Leeds 0-1 Fulham

	Steed Malbranque rejoices at his Elland Road winner (ShaunBotterill/Allsport)

For the owner of London's largest corner shop, Steed Malbranque's goal at Leeds was worth an estimated £20million.

Mohamed Fayed was not at Elland Road, but the Harrods proprietor was called at his Surrey mansion moments after Malbranque's 52nd-minute drive hit the Leeds net to ensure, in all but mathematical certainty, Fulham's Premiership place.

Fulham's first win since February 9 took them to 40 points, the much-vaunted high ground where clubs are assumed to have survived.

For Leeds, the result ended all pretence that they can play in the Champions League next season and almost ends a season that manager David O'Leary will be delighted to forget.

If the ruinous trial of Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate - followed recently by the broken jaw Woodgate sustained in mysterious circumstances - were at the core of Leeds' collapse, Fulham's misery was inflicted entirely on the field of play.

Until this game, they had taken a mere two points from their last nine Premiership games and fallen into the icy waters that have already accounted for Leicester and Derby.

The importance of the match was lost on no-one from the little club beside the Thames, where Fayed has given his French manager, Jean Tigana, almost £43m to spend on players and pledged another £70m for the rebuilding of Craven Cottage.

Little wonder that Fayed, worth £700m according to the latest Rich List, sounded like a lottery winner afterwards.

He said: 'We always knew that the first season in the Premiership was going to be difficult. I have always been optimistic of the outcome and never doubted the ability of the manager or the squad.'

Tigana's principles of playing football with verve and imagination may never have been compromised through the dark weeks of the slump.

But against Leeds, his team had to fight for every yard of territory, they had to withstand the bruising intentions of Bowyer, Alan Smith and David Batty.

Leeds' performance was a microcosm of their season, a day when all their endeavour was undone by the enemy within.

Robbie Fowler, Robbie Keane and Eirik Bakke all might have scored on another day and O'Leary missed Mark Viduka, injured in training.

'Mark was hurt in one of those stupid ways, making a silly challenge in a five-a-side, and that somehow sums up our season,' explained O'Leary.

'I'll be delighted when this season is over. I've learned a great deal and at one stage, with all that had been going on, we could have easily finished in mid-table. We have a place in Europe in the UEFA Cup and that is something we are grateful for.'

But O'Leary appreciates in the weeks ahead he will have some hard business to conduct.

He must find £15m for chairman Peter Ridsdale to appease the Leeds plc, and that means players like Keane, Olivier Dacourt and even Harry Kewell and Viduka may leave.

'I'm an employee and in the next few weeks I'll be told what I've got to do,' said O'Leary. 'I'll do that because that is what I have to do. We can cash in on players and there is a requirement for me to find some money.

'But I'll also say that at our first press conference of next season I'll be making one statement "This club's ambition is to be in the Champions League".'