Leeds United 5 Doncaster Rovers 2: Grayson hands his team their licence to entertain

Not with Leeds United going into the game with the unlikely double of being the Championship’s top scorers but also having conceded more goals on home soil than all but Stockport County and Peterborough United in the entire Football League.

Or, for that matter, with Doncaster Rovers making the trip to Elland Road having let in more goals than any other team in the Championship since the turn of the year.

No, it just did not seem feasible that a meeting between two teams with such porous defences could be anything but a goal-fest.

So it proved with Leeds coming out on top in a seven-goal thriller to give their promotion hopes a major lift.

Two goals apiece from Jonny Howson and Max Gradel, plus Luciano Becchio’s 17th strike of the season, were enough to claim the three points, Doncaster briefly given hope by an equaliser from Billy Sharp in first-half stoppage time and then Franck Moussa putting the visitors ahead four minutes after the restart.

What those bare statistics do not reveal, however, is just what a pulsating contest this was. There were, for instance, a phenomenal 43 attempts on goal – more than half of which were on target.

The home side created 31 of those efforts, though an indication of how close Rovers came to putting a major dent in United’s promotion push is that Kasper Schmeichel had to deny both Sharp and Moussa with instinctive saves when the game was in the balance at 2-2.

Had either of those one-on-one opportunities been taken, Doncaster could have returned south with all three points.

As it was, justice was done through Leeds netting three times in the final 15 minutes. Even so, Simon Grayson appreciated at the final whistle just how deep his players had been forced to dig into their resolve to prevail.

He said: “For 44 minutes of the first half, I thought we were outstanding and it should have been over by half-time.

“But Doncaster have got Billy Sharp and he got them back into it. The afternoon got worse when they went 2-1 ahead but we showed great character to come back and win.”

On whether he would prefer his side to win without the heart-stopping drama that has become the norm for United this season, Grayson added: “People pay their money, they deserve to be entertained – though it would be nice occasionally to be two or three up and enjoy the afternoon from the touchline.”

United had started the afternoon clearly determined to banish the memory of the previous weekend’s comprehensive 3-0 defeat at Swansea, a result that had led to questions being asked as to their ability to last the pace.

Just four minutes had elapsed when Rovers goalkeeper Gary Woods was called into action for the first time when he had to save smartly from Gradel.

Robert Snodgrass then went close with a shot that Brian Stock deflected over before Leeds’ superiority reaped its first reward on 12 minutes.

Once again, it was a sweeping move that unlocked the Doncaster back-line with Howson, standing in up front while Becchio received treatment for a head wound, showing tremendous skill to beat his marker and find Gradel.

The Ivorian then skipped past Wayne Thomas before drilling a low shot beyond the outstretched hand of Woods.

After that, the rest of the half was akin to a procession towards the Doncaster goal as chance after chance was created – and spurned – by the hosts.

Perhaps the most glaring miss was by Snodgrass who, after cleverly dragging the ball past the prone Woods, lost his footing and shot wide with the goal at his mercy.

The Scot was, though, by no means alone in wasting glaring opportunities and the profligacy came back to haunt Leeds in first- half stoppage time when Sharp finished at the second attempt.

For the second time in three home games, it meant United went in level at the break despite dominating. As with the previous occasion against Norwich City, Leeds then fell 2-1 behind after the restart when Moussa exploited some poor marking to beat Schmeichel from close range.

Suddenly, United were up against it and the home fans in the 27,027 crowd knew it.

Credit, therefore, must go to Howson for dragging his side back into the game within a minute by, first, charging down Stock’s attempted clearance and then beating Woods from 18 yards.

Rovers twice then spurned opportunities to regain the lead when Moussa and Sharp were denied by Schmeichel, while at the other end Woods did exactly the same to Gradel with two brave blocks.

The vital breakthrough came 15 minutes from time when a fine, searching Snodgrass cross was headed down by Bradley Johnson for Becchio to net from close range.

Leeds extended their lead further when Kilkenny and Snodgrass combined to set up Billy Paynter, whose shot was blocked by Woods and Gradel converted the rebound.

Now, the game really was up for Doncaster who went on to conceded a fifth goal of the game – and their 30th in the Championship since the turn of the year – when Howson raced on to a sublime pass from Snodgrass to net the 10th goal of what has become, by some distance, his best season in a Leeds United shirt.

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