In the end this was a comfortable win over Gillingham, and Norwich’s late equaliser left us top of the table.

Leeds had an unchanged team for this game, despite the pre-match suggestions that Ben Parker was likely to make a comeback. For their part Gillingham turned out in an away kit that looked oddly familiar, a yellow number with blue trimmings, a definite contender for the ‘their kit looks like ours’ slot in LLL magazine.

The RC Lens banner in the away end made me wonder if the Kent mob have to make regular trips through the channel tunnel to see a decent standard of football, but in fact they came out and played an attacking game, unlike many of the visitors to Elland Road in this division. And they produced the first good chance of the game when Bartram turned and shot narrowly wide after being set up by Weston’s backheel.

Gillingham continued to impress going forward, but their defensive play didn’t reach the same heights and all of the Leeds goals were assisted by some basic errors in the Gills’ back line. In the 14^th. minute nobody marked Johnson as he ran through to meet Snodgrass’ corner with a powerful header, which the defender on the line could only nod into the roof of the net.

 The goal settled Leeds down and we doubled the lead in the 28^th minute. Johnson exchanged passes with Beckford down the left before out-pacing the defender and the shot went through Royce from a narrow angle, though I’m not convinced it would have gone in if it hadn’t touched the keeper’s leg on the way. Thereafer Johnson had a couple of chances to complete his hat-trick from free kicks in promising positions, but could only sky them well over the bar.

And just after the break the Gillingham defence still seemed to be dozing after their half-time cuppa, as they failed to track Howson’s run through the middle and our skipper had plenty of time to collect Beckford’s flick on his chest and shoot past Royce. In the next few minutes we could have buried them, as first Beckford went past two defenders and chipped the keeper, only for his shot to come back off the bar, then Becchio sent a header just wide of the post.

But just when we seemed to be cruising, Gillingham grabbed the goal that their enterprising play probably deserved. A long ball into the box bounced off Bromby and Crowe allowed Barcham plenty of space, and the Gillingham forward accepted the invitation to crack a superb shot into the top corner, leaving Higgs with no chance.

And for the next 20 minutes or so we seemed to be wobbling, and Kisnorbo had to make a great block to keep Jackson out as Gillingham threatened to get further back into the game. Grayson decided to shore things up by putting Lubo on for Crowe, moving Hughes to the right, and pulling Johnson back as an extra defender. Kilkenny also came on for Snodgrass, who wasn’t having one of his better games and had started to run out of puff.

But despite these changes, it was still touch and go until Leeds finally made the game safe in the 80^th. minute.  A deflected shot from Doyle looped up onto the bar, and Beckford ran through unmarked to nod it gently into the corner of the net. The Gillingham defence protested that it should have been offside, but in fact Beckford had been at least level when the original shot went in, and had followed the ball in while the defenders had stood rooted to the spot.

Beckford and Lubo went close to giving us a truly flattering scoreline in the closing stages, but of course we more than happy to finish as 4-1 winners, even more so when the final score from Carrow Road flashed up on the screen. We are top of the league, said we are top of the league!

I immediately texted my mate in Norwich to thank him, and got the reply “No problem. It’s always a pleasure to shut up gobby Londoners, especially with a late goal.” Happy days!

Photo: Action Images

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