Crazy game, crazy guys. "Who would have thought a match between David O'Leary and George Graham would have produced seven goals?" the Tottenham Hotspur manager noted.
Who indeed, unless perhaps you were Mark Viduka, the singular Australian who takes advice from his dog and seems only to have a passing acquaintance with the guidelines to Premiership etiquette. Do not turn a George Graham defence porous being one of them.
The Australian striker had been made to train with the under-15s after arriving back late from the Olympics, but he responded with a vitally timed double on Saturday to haul Leeds back into a match they were in danger of losing and justify his selection ahead of Michael Bridges.
Had Spurs but known he was taking advice from his pet rottweiler Tara they could have made out a case for ruff justice. "I tell her everything that no one else hears," the towering anti-podean unwisely confided to the press last week. "She is the only one who knows all my thoughts and ambitions."
Whatever advice she is giving him seems to be working. After a turgid first half Leeds were trailing to an opportunist Sergei Rebrov strike when Viduka turned the game around inside a matter of minutes. For such a huge man he has uncannily nimble feet and they got him into position to pounce on the rebound after Neil Sullivan had palmed a cross against his own post.
In the 55th minute he was there again when Gary Kelly's drive needed only the subtlest diversion to leave the Scotland goalkeeper completely wrong-footed. "I saw the shot and I thought in that split second I'll get a little touch to it and maybe it will go in," he explained.
Strange things continued to happen after Viduka's second strike. The players kept on doing incompetent things around the halfway line but the ball was meanwhile hitting the net with enough frequency to keep three matches happy. Alan Smith scored with a free header, Chris Perry did the same for Spurs, then another Smith header put Leeds 4-2 up. Smith then hit the bar for good measure before Rebrov scored a second with the help of a linesman who decided that his hooked shot had crossed the line.
Afterwards Graham confirmed his interest in Aston Villa's Ugo Ehiogu as he attempts to halt his side's slide down the table. It is two years since he jumped ship at Leeds after a 3-3 draw with Spurs at White Hart Lane, since when he has lost all four games in the league against his old side.
O'Leary and he managed only the merest of handshakes on the final whistle, though they were generous in their praise of each other afterwards. "He's a great learner, David, and he'll go on to be one of the top managers in the game," said Graham.
"Everything I have I owe to George Graham," O'Leary said. "But I'm delighted with three points."
LEEDS UNITED: Martyn, Kelly, Harte, Radebe (Hay 45), Mills, Bowyer, Dacourt (McPhail 36), Bakke, Matteo, Viduka (Bridges 80), Smith. Subs Not Used: Huckerby, Robinson. Goals: Viduka 52, 55, Smith 59, 64.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Sullivan, Carr, Thatcher, Perry, Vega, Sherwood, Leonhardsen, Freund, Ferdinand (Anderton 30), Iversen, Rebrov. Subs Not Used: Walker, Clemence, Thelwell, Dominguez. Booked: Iversen, Vega. Goals: Rebrov 37, Perry 60, Rebrov 74.
Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe).
