Leeds 1 City 1
City's eagerly-awaited Boxing Day clash with fallen giants Leeds United ended all-square after the visitors had led for most of the game.
The home side, who entered the game in one of the worst losing runs in their history, were able to welcome back several key players from injury. The League 1 leaders, meanwhile, were unsurprisingly unchanged from the side that had polished off Peterborough.
New Leeds boss Simon Grayson was paraded to the crowd before the start and received warm applause from both sets of fans. It did not take him long to learn of the scale of his task.
Within seconds of the kick-off, left-back Alan Sheehan, whose treatment by his former fans was rather less generous than that given to his manager, sliced an attempted through ball into the stand.
But City were placed under early pressure as Leeds, backed by the division's biggest crowd of the season, pressed forward. And the home side should have taken the lead in the 15th minute when keeper David Martin failed to deal with a cross from winger Andy Robinson. However the shot from Luciano Becchio found the post when it should really have found the net.
This near-miss stirred the visitors into action and midfielder Mark Davies came close with a shot from long range. The nerves in the home defence soon returned and it was no surprise when City took the lead after 24 minutes. Matty Fryatt found Matt Oakley unmarked on the right and the City skipper fired past home keeper Caspar Ankergren to put his team in front….
City retained this lead for the rest of the half in relative comfort, with the only threat coming from a 30-yard drive by Frazer Richardson which flew narrowly wide. However, there was some unease among the visiting hordes about the lack of interest in securing a second goal to kill the game off. The wastage of several opportunities from set pieces was particularly disappointing.
The second half continued in largely similar vein, until the home side, frustrated by their lack of penetration, resorted to the time-honoured Leeds tradition of kicking and hacking the opposition in an attempt to force their way back into the game.
A referee as experienced as Mark Halsey should have been able to deal with such blatant attempts at bullying. Unfortunately, he wasn't. Indeed it was Davies who was the first to enter his notebook in the 71st minute for a comparatively innocuous challenge. Within seconds, a far more cynical hack on Steve Howard, by no means the first of the game, passed without similar punishment.
With thoughts among the City players drifting towards Sunday's home clash with Hereford, they relaxed their grip on the game and attempted to sit on the one-goal lead. This proved costly
As the game entered the first of four minutes of stoppage time, Martin allowed a cross from Leeds sub Jonny Howson to pass across his six-yard box and Robert Snodgrass stole in unmarked for a barely-deserved equaliser. This roused the home fans to life, but City survived late pressure to cling on for the draw.
Such lapses of concentration in the closing stages of matches has cost City dearly in recent seasons and may yet do so in the current campaign. The careless loss of points at Brighton, Swindon and now Leeds has made the difference between a nine-point lead at the top of the division and the current, more precarious, two-point margin. But with four of the next five league fixtures at home, there is scope to extend the current unbeaten run a good deal further.
The ability of the current City side to win this league is not in doubt. Whether it has the strength of character do so, however, remains to be proved
Team: Martin (5), Gilbert (7), Hobbs (7), Tunchev (8), Berner (7), Oakley (7), King (7), Davies (7), Dyer (6), Fryatt (7), Howard (7). Sub: Dickov for Fryatt (85 minutes)
Goal: Oakley (24 minutes)
Attendance: 33 580.
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation