Well, we needed a change from all those exciting games with goals pouring in at both ends. Yesterday we broke the mould with a dull goalless draw with Ipswich Town, as two well-organised teams cancelled each other out.

Simon Grayson decided to stick with the same starting eleven who began the game at Preston, which meant that our latest cult hero Billy Paynter kept his place ahead of Becchio. And it also meant that we were still playing with only one up front, and while this formation has served us well away from home, at Elland Road we could do with the extra striker to break teams down.

The formation often left our new love Paynter isolated up front, and it wasn’t too long before we heard the first chants for the old flame Becchio. Oh how fickle we fans can be! To be fair, Paynter was never going to see too much of the ball when Gradel was intent on shooting at every opportunity. The Ivorian’s first effort was the closest we came to scoring in the first half, forcing Fulop into a decent save, but his other two shots flew wide of the post.

For their part Ipswich were lively whenever they came forward, and seemed quite adept at beating the offside trap. In the first minute Priskin caught Bromby napping and maybe should have scored instead of dragging his shot across the face of goal. They produced several other chances in the early stages and Schmeichel also had to make a smart save from Martin.

But the main talking point of the first half was the strange performance of referee D. Deadman, who seemed intent on irritating the crowd by giving as many decisions as he could in favour of Ipswich. First an Ipswich defender hoofed an awful ball back into his own area and Fulop caught it, without the ref giving a free kick for the backpass.

Next he ignored a linesman’s flag for offside and Ipswich to continue an attack, and then roused Grayson into a fury by ignoring a blatant obstruction on Snodgrass. You don’t often see Grayson complaining about referees, but Mr Deadman was obviously more than he could take. And to cap it all off the ref declined to give us a penalty just before half-time when an Ipswich defender seemed to block O’Brien’s shot with his arm.

Leeds picked up a bit after the interval, but still couldn’t force a breakthrough. Howson volleyed over from a deep cross and a good passing move was teed up nicely for Johnson to hit with his favoured left foot, only for him to shoot wide. Paynter also forced Fulop into a save, but that was just about his last contribution before he was replaced by Becchio in the 76^th minute. At the same time Bannan came on for the ineffective Howson.

As we moved into the last few minutes Somma was getting stripped off on the touchline and looked as though Grayson was going to go for the win, but he seemed to change his mind when Ipswich made a positive change of their own and put Scotland on for Priskin. So it was the visitors who managed a couple of corners towards the end, but eventually the game fizzled out into a goalless draw.

It’s no surprise that after the game Pau Jewell was the happier of the two managers. The Town boss said "I am pleased with a point at Leeds. It was a scrappy game on a difficult pitch and our defence was excellent because Leeds are a team that can score loads of goals." While Grayson thought that the ref made all the difference with his refusal to give that first half penalty. "Referees frustrate you at times. We had a really strong penalty claim. One of their lads had his hands down by his side but when Andy O'Brien had a shot the lad's arms came up to prevent the ball being goalbound”.

So we still haven’t beaten Ipswich in eight attempts, which is all very frustrating, but at least we held onto fifth place as the two teams below us both dropped points. This is the sort of game we really needed to win if we are going to stand any chance of finishing in second place, but with Forest running out of form we look like making the play-offs.  

MOT!

Photo: Action Images

Leeds United Polls