For the second time this week we saw a goal in the last minute of injury time, but this time it was Leeds who scored the vital late goal, as O’Dea’s late winner beat Peterborough United.

There was a good atmosphere inside London Road for this game, but the Peterborough fans made me laugh with their constant chanting of “you’re not famous any more”. Er, so how come this was a sell-out for their fans and their biggest crowd of the season? Sadly, this could be the last time ever that we’re able to enjoy some good old fashioned terracing at a Leeds United league game.

Simon Grayson had one enforced change to make to the starting line-up, as Snodgrass was injured and had to be replaced by Varynen. Leeds made a great start to the game, taking the lead after only four minutes. After a move down the right the ball flicked up off the heel of a defender, and Keogh sent a neat volley straight into the back of the net.

But after that the home side looked determined to force their way back into the game, and we started to look a little shaky at the back. And they nearly grabbed an equaliser when Little got the better of White and played a dangerous ball across goal which Boyd narrowly failed to convert. And their equaliser arrived in the 23^rd minute, straight from a corner, as Zakuani outjumped Lees at the far post and Rachubka falied to stop his header crossing the line.

We nearly regained the lead straight away after a neat one-two between Keogh and Mc.Cormack, but Jones did well to spread himself and keep out Keogh’s shot. But ten minutes later we were handed an advantage of a different sort, as the Posh went down to ten men as Tomin got a straight red card for a tackle on Keogh.

At the time I thought it was rather harsh, but having watched it again on TV I can see that he jumped into Keogh from behind, with both feet off the floor, and the referee was well placed to see how dangerous a tackle it was. The home fans then booed Keogh as he went off for treatment, as if it was his fault he’d been tackled, and even had a go at out trainer as he made his way back round the pitch! Clearly some people have got anger management issues in this part of East Anglia.

From then until half-time we rather sportingly failed to take advantage of the extra man, with most of our moves breaking down through abysmal passing. The entertainment at the interval consisted of a large group of teenage girls prancing around to some terrible music, while for no obvious reason another person walked round the touchline dressed in an inflatable mattress.

Four minutes after the re-start Grayson made his first change, by replacing Varynen with Sam. The Finn had looked a bit lost playing wide on the right, and by employing a specialist in that position our formation looked a bit more balanced. And we finally regained the lead a few minutes later, when Sam slipped the ball inside to find Clayton on the edge of the area, and Clayton moved the ball onto his left foot before curling a shot past Jones  into the net.

At that stage we had hopes of going on to a comfortable win against ten men, but this Peterborough side are made of sterner stuff, and kept battling away as we began to fall back on defence in the manner of the Coventry game in midweek. Grayson tried to give us an extra outlet up front by replacing Mc.Cormack with Nunez, and the Honduran tried to cut in from the left a few times with the aim of shooting with his right, but he got little change out of the Boro right back.

I started to get the feeling that Peterboro could snatch an equaliser near the end, and sure enough it turned up in the 88^th minute. They sent a long free kick into the box and Howson and O’Dea jumped into each other with neither of them getting to the ball, and as it landed in the six yard box Little managed to reach the ball ahead of Rachubka and Lees , getting a toe-poke that sent the ball trickling across the line.

As we moved into injury time there was a another controversial moment, and some reports on the game have suggested that O’Dea should have been sent off for a tackle on Ball, but that is absolute nonsense. The Peterboro man was running through in quite a wide position, so it certainly wasn’t a clear goalscoring opportunity, and in any case O’Dea actually played the ball, so it wasn’t even a foul.

Just as I was cursing the way we’d thrown away two wins inside a week, it turned out that we hadn’t.     Becchio came on for Keogh as we tried to force a last-gasp winner, and it finally turned up in the 95^th minutes. A free kick was played out to Sam, and O’Dea met his cross with an acrobatic volley, which crossed the line as it came down from the bar, but Becchio made sure by heading it into the net anyway.

Peterborough only had time to kick off again before the ref blew the final whistle, and the moaning could commence. As well as criticising the referee’s performance in general, Ferguson junior has asked why he added on two minutes injury time in addition to the four that were announced at the extra ninety. How pleasantly ironic to have a Fergie junior questioning the rule that says we have to play on until the other side scores. We can only hope his dad buys him a new watch for Christmas.

Photo: Action Images

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