Leeds 1-1 Crewe

By Rich B
February 24 2008

An extended break due to the postponed fixture to Doncaster was the perfect preparation for recently appointed Gary McAllister to spend more time with the squad and adapt their style of play. Not many were expecting anything less than three points in this home fixture.

And how disapointed they were....

 Leeds opened brightly and dominated the the first ten minutes or so - although limited to largely long range chances, it seemed that the form found for the Forest game would continue and Crewe would be a formality.

As the game wore on though, Leeds stood back and Crewe were allowed to grow in confidence.  Leeds seemed happy to sit back and give their opponents time on the ball and although it finished goalless at half time, the perofrmance fromthe Whites was disappoiting.

 Whatever was said at half-time was quickly cancelled out as Crewe got an early goal.  A free kick out wide for Leeds was taken short, despite the crowd of players waiting on the edge of the area, Leeds lost possession and Crewe went up the other end and scored.  It was criminal to gift them a goal from what should have been a good opportunity for us...but we are getting used to things like that at Elland Road this season.

 And it wasn't enough to spur us to life.  Crewe took the game to us now and looked the far more likely to get a second.  Casper was called on to make a couple of great saves.

McAllister made three changes that gave Leeds fresh confidence.  On came Elding, Carole and Johnsona nd the three of them did change the dynamics.  Leeds began to push forward and enjoyed the closing 15 minutes of the game.  it wasn't until the 86th minute that Kandol met a perfect cross to draw the game level.

 Leeds could have gone on to win the game in the 6 minutes of added time that was allowed but it wasn't to be and overall, they can count themselves lucky to have taken even a point from the fixture.