IT’S BOXERS DAY!
Burton’s pants pulled down as Leeds have last laugh
JUST in case anyone is wondering, Leeds are in no mood to be caught with their pants down.
A moment of misplaced humour from Stephen Bywater left the Burton goalkeeper looking very foolish indeed.
Seconds after yanking Eunan O’Kane’s shorts anklewards, Bywater was flailing unsuccessfully at Pablo Hernandez’s free-kick. The back-firing joke also brought a yellow card for the veteran.
In terms of the bigger picture, Hernandez wiped out Tom Naylor’s first-half goal and, tails up, Leeds scored again within minutes, Kemar Roofe finishing off Ronaldo Vieira’s pass.
So, instead of Burton ending a run of seven straight league defeats at the Pirelli Stadium, Leeds made it four wins on the spin and look fully recovered from their late autumn slump.
Both managers were left scratching their heads afterwards at Bywater’s actions.
‘He was being light-hearted,’ said Burton boss Nigel Clough. ‘Their players were standing in front of him and he couldn’t set his wall up. But I said to him all he should be concentrating on is his wall and dealing with the free-kick, nothing else.
‘ I will be interested rt to see what he got booked for. Was the joke on him in the end? Exactly, because they put the freekick in.’
Counterpart Thomas Christiansen added: ‘At least we did what we had to do to provoke the situation. He took the decision to do that.’
It seems a long time ago now but Leeds actually topped the table earlier this season before nosediving back into the pack.
Those dark days appear to have toughened up the players for there was no sign of jitters when Burton took the lead against the run of play, even though defeat at the Pirelli last season cost the Yorkshiremen a play-off place.
Having missed a host of chances, Leeds then saw Tom Naylor turn the ball past Felix Wiedwald from an initial shot from Lucas Akins. The lead would have been doubled had Jamie Allen managed to keep a cool head. Right on halftime there was a minor altercation after Leeds’ Gaetano Berardi went in hard on Sean Scannell. Players pushed and shoved with the Leeds player booked by referee Darren Bond. Clough felt it warranted a red card. Burton started the second half much as they had finished the first, missing chances to put some daylight between themselves and the visitors. Marvin Sordell’s free-kick, a Naylor header, same old story. Then Tom Flanagan fouled Roofe, giving away a free-kick in dangerous territory. Hernandez was forced to wait for several minutes because of Bywater. Then, bang. Equaliser.
Burton did not have time to recover their senses and they were behind.
Roofe, a constant thorn in the side, made the run and Vieira provided the through-ball.
Clough’s team, fresh from two successive away wins, pushed for the equaliser but could not break down Leeds.
‘After last year’s loss we didn’t want to see that happen again,’ said Christiansen. ‘I am very satisfied. We have more experience, we know each other better and we have lived a situation with a bad run that is also important.’
The same applies to Burton, who stayed up last season and are out of the relegation zone now.