Premier League
| Leeds United 4 | |
|---|---|
| Derby County 1 |
- guardian.co.uk, Saturday March 20 1999 20.46 GMT
If the Worthington Cup final is with us the close of the Premiership campaign cannot be far away, and sure enough here was one of the first end-of-season games this year. Derby have an outside chance of Europe while Leeds are challenging assumptions that Chelsea will claim the third Champions League position, having surpassed the west London club. Both sides still have plenty to play for, though you would never have guessed.
'We are down to the bare bones,' said Jim Smith before the game. The Bald Eagle was not joking. With Paulo Wanchope away, Dean Sturridge suspended, Lee Carsley sold and four regulars injured, Derby did indeed resemble a skeleton squad, and when Igor Stimac departed six minutes before half-time you could practically hear the bones creaking.
In the circumstances it was awfully decent of the visitors to make a game of it for 15 minutes, even if it was Leeds captain Lucas Radebe who deserved most of the thanks for handing the Rams an improbable second-minute lead by upending Vassilis Borbokis with comical clumsiness on Derby's first excursion into the home penalty box.
Francesco Baiano stuck away the kick and for all of a few seconds an upset appeared to be on the cards, until Leeds tried a few forays upfield and spotted the frailty of the Derby defence.
Every time Lee Bowyer or David Hopkin slotted a ball through, Stimac and Horacio Carbonari would be caught square. Every time Jimmy Hasselbaink or Harry Kewell ran with the ball, defenders seemed to evaporate. There was a strong suspicion that Stimac, who did not appear to be that badly injured in a collision with Kewell, was simply keen to escape further embarrassment, and when Baiano, too, stayed off at half-time, it was tempting to conclude he shared the same aversion to ignominy.
Smith insisted otherwise, but conceded 'pretty bad defending' had cost his side. 'Leeds just steamrollered us through midfield,' he said. By the interval Leeds were 3-1 up and the game was over. They were not even worried by the absence of flu victim David Batty, although Kevin Keegan probably will be. Hasselbaink could have had two goals in the first 10 minutes, his second chance, in particular, bringing a notable block from Lars Bohinen, but the Dutchman, who rarely has eyes for anything but goal, for once enjoyed better luck as a provider.
He crossed from the right in the 16th minute for Bowyer to control, turn easily past Prior and shoot past the exposed Mart Poom, and it was Hasselbaink's cross from the left on the stroke of half-time that was clipped in from the narrowest of angles by his on-loan compatriot Willem Korsten. In between, Hasselbaink bagged his 16th goal of the season from a training ground free-kick routine, Ian Harte and Hopkin touching the ball on for the striker to ping past Poom after Kewell had won a somewhat dubious decision 22 yards out.
Then, with five minutes left, Harte popped up with another of his right-foot screamers to send the fans home smiling. The Leeds fans, that is. Their manager was smiling too, particularly at the suggestion Leeds could finish the season in third place.
'If that happens it will be a miracle,' O'Leary said. 'People will say I'm talking down our chances but I'm being realistic. Manchester United are the best team in Europe, Arsenal are Double winners, and Chelsea are loaded. There are eight games left and all those teams can lose players and replace them with quality. We don't have that depth, and lots of our players are one booking away from suspension.'
Sounds like O'Leary will have to be content with the Uefa Cup and the spending money he has been angling for all season, some of which is supposed to have already been offered to Nottingham Forest for Pierre van Hooijdonk. 'I wouldn't know about that - I'm only the manager,' he said. 'But don't put any bets on it.'
