Revival gives boss a Heck of a welcome

WITH an hour gone, Leeds trailed 2-0 and toxic revolt was in the air. A rare spell of possession was greeted with ironic ‘Oles’. Mickey-taking claims about winning the league rang out from the South Stand. Half an hour later, when a stirring comeback sparked by a suddenly ferocious backing almost ended in victory, they were cheered from the pitch like heroes. Welcome to Elland Road, Paul Heckingbottom. Leeds’s 10th manager in six years may have wondered what he had let himself in for when Famara Diedhiou and Bobby Reid — aided by Felix Wiedwald, the keeper who refuses to catch balls into his area — put the visitors in control in a first half which belonged in the house of horrors at the circus currently pitched on the car park. But after a chorus of Marching on Together, the jeers turned into encouraging roars and in the 72nd minute, there was hope. Pierre-Michel Lasogga connected with captain Pablo Hernandez’s cross at the far post. After all, City had let slip a three-goal lead over second-bottom Sunderland last weekend in the last 20 minutes. The visitors, whose league form has suffered since they hit second place on Boxing Day, were brittle. On 80 minutes, Leeds were level when substitute Kemar Roofe (right) popped up at the back post to slide in the equaliser from a Hernandez corner. The roof was lifted. And it nearly came off in injury time when yet another precise Hernandez delivery found Lasogga, whose header thumped the bar. ‘The crowd have got us a point today,’ former Barnsley manager Heckingbottom said. ‘I thought they were fantastic. At 2-0 there can’t be many people not singing. They played their part and I thought the support deserved three. I can’t shout as loud as 30,000 — they made a huge difference.’ The point means Leeds remain eight points from the play-offs as they seek a return to a Premier League they vacated 14 years ago. ‘We’re still in it,’ Heckingbottom added. An equally upbeat Lee Johnson, whom Heckingbottom assisted at Oakwell, reflected on what might have been for his sixth-placed Robins. ‘We’ve jumped 12 or 13 places from this time last season but we are a work in progress,’ he said. ‘I never said we’d smash promotion because we are not there with the injuries we have had. We are very exciting but we are young.’