenny; Byram, Peltier, Lees (Pearce 26), Warnock; Green, Norris (Austin 81), Tonge, Varney; McCormack, Morison (Diouf 46). Unused substitutes: Ashdown, White, Brown, Habibou.

Peterborough United: Olejnik; Ferdinand (Barnett 78), Zakuani, Bostwick, Knight-Percival; Little, Payne, Swanson (McCann 62), Rowe; Tomlin, Gayle. Unused substitutes: Alcock, Brisleyt, Day, Ntlhe, Mendez-Laing.

Referee: S Hooper (Wiltshire).

Last night’s results and latest positions: Page 22.