Leeds were well on top for most of the first half, but the second was totally different as Crystal Palace cut through our dispirited midfield with ease. So just when we thought we were climbing out of trouble, we are left to look over our shoulder once again.

After the win over Forest on Tuesday Leeds fans were buoyant coming into this game, convinced that Javi was leading us out of trouble, and many of us suggesting that he deserves to be given the job on a permanent basis at the end of the season. After a few of our rivals had lost yesterday a win in this game would take us five points clear of the dreaded bottom three, and surely well on our way to safety.

I was less convinced that Palace had made the right call in going for Roy Hodgson, as they went stale during his previous spell there and although they had won as soon as he returned, it was only against Leicester. And Palace were also missing their talisman Zaha, and there is that statistic of how few games they have won in his absence, so what could possibly go wrong?

There were no changes to our starting line-up, but Palace had two injured players to replace, one being Zaha and the other their goalkeeper Vicente Guaita. Leeds were totally in control as the game began, and if anything the performance looked like a step up from the form that had brought us three wins from Gracia’s six league games in charge.

Ayling and Harrison were working well on the right and getting some good crosses into the box, while Sinisterra was finding plenty of space on the opposite flank. By comparison the Palace defence seemed slow to react and struggling to cope with our pace and movement. The first chance saw the ball come through to Sinisterra, but his shot was across the face of coal and just past the far post.

Then Firpo got to the by-line and when his cross was slightly behind Aaronson the American did well to improvise and guide the ball goalwards, but Johnstone did well to get down and make the save. And their reserve keeper was in action again with a fine save from Sinisterra, and Bamford sent a long distance shot over the bar before Leeds finally took the lead in the 21st minute.

From Aaronson’s corner Bamford broke away from his marker and had plenty of time and space to guide the ball towards the far corner and leave Johnstone with no chance of getting to it. That was his 50th goal for the club, and he raced over to the bench to celebrate with the manager and all the coaching staff.

At that stage it looked like we would go on to win the game comfortably, and Roy Hodgson was looking dumbstruck on the touchline, seemingly offering no instructions or encouragement to his players as the game unfolded. I remember thinking that this time we would go on to secure our safety with a couple of games to go and avoid the gut-wrenching tension we had to go through last time round.

But having got the goal we seemed to take our foot off the gas a little, and Palace began to create a little bit of danger, especially from set pieces. Schlupp was left free at a corner, but could only guide the ball against the post, possibly because he didn’t have time to react after the ball came through a crowd of players to reach him.

Though we were still creating chances, and Johnstone made another fine save from a Harrison free kick, and would also deny Koch and Struijk as Leeds forced a series of corners. But just when it seemed that Leeds would go in at the break with a deserved lead, the Eagles were able to snatch an equaliser in first half stoppage time, from a free kick needlessly conceded by Roca just inside our half.

It was played to the edge of the area where Schlupp didn’t meet it clearly, but the ball came through to Guehi, who was able to reach the ball ahead of Meslier to bring the south London mob level. There was a VAR check to give us a bit of hope, but Koch’s knee had been playing Guehi onside at the moment the ball was played forward.

It was yet another case of failing to take our chances when on top, but I was sure this would just a blip, and we would go on to win the game in the second half. But that was to be a totally different story, as Palace would up their game, with the ball played to the feet of their pacy strikers, who cut through our midfield at will while our defence lacked the pace to stop them.

In the 53rd minute a through ball found Edouard, though the momentum of the attack seemed to be lost when his ball to Olise forced his colleague a little bit wide. But the Frenchman’s deep cross saw Ayew getting in front of Ayling at the far post, and he was able to guide the ball into the corner, and although Meslier got a hand to the ball he couldn’t keep it out.

And two minutes later Olise picked up the ball in space on the Palace right and as he cut inside no Leeds player tracked Eze’s run through the centre. Once Olise had picked him out with the pass, Eze was able to knock the ball under the diving Meslier to double the visitors’ lead. So in just over ten minutes of football Palace had scored three goals and completely turned the game on it’s head.

Gracia responded with a triple change. Off went Aaronson, Sinisterra and Firpo, the latter possibly coming off because he’d been booked. Kristensen had a go at playing at left back, with Gnonto and Rosrigo also coming on. So we now had quite a bit of fire power, but that wouldn’t be much use if their colleagues couldn’t get the ball to them at that end of the field.

On 69 minutes we had half a shout for a penalty when a Palace player fell over and the ball might have hit his hand, but there was nothing doing. And as they broke downfield Palace had four attackers with only two defenders in front of Meslier. Olise played the ball through to Edouard on the left side of the box, and Edouard placed a fierce shot past our keeper into the far corner.

That goal killed off any chance of getting back into the game, and a dispirited Leeds conceded a fifth goal in the 77th. Eze jinked into the box from the left, and pulled the ball back to find Hughes. His shot was deflected and came through to Ayew right in front of goal, and he had the simple task of smashing his shot past Meslier into the net. He looked offside, but the VAR check showed that Kristiansen had been playing him on, so the goal stood.

Rutter replaced Bamford as almost a token gesture, and his sole contribution was to fall over optimistically in the hope of getting a penalty. He might have hurt himself in doing so, but the replay showed that if anything he was the one to initiate the contact, so we were never going to get anything from that.

As we moved into injury time Gnonto picked up a needless booking and then might have been sent off as he continued to let his frustrations get the better of him, before the final whistle put us out of our misery. In all my 52 years of following Leeds, I don’t ever remember a game turn from such a dominant display in the first half to such a comprehensive defeat in the second.

And so we end the weekend still two points clear of the drop zone, but with two of the teams formerly on 27 points having gone past us with wins yesterday. And of course this uses up one of the games when we expected to get a result, as we look anxiously through the fixture list to see where else we can pick up the results we need.

Forest and Southampton might be two of the teams we need to find who are worse than us, but we might need Jesse Marsch to guide us to safety again, this time by taking Leicester down. Can Javi still get it right after a bad day at the office or are we back in real trouble?

Reuters

Leeds United Polls