Oldham Athletic 1  Leeds United 1.

It was a hard fought-game with few clear-cut chances, especially in the first half, but I think this was a good result for Leeds. At least we’ve broken the run of away defeats and this was a big improvement on our last away performance at Hereford.

Simon Grayson had two enforced changes to make, with Johnson in for the injured Robinson, and Becchio coming back from suspension to replace Howson, who was of course serving a one match ban of his own. The latter change also meant that Snodgrass would play wide on the right instead of as a striker.

The game began at a furious pace, with both sides working hard and looking to go forward, but with little skill in evidence. Leeds main idea in coming forward was to knock the ball long for Beckford to hold it up, but this merely played into Gregan’s hands. We know from his Leeds days that Gregan is strong in the air, and we’d have done better if we’d played it quickly along the floor so that Beckford could use his pace to get past him.

The Leeds fans started as we meant to go on, giving Lee Hughes a constant stream of abuse for the car accident that led to him spending his best years at her majesty’s pleasure. “How do you sleep at night?” and “you got ****ed in the showers” were just some of the ditties we sang to torment him. But if the idea was to put him off his game then it didn’t work, as he looked lively throughout and showed that he would have been playing at a higher level if it hadn’t been for his indiscression.

Our first decent chance came when Kilkenny played Becchio through, but a defender raced back to make an excellent tackle just inside the area. And unfortunately Parker didn’t look so dependable at the other end a few minutes later as he dithered and let Hughes get past him, forcing Casper to come quickly off his line and save bravely at the forward’s feet. Our best chance of the half came when an excellent cross from Snodgrass found Beckford unmarked beyond the far post, but the big man could only put his header across the face of the goal.

It had been a pretty even first half, but Oldham took the lead only six minutes after the re-start. The move began when Delph gave the ball away in midfield, but there seemed little danger when the ball was played through to give Hughes a narrow angle. But somehow his shot managed to squeeze past Casper into the net. I’m told the ball went through his legs, but if you were watching on the TV you probably had a better view than I did from the opposite end of the ground. The goal caused Chavs’ corner to our left to get over-excited as several of them rushed into the segregation gap to wave at us, before they got beaten back by the stewards.

Here we go again, I thought, going behind yet again in an away game. But this time we showed far more spirit than in the last three away games, and we took only a minute to get back on level terms. Becchio had a very good header tipped over the bar and when the corner came over he was there again, this time heading into the back of the net. Once again Chavs’ corner got over-excited, this time picking on the half-dozen Leeds fans they found celebrating the goal in their midst. 

The goals livened the game up a bit and we kept coming forward in search of a winner, despite being handicapped by our dysfunctional left hand side. Parker just seems to be a poor man’s Ian Harte without the free kicks, as he’s short of pace, can’t tackle, and his passing was occasionally woeful. And Johnson wasn’t much better, at one stage managing to dribble the ball straight out of play, despite being under no pressure whatsoever.

At least Naylor looked composed in the centre whenever Oldham threatened, and the best they could manage was a long distance shot from Taylor that wasn’t far wide. We had the best of the possession in the latter stages, but Grayson decided not to try any substitutes, even though Grella spent some time warming up on the touchline. As we moved into injury time I kept hoping for a repeat of Westlake’s last ditch winner last season, but sadly it was not to be.

There’s not much doubt that a draw was a fair result, and we can be satisfied with getting a point away from home against a team above us in the table. And it’s about time we had another draw, having only had three all season in the league before last night. If we can keep playing like this in our away games, we should be able to gather enough points to reach the play-offs.

Photo: Action Images

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