Leeds earned a draw in yesterday’s game at Bolton Wanderers, and on the whole the performance was a big improvement on some of those we’ve seen in the last few weeks.

Weather-wise, it certainly wasn’t a day for the faint-hearted, with a freezing cold wind greeting me as I made my way round the Macron stadium, but I thought that at least I’d get a bit more shelter once I was inside. Sadly not, as my allocated seat was right in the corner of the Leeds section, next to a tunnel that the wind could come whistling through.

I was also in the very front row, which made it difficult to judge exactly what was happening at the other end of the pitch, so if I’m about to write complete rubbish, that’s my excuse. But I did get a good view of the most vocal set of Bolton fans in the corner, including a horrible 12 year old who kept on making rude gestures to us, even after being told off by two different stewards. In ten years time he’ll have grown up to be a right yob.

Neil Redfearn made several changes to the starting line-up and finally abandoned the much-criticised diamond formation, to move to a system of two wide players and a lone striker. I’ve been longing to see Byram playing further forward on the right, and he was to be involved in most of our best moments of the game, but Morison was frequently isolated in the centre, getting some good flick-ons with no one there to pick them up.

Be that as it may, it took us only three minutes for us to open the scoring. Cook spotted Byram’s run behind the defence and played him, and when Byram was bought down by Lonegran the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. All around me were baying for baying for our former keeper to get a red card, but the referee was probably right in thinking it couldn’t be classed a clear goalscoring opportunity has Byram would have had a narrow angle to shoot from once he’d caught up with the ball.

I was a bit nervous about the choice of Austin as a penalty taker, but I needn’t have been, as he cooly stepped up and hammered the ball into the right hand corner as Lonegran dived the wrong way. We could have had a second a few minutes later when Austin’s cross found Morison completely unmarked, but he had to stoop and couldn’t get any power on the header, which Lonegran managed to tip over the bar.

That seemed to wake Bolton up, and from then on they had most of the possession until half time. A forward line including Gudjohnsen and Heskey could kindly be described as ‘vastly experienced’, and while the former was quite sprightly for his age, Heskey was immobile enough for even our central defenders to keep him in check.

Their first chance came when Trotter was played in by a good passing move, only for a last-gasp intervention from Taylor to poke the ball wide after a good passing move, and Mills headed the resulting corner just wide. Gudjohnsen went close with a free kick and a double chance soon after saw Taylor clear off the line before Silvestri made a fine save from Pratley
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The conditions were making it difficult to play good football, and at about this time I had to beat a retreat in the face of a hailstorm that was blowing in under the stand. Thankfully a fat bloke a few rows back had had the decency to get thrown out and free up a bit of space for the rest of us.

The second half was to be a mirror image of the first, with a penalty after three minutes, and the side who conceded going on to have the better of the game. Bolton’s equaliser came when Silvestri pushed away a cross that he might have been able to catch, and on the edge of Pratley got to the ball just ahead of Murphy, who ended up bringing the Bolton man down. Silvestri went the right way, but Gudjohnsen’s penalty was too well placed for him, right in the corner.

I don’t know if Bolton we happy with the point or we were peeved at letting the lead slip and wanted it back, but for most of the time that remained we looked more likely to win the game, and might have done if the best chances had fallen to a striker rather than defenders and midfield players.

Beradi shot into the side netting, and Sloth sent a half-volley well over the bar. Then Byram robbed a defender who dithered too long in possession, and set up Murphy for a shot that went only just wide. At the other end Silvestri had to be alert to get behind a fierce shot from Gudjohnsen, but by now Bolton were offering little going forward. (It’s a pain the Icelander was so active, so I keep having to check the spelling of his name).

Redfearn must have been pleased with what he was seeing as he only made one substitution, replacing Sloth with Mowatt in the 85th minute. That’s 85 minutes later than I would have made that particular change. Our final chance came when Byram was again played through by an excellent ball from Cook and cleverly took it past a defender, but Lonegran was very quickly off his line to make the save.

It’s nice to get a draw after our run of defeats and it can be classed as a good result against a side who are greatly improved under Neil Lennon. Brighton’s win meant we dropped down another place, but at the same time we moved a point away from danger after Millwall managed to lose to Blackpool. Surely if we keep playing like this we should gather enough points to keep ourselves out of the bottom three at the end of the season. Shouldn’t we?

Photo: Action Images

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