Middlesbrough 2-2 Leeds United
With trademark cunning and the panache and piracy that has always been his game, Robbie Fowler believed he had settled a reasonable contest at The Riverside - and more than a few frayed nerves.
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Robbie Fowler congratulates Leeds goalscorer Eirik Bakke
(AlexLivesey/Allsport) |
The England striker's head gave the necessary nod that promised desperately needed and much-treasured victory for Leeds United.
It came in the 54th minute, a crouching poacher's finish providing Fowler with his eighth goal in 13 matches since Liverpool determined he was surplus to their own Premiership requirements. Leeds thought it was all over. It wasn't.
Forlornly, manager David O'Leary conceded: 'We have just squandered two points, but Robbie was superb. I was very pleased with him. Everyone knows what a great goal-scorer he is and how good he is technically but his work-rate is absolutely phenomenal. He is a real team player in every sense.'
Benito Carbone, an Italian with an inbred sense of theatre, proved his own timing wasn't all that bad either, as destiny beckoned Middlesbrough's loan signing on his debut.
No more than 70 seconds of normal time remained as Carbone's famously accurate boot placed a corner amid the panicking ranks of Leeds' overworked and physically drained defenders.
Not one of them could match the leap of 79th-minute substitute Dean Windass who delivered an equalising goal that was a reward for Boro's tenacity and vigour more than quality and technique.
Suddenly the expletives and curses that have been the common language of Leeds United's unhappy arrival into 2002 might have deafened us all. They have not had much luck since Christmas past.
With just two points from their last five games, even O'Leary had to admit that they may have to rely on the InterToto Cup as a way into Europe next season.
They went ahead after 18 minutes yesterday with a Fowlerinspired goal from Eirik Bakke, who was back following a six-week injury absence. He could hardly miss after the stylish interplay of Mark Viduka and Fowler had created the chance.
Within O'Leary's camp there are many hard-nosed realists who will tell you that you make your own luck in this game. But even they would have been shaking their heads in disbelief at the way Paul Ince seized the weirdest goal of his career to equalise six minutes into the second half.
His 25-yard shot was apparently headed for the gathering arms of Nigel Martyn. As England's finest reached down the ball suddenly reared off a divot and looped over his head. By this time Ince, half stumbling, had averted his eyes from the action and only celebrating team-mates told him what had happened.
His grateful boss Steve McClaren admitted: 'I'll have to thank the groundsman for that one and give him a bottle of champagne. It was a fluke.'
It took Leeds just three minutes to recover from the shock. Then Fowler, stooping in the shadow of the crossbar as Ian Harte's free-kick floated across, twisted his head and the inevitable was again the blessing of a man who came cheap at £11million.
Even McClaren might have recognised it as the final curtain for his relegation-threatened side but, in those final desperate seconds, salvation came in the shape of Carbone and maybe the turning moment in Boro's campaign.
The final word from McClaren was cryptically directed at his own dressing room: 'I could have changed the whole 11 at half-time. I certainly needed to change a few attitudes. We were waiting to get beaten and Beni must have wondered what he had walked into. Then, for the next 45 minutes, we were magnificent and he got better all the time.'
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