Leeds United 3  Tranmere Rovers 1

Tranmere Rovers gave us quite a few scares during this vital game, but Leeds’ clinical finishing proved decisive and our place in the play-offs is now virtually secure.

Simon Grayson made two changes up front, with the Beckford naturally going straight back into the side after recovering from his latest injury, while Dickinson failed even to make the bench. Has the manager finally decided that Dickinson is simply not up to the job? The other change was enforced due to Delph’s suspension, with Robinson coming back on the left against his former club. The tubby one had his every touch booed by the visiting contingent in the crowd, as he put in a typically busy performance.

Tranmere came out and attacked from the start, as befitting team that really needed a win if they were to make the play-offs, and their forwards caused us problems throughout the game, though they were never quite so impressive at the back. In Baz Savage they have a big man who certainly puts himself about up front, and his blue hair went nicely with his Tranmere away kit. Does he dye his hair white for their home games?

Despite the visitors’ bright start, Leeds nearly went in front through an excellent long-range half-volley from Howson, which Coyne did very well to claw onto a post. But we didn’t have to wait long for the first goal, which came when a long ball found Beckford about 30 yards from goal and flicked it out to Snodgrass on the right. The Scot threaded a superb return ball through the defence to put Beckford one on one with Coyne, and our top scorer knocked it past the keeper and just inside the far post.

And we went further in front in the 26^th. minute, from another move which began in route one style. Douglas cleared up the remains of a Tranmere corner and played a long ball down the right. Beckford couldn’t quite get a touch on it, but that just meant it ran through nicely for Kilkenny, who slotted the ball past Coyne from a narrow angle. At that point we seemed to be on the way to a comfortable victory, yet almost immediately we let Tranmere back into the game with a truly comical own goal.

A long ball dropped to Sodje, but with no Tranmere defender in sight, he could have let it run through to Casper if he’d had a call. But he tried a clever back-flick without knowing that Casper had come along way off his line, and the ball was over our keeper and into the net before Casper was able to catch up with it. The goal seemed to affect his confidence, as soon after he dropped a Tranmere corner and Kay should have done better than to put his header wide of the post.

And the visitors had the final chance of an eventful first half when a combination of Naylor and Casper managed to keep out a shot from Sonko. After the break Casper made amends for his first half performance with an excellent double save, getting down to block the first shot from Kay, yet getting back to his feet to block the follow up from Shotton.

Despite this Tranmere pressure, we managed to restore our two goal advantage eleven minutes into the half, the goal coming as Snodgrass sent a long free kick into the box. Beckford got his head to it, but it was heading wide before it bounced off Becchio’ shin into the net, though I’m not sure the Argentinean knew much about it. The Tranmere defence appealed for offside, but the officials didn’t oblige, and from then on the visitors started to fade out of the game.

Grayson started to make a few substitutions, first of all removing Snodgrass from the action after the scot had taken a knock. His replacement was Johnson, who seemed more determined than when he coasted through his last appearance at Oldham, so maybe he’s got the message that he needs to work if he wants to be in contention for a first team place. As we moved into the last ten minutes Hughes came on for Kilkenny, possibly to shore the game up, and finally Grella came on to give Beckford a rest.

After a few stoppages there was four minutes of injury time to add on, but that wasn’t long enough for Tranmere to trouble our defence again, and we comfortably held out for the win that all but confirms our place in the play-offs. Of course, we know from past experience that qualifying for the play-offs is not the same as actually winning them, but here’s hoping…

Photo: Action Images

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