November spawned a monster!
Sunday, 25th Nov 2007 19:59

Leeds brought a turbulent month of fortune in November to a close.

Leeds ended November as they started the month, in defeat,

On November 3rd, Carlisle became the first team to beat Leeds in the league and struggling Cheltenham can now boast Leeds' scalp.

And Leeds fans will be glad to see the back of November as it was also a month of two cup upsets, as well as losing at a side who just a few short years ago were giants of the semi-professional game.

Whaddon Road saw United dominant from the start. Inside the first quarter of an hour Kandol, Carole, Douglas and Beckford all had chances to open the scoring.

Carole and Douglas piled on more pressure for the hosts and Beckford struck the woodwork on 38 minutes.

After the break, Beckford went close twice and it wasn't until the 53rd minute when Cheltenham had their first chance of any note.

And Dennis Wise clearly felt United's rearguard was so comfortable, he added TWO MORE strikers to try and pep up the firing line, when surprise returnee Tore Andre Flo and Mark De Vries entered the fray.

And Beckford thought he'd achieved the illusive break-through on 76. Higgs parried a Douglas shot on to the bar and the Leeds' top scorer headed-home, however an offside flag quelled the celebrations. Replays have since shown it was a very dubious decision.

And 10 minutes later, Leeds fell to the old sucker punch. Maybe it was an afternoon of sheer inactivity which contributed to David Lucas's poor clearance with his head, but Town's Steve Gillespie gobbled up the chance with a 25-yard-lob to secure the unthinkable.

Performance wise, it was arguably the right response bar the failure to convert all of the chances. Result wise, it is yet another confidence blow and having done the hard-work of clawing back their 15-point-deduction, Leeds have blown another chance at closing-in on the League One pace-setters.

Still, a Saturday off next weekend and three of our next four matches being at home will hopefully get us up amongst the front-runners by the half-way point of the season.