Leeds Suffer New Years Hangover

Leeds United surrender their unbeaten home record in some fashion following 3 first half Oldham goals, and a second half comeback that just didn`t quite make it.

Leeds didn`t start brightly and their slightly hungover look led to Oldham striking first, with Reuben Hazell taking the ball on his chest following a poor Leeds United clearance, firing a dipping volley from 25 yards past Ankergren for an early lead.

The Leeds keeper was called into action minutes later as striker Craig Davies capitalised on a misplaced pass by Frazer Richardson. The resultant corner left Neal Trotman unmarked to double Oldham`s lead.

When you`re 2-0 within 35 or so minutes, you don`t care where the goals come from, even if it`s from more defensive minded players. Unfortunately for Andy Hughes, his goal on the 40-minute mark was whilst technically sound, was at the wrong end of the pitch, the former Norwich man having the final touch to make it 3-0 to Oldham.

With 25,000 fans inside Elland Road on this rather dismal New Years Day, Dennis Wise wasn`t leaving it any longer than half-time in which to make a few changes. The former Millwall boss opted for the bizarre move of having all four available strikers, on the pitch, at the same time. A bizarre move that looked to have paid off as ex-Port Vale forward Leon Constantine knocking what was to be a consolation goal home from short range.

Leeds did have the ball on the back of the net once more, however Kandol`s effort on 66 minutes was ruled out as he had been in an offside position. Bad luck for a striker who really hasn`t been firing on any cylinders of late, let alone all of them!

The result sees Leeds slip further behind league leaders Swansea City, despite a late goal from 10-man Swindon pegging them back to a 1-1 draw. Nottingham Forest`s late winner, despite also having a man sent off should see them stay in touch with The Swans and put further pressure on Dennis Wise to improve things in time for the visit of Northampton on Saturday. Transfer window work to be done for our Dennis as it appears we are somewhat short on strength in depth.

Whilst not wishing to make it an excuse, a special mention goes out to Shaun Derry, who refused to return to Elland Road to give the management more options in central midfield. With a bit of luck we won`t see him again.

Other amazing results from League One, Crewe and Tranmere shared 7 goals as a late O`Donnell goal meant the Railwaymen came away with a 4-3 win. Carlisle moved into second place as they defeated Hartlepool United 4-2.

The Poll results for the Leeds V Oldham match: 67% wrongly said a win, 22% correctly predicted a defeat for Leeds, 0% figured it would be a draw. An amazing 11% of voters were half right, the half wrong bit being that with Leeds lacklustre display, the game probably should have been abandoned due to hungover players!

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