Fulhma - 1 Leeds United - 0:FA PREMIERSHIP: Leeds Unitedare no longer a team losing their way, they are just a losing team. And, having been appointed to restore them to the Champions League, Terry Venables' principal task now will be to keep them in the Premiership.
Assuming he gets the time. The Leeds chairman, Peter Ridsdale, beamed his way into the directors' box on Saturday but scowled his way out of it shortly before Venables' players trudged away from their fifth defeat in six league games, roundly beaten by a Fulham side shorn of their recognised strikers.
Even if Malaga are beaten in the UEFA Cup at Elland Road on Thursday the immediate future will not hold out much by way of glad tidings of comfort and joy.
"A lot of time?" said Venables after Saturday's match. "I have no idea. I just keep working. Have I made mistakes? Yes, of course. I don't know too many people who don't. It's there for everyone to see that we're not playing well enough, and trying to put it right is not good enough if you're not winning."
Yet sacking Venables would be as pointless as Leeds' recent run; expensive, too, since it would cost the club £1 million at a time when they have still not settled accounts with predecessor David O'Leary. Better, surely, to back Venables in the sort of situation for which his organisational talents are well suited.
At the Riverside two years ago, Venables cleaned up someone else's mess and, whatever Middlesbrough's problems on the field, the club enjoyed relative stability off it. At Leeds Venables, as he readily concedes, is partly responsible for the team's plight, but he has had to operate against a confused cacophony of noises off.
In any event, Leeds are more in need of a change of attitude than personnel. Inept though much of this performance was, the team's commitment could not be faulted and in this respect the absence of certain first-team regulars was hardly a handicap.
Clearly Leeds could have done with Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Lee Bowyer to put more attacking pressure on Fulham and give Edwin van der Sar a busier afternoon, but the inconsistency of these players has been part of their decline.
At Loftus Road everyone had the stomach for the task except Alan Smith, whose stomach bug forced him off at half-time. Robbie Fowler, his replacement, drew a sharp save from van der Sar with a close-range header, but Fowler, like Michael Bridges, needs games after a long spell of inactivity.
Fulham won with one hand tied behind their backs. Injuries and a suspension had deprived Jean Tigana of Facundo Sava, Barry Hayles, Louis Saha and Steve Marlet, so he improvised up front, with Steed Malbranque playing off Luis Boa Morte.
Boa Morte is all pace, perseverance and protestation, whereas Malbranque is steel and stealth and a shrewd reader of situations. Between them this oddly matched pair consistently sliced up Venables' defence in the first half and, though Paul Okon allowed Malbranque less space in the second, the ease with which Bjarne Goldbaek and Pierre Wome continued to turn their flanks still left Leeds exposed.
Malbranque's was the return pass to Boa Morte which forced the corner from which Fulham scored in the 10th minute. As Sylvain Legwinski drew the defenders' attention towards the near post, Martin Djetou sailed in behind him to meet Wome's cross with a firm header past Paul Robinson.
Thereafter only Robinson's alertness and agility denied Fulham a more substantial victory. Under the watchful eye of Sven-Goran Eriksson the Leeds goalkeeper reaffirmed his place in England's goalkeeping pecking order with a series of outstanding saves, the best which kept out a header Sean Davis intended for the top left-hand corner.
But for Robinson and the crossbar, Malbranque would have completed a hat-trick, and late on Davis saw a shot clip the bar after deflecting off Okon. A three- or four-goal win for Fulham would neither have flattered them nor misrepresented Leeds.
Guardian Service
FULHAM: Van der Sar, Finnan, Melville, Wome, Brevett, Goldbaek, Malbranque, Davis, Legwinski, Boa Morte, Djetou. Subs Not Used: Inamoto, Taylor, Knight, Stolcers, Willock. Booked: Legwinski, Davis, Wome. Goal: Djetou 10.
LEEDS UNITED: Robinson, Kelly, Woodgate, Duberry, Harte (Mills 73), Bakke, Okon, McPhail (Milner 57), Wilcox, Smith (Fowler 45), Bridges. Subs Not Used: Martyn, Lucic. Booked: Bakke, Fowler, Wilcox, Woodgate.
Referee: P Durkin (Dorset)
