FA PREMIERSHIP/Everton...0 Leeds United...0: It may have been simmering just below the surface for some time but, at last, there is open rebellion in west Yorkshire.

Two months of discontent boiled over at Goodison Park yesterday as Leeds's disgruntled support, incensed by their team's recent form and rumours of unrest in the dressing room, viciously vented their spleen on the first-team coach Brian Kidd.

The chairman Peter Ridsdale's attempt on the final whistle to pacify the furore by addressing the Leeds support merely fanned the flames, provoking an angry response from those home fans seated in the Park End. Having been threatened with arrest, he could now face an Football Association inquiry.

"I was disgusted with some of the fans today," said O'Leary after watching his side, reduced to 10 men before the interval, at least emerge with a point. The Irishman promoted Kidd from his role at the club's academy to first-team coach last season, effectively usurping the crowd favourite Eddie Gray. After 10 games without a win since they topped the table on New Year's Day, and with Champions League qualification sounding more fanciful by the week, the former Blackburn manager and Manchester United assistant is an easy target.

"We've had three and a bit years of very great success and made a great name for ourselves, but we're having a difficult time at the moment. It's sad. It affected the players a little bit and they've said in the dressing room that they're fully behind Brian. I love Yorkshire and I'm told people want me to stay here for a long time. As long as I'm here Brian Kidd will be too, but if people want me to go...

"He was my appointment and I stand by that," he added. "We're lucky to have Brian; any player would say as much."

Ridsdale's impromptu appearance, striding across the turf on the final whistle to address the away section, merely added to the sense of farce into which this game had long since descended. "The manager, coaches and players are doing everything they can to put things right and I felt it was important to go over and stress that," he explained.

The chairman was ushered away by the police, who stepped in to quell angry fans and will be writing to both clubs and the FA detailing the incident.

"No doubt it was well intentioned, but it was ill-advised," said chief superintendent Dave Willman.

"The chairman's place is in the directors' box, not on the terraces, and we were not happy about what he did. It may have gone down well with the Leeds fans, but it was a smack in the face to the Everton fans and could have caused a problem."

Their recent malaise was neatly encapsulated in this display. Already missing the suspended Lee Bowyer and Danny Mills, Dominic Matteo earned the club's sixth red card of the season six minutes before the interval for two mind-numbingly idiotic challenges, the second of which left Kevin Campbell in a heap.

Alan Smith subsequently clattered Lee Carsley and then scythed down Scott Gemmill with Andy D'Urso, bizarrely, blanching from producing a second yellow. Smith promptly clicked into headless chicken mode, apparently intent on seeing red, while David Batty weighed in with an unpunished kung-fu kick on Gemmill.

"The referee refused to make any decisions in the second half at all," said the home manager Walter Smith, whose side edged four points clear of the relegation zone but have now won only once in 12 matches. "He was happy to give innocuous fouls, but any decisions above that he didn't want to make. That impacted on us."

The Everton manager's other gripe concerned three dubious penalty appeals which were turned down. The substitute David Ginola's late volley, veering just wide of Nigel Martyn's post, and a Campbell turn and shot blocked at the goalkeeper's feet were the nearest they came to making their numerical advantage pay.

Leeds, unimpressive with a full complement, at least knuckled down to earn their point with Eirik Bakke outstanding as an emergency centre-half.

If Harry Kewell had matched his endeavour the visitors might have won - the Australian was thwarted by Steve Simonsen when he might have teed up better-placed team-mates. That should have irked the fans; instead, Kidd bore the brunt.

EVERTON: Simonsen, Pistone, Weir, Stubbs, Unsworth, Blomqvist (Ginola 80), Gemmill, Linderoth (Gravesen 80), Carsley, Radzinski, Campbell. Subs Not Used: Gerrard, Alexandersson, Clarke. Booked: Radzinski.

LEEDS: Martyn, Kelly, Duberry, Matteo, Harte, Smith, Batty, Bakke, Kewell, Viduka, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Keane, Robinson, McPhail, Wilcox, Richardson. Sent Off: Matteo (39). Booked: Matteo, Smith.

Referee: A D'Urso (Billericay).