It is not every day that the FA Cup holders come to town and normally scraps between Leeds and Wigan take place up the road with an oval ball, but United won quite convincingly against the Managerless Latics with Ross McCormack bagging a brace, or did he?

Brian McDermott made one change following the Blackburn defeat, Matt Smith partnered Ross McCormack up front in preference to Luke Varney. Yet again there was no place on the bench for El Hadji Diouf or Paul Green.

It took Leeds just 15 minutes to add to Wigan's woes, at the weekend Owen Coyles' short tenure came to an abrupt end following a crushing defeat at Derby. McCormack's drive through a crowded box crossed the line past one-time Leeds keeper Scott Carson and despite the best efforts of the black-shirted Wigan players to hook it back to safety, Leeds were already celebrating and the officials were running back to the centre spot. The replays showed that Jason Pearce flicked on Alex Mowatt's corner for McCormack to apply the finishing touch.

Wigan did not lie down and I was quietly glad to see the half-time whistle come, they enjoyed arguably their best spell in the final fifteen minutes of the half and wouldn't have been unjustified to secure an equaliser before the break. Will Keane tested Paddy Kenny twice, one shot drawing a brilliant body block from the Halifax born keeper. Zaluikas steered a Nick Powell lingering, dropping header wide and Emerson Boyce crashed in a powerful header wide.

Wigan started the second half the team on top and I was surprised to see their caretaker boss Graham Barrow throw on a double substitution on 56, our old enemy Grant Holt and highly rated James McClean coming on.

Our defence however still looked relatively composed. I've heard Tom Lees criticised of late, but he was faultless tonight. I've been impressed with Zaluikas and the way he does the simple things right, again that was evident again. Jason Pearce has surely got to be our most improved player of the season so far, I half expected him to leave in the summer but he was immense in defence at the thick of the action. Some say Byram should be in the side over Lee Peltier but the former Leicester man did his job tonight. Pugh, who in the summer we couldn't give away earned a small song of praise from the hard to please Leeds fans with some of his thunderous tackles in front of an audience weaned on the likes of Norman Hunter and Vinnie Jones.

The killer-second goal seemed a long time coming, McCormack drew a double palm-stinging save from Carson and Smith had the Leeds fans gasping on frustration on a wintery night at Elland Road he found himself one on one with Carson but maybe took three touches too many before seeing his shot ricochet off the much travelled Cumbrian keeper.

However the goal that sealed our 5th straight home win came on 77 minutes and it sparked a fierce debate who's goal it was. Initially it seemed that Pearce got a faint touch from McCormack's free kick to score in two consecutive home matches, however McCormack is claiming his 15th of the season!

It does not really matter, the win moves us up a place to seventh. Hopefully our impressive home form can carry on into the weekend with indifferent Watford up on Saturday looking unlikely to repeat last seasons 6-1 drubbing, particularly with McCormack on fire and our defence looking quite solid for the first time in recent memory.

Photo: Action Images

TimWhelan added 17:30 - Dec 5 Smith's miss was actually a three-on-one, possibly the worst I've ever seen at Elland Road. All Smith had to do was roll it to one of the players either side of him and it was a certain goal!
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