Leeds United 2 Walsall 0

Walsall’s play-off bid was derailed at Elland Road in a tale of two strikers, writes Sean Calvert.

Jermaine Beckford stole the show and scored the goals that put another dent in Saddlers’ promotion hopes, while Tommy Mooney spurned a glorious chance to turn the match on its head.

Richard Money’s men had the chance in front of the Sky cameras to show the nation exactly why they’ve been in contention for promotion for the majority of the season.

But they failed their screen test and were comfortably beaten by an impressive Leeds United side. For the second time in as many weeks, the Saddlers were faced with opposition of genuine quality in all areas of the pitch – particularly up front.

Where last week they were pulled apart at times by the pace of Forest’s Nathan Tyson – this week it was Jermaine Beckford.

The Leeds striker had been on a barren spell, which had seen Swansea’s Jason Scotland overtake him at the top of the League One scoring charts, but he was, by Money’s own admission, too good for Walsall’s defence and in addition to scoring both goals, Beckford ran Anthony Gerrard and particularly Ian Roper ragged from the first whistle and could easily have had a hat-trick.

Read the full report in the Express & Star.

Leeds United 2 Walsall 0

Walsall’s play-off bid was derailed at Elland Road in a tale of two strikers, writes Sean Calvert.

Jermaine Beckford stole the show and scored the goals that put another dent in Saddlers’ promotion hopes, while Tommy Mooney spurned a glorious chance to turn the match on its head.

Richard Money’s men had the chance in front of the Sky cameras to show the nation exactly why they’ve been in contention for promotion for the majority of the season.

But they failed their screen test and were comfortably beaten by an impressive Leeds United side. For the second time in as many weeks, the Saddlers were faced with opposition of genuine quality in all areas of the pitch – particularly up front.

Where last week they were pulled apart at times by the pace of Forest’s Nathan Tyson – this week it was Jermaine Beckford.

The Leeds striker had been on a barren spell, which had seen Swansea’s Jason Scotland overtake him at the top of the League One scoring charts, but he was, by Money’s own admission, too good for Walsall’s defence and in addition to scoring both goals, Beckford ran Anthony Gerrard and particularly Ian Roper ragged from the first whistle and could easily have had a hat-trick.

Beckford could, and in all probability should, have opened his account earlier than he did.

After escaping the attentions of Roper twice within the first five minutes and on several more occasions for the duration of the match, this was a 90 minutes the long-serving stopper will not want to review too often.

Money has remained silent on the prospect of cover at centre half, but this defeat, or rather the manner of it, may instigate a change of policy from the manager.

That said, Walsall won’t be facing a striker of Beckford’s quality for the rest of the season and Roper performed excellently at the Liberty Stadium when he shackled Scotland and reduced the Trinidad and Tobago striker to barely a kick, so Money will be banking on Roper making a quick recovery and a return to form against Crewe today in a match that Money admits is now pivotal to their season’s prospects.

After this fourth straight match without a victory, Walsall’s home form will determine where they end up and, with eminently winnable Banks’s encounters against the likes of Bristol Rovers, Bournemouth and Hartlepool to come after today’s clash, the manager will be doing his utmost to rally the troops for a final push.

It has to be said Walsall were unfortunate to run into a Leeds side at the peak of their form and no less a judge than Eddie Gray remarked after the match that their performance was the best seen at Elland Road this season and it appears that Gary McAllister now has them playing his way after a difficult opening spell in charge.

Assuming that Leeds keep up to anything approaching this form for the remaining eight games, they look certainties to claim one of the play-off spots and with one seemingly already claimed by Doncaster or Carlisle, it leaves Walsall and around half a dozen others battling it out for two places.

The manager was quick to point out after the match that Walsall will be a League One club again next season, at the absolute minimum, and in that sense it has been a fantastic campaign for them, but while the play-offs remain a possibility they will be straining every sinew to get there.

As at Forest last week, Walsall were under the cosh from the first whistle and were fortunate not to be behind to either one of Beckford’s early chances.

Neil Kilkenny, who had impressed against Walsall when on loan to Oldham from Blues at Boundary Park in December was again prominent, assisted in the middle of the park by David Prutton and those two in particular were the architects of the home side’s ascendancy.

Leeds didn’t have it all their own way though and the Saddlers crafted a couple of chances of their own in the first half, thanks in the main to the efforts of Lee Holmes on the left of midfield.

Walsall were unable to create any clear opportunities though and Leeds opened the scoring just before the half hour mark and it was inevitably that man Beckford who grabbed the goal.

Kilkenny delivered the defence splitting pass to the striker, who used his pace to beat Ince to the ball and he finished well from a tight angle despite the best efforts of Gerrard on the line.

The pivotal moment of the match came just before the hour mark when good work from Dobson and Wrack in the middle of the park set up Holmes down the left.

Holmes burst past his man and delivered the perfect cross for Mooney, who somehow contrived to put the ball over from five yards. That proved to be Walsall’s only opportunity to restore parity and once they had spurned it Leeds never looked likely to offer them another.

Mark Bradley, who had replaced Wrack ,had to clear Johnson’s header off the line with the help of Ince with 20 minutes remaining before Beckford almost added the second with a shot at full stretch that flew just over.

Cheered on by their vociferous home support, Leeds’s dominance forced Money into utilising the versatility of his squad by pushing Betsy up front with Mooney and switching Sonko back to his right wing role.

Money then played his final tactical card after 75 minutes when he replaced the unusually disappointing Mooney with Stefan Moore, but Beckford put the result beyond doubt when he raced onto a through ball and calmly lifted the ball over the diving Ince into the bottom corner.

Beckford had a couple of half chances to grab his hat-trick and Howson also went close late on. But two was more than enough in the end as Walsall’s seasonal debut in front of the Sky cameras fell flat.