Becchio makes difference for Leeds

Leeds made hard work of beating lowly Southend United at home to maintain their chances of automatic promotion.

Luciano Becchio proved to be the difference, involved in the first goal and scoring the second after coming on with just over thirty minutes remaining.

It was their first back-to-back wins in the league since Christmas as goals from Max Gradel and Luciano Becchio earned them the three points.

Simon Grayson stuck with the same side that won at Yeovil on Monday, he also welcomed back Luciano Becchio to the bench after missing the last two games.

Southend who were struggling towards the bottom of the table started brightly but without testing Higgs in the Leeds goal.

It took Leeds a while to settle, Snodgrass was the first to test Mildenhall in the Southend goal when he tipped his shot over the bar.

Snodgrass was next to test the keeper again, this time he shot straight at Mildenhall.

Beckford saw a header just go wide of the post after a good ball by Kilkenny as Leeds turned up the pressure.

Southend had a great chance on the stroke of half time, Vernon broke into the box but failed to find the unmarked O`Keefe.

A disappointing first half as Leeds struggled to break down a battling Southend side.

Leeds came out in the second half hoping to open the scoring, Howson was first to have a chance but his shot was saved by Mildenhall.

With Leeds looking short of ideas Simon Grayson made two changes, Becchio and Johnson replacing Beckford and Hughes.

Within minutes Leeds had the lead, Becchio`s flick dropped to Gradel whose deflected shot found it`s way into the net.

Substitute Becchio scored a second for Leeds after a ball into the middle from Gradel.

Bradley Johnson was booked for a poor challenge, it was his tenth of the season and will now miss the next two matches.

Becchio`s downward header gave Mildenhall no chance in the Southend goal.

Leeds were now in total control, good work again from Gradel found Howson, his shot was saved by Mildenhall.

Neither side looked like scoring in the final two minutes as Leeds wound down the clock.

The win moves Leeds back up to third place, one point behind Millwall who won 4-0 against Gillingham. Swindon who started the day in second place lost 3-0 at Colchester United.




Teams

Leeds
Higgs, Bromby, Naylor, Collins, Hughes, Howson, Doyle, Kilkenny, Snodgrass, Gradel, Beckford

Subs
Ankergren, Becchio, Grella, McSheffrey, Johnson, Parker, Watt

Southend
Mildenhall, Baldwin, Francis, Sankofa, Barrett, Herd, Grant, Christophe, O`Keefe, Vernon, Paterson

Subs
Mvoto, Crawford, Malone, Jack, Laurent

Vital Leeds United is a fast growing Leeds United fan site, with the sole aim of becoming the #1 unofficial website for Leeds United fans everywhere.

The site is regularly updated with news and views regarding all the current events at Elland Road, alongside a fully interactive message forum and regularly looks at the clubs past. Vital Leeds offers everything that a Leeds United supporter could wish for. If you can think of something and suggest it, we`ll put it on the website!



With news and views, along with a forum, polls and article comments, everything you need in a fans site is right here!

You can even win prizes, by posting articles comments, posting on the message forum and voting on the polls.

Vital is also 100% interactive. Not only can you have your say on the articles and the forum but you can also suggest an article or a poll so you can air your views.

So why not join Vital today?

It's easy to register here and enjoy getting involved

Message Board

To visit the message board, click here.

Get involved

This website is your website and we are looking for people to help run the site. Do you go to most of the games and have an opinion? Why not write a match report? Perhaps you are a budding journalist or even just someone who is very opinionated? Well why not join our team? If this interests you please contact Vital leeds .

Seconds Out! Vital Boxing is here!

Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Monaco