Leeds and Boro share spoils

Gianluca Festa shadows Robbie Keane at Elland Road

Leeds 1-1 Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough's revival under the guidance of Terry Venables continued at Elland Road.

Despite being hemmed into their own half for most of the match, Middlesbrough stood firm and extended an unbeaten run to five games.

Alen Boksic opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half, totally against the run of play.

But Leeds kept plugging away and got some reward with a second-half penalty converted by Robbie Keane ten minutes into the second half.

Leeds started the New Year in 14th place after a run which had yielded just three points from five Premiership games.

Yet David O'Leary's side showed no lack of confidence as they probed the Middlesbrough defence relentlessly in the opening 25 minutes.

The ball hardly crossed the halfway line as Leeds, who had David Batty making his first start in over a year, pushed forward in waves.

Middlesbrough retreated, leaving Boksic a lone figure up front.

Style

Leeds' passing was smooth but against the weight of numbers Middlesbrough restricted Leeds to a few half-chances.

We had all the play and got mugged just before half time. For all the possession we had, we did not make use of it

  Leeds manager David O'Leary

Mark Viduka sent a back header inches wide from a Lee Bowyer pass and Olivier Dacourt tried his luck from long range.

Keane, starting up front with Viduka, turned on the style with a 23rd minute run that left four Boro defenders floundering, but relieved to see the Irishman's shot miss Mark Schwarzer's inside post.

Then after 27 minutes came the sucker punch.

Paul Okon delivered a through ball from his own half and Boksic raced clear and kept his cool to beat Leeds goalkeeper Paul Robinson for his seventh goal of the season.

Even after the goal, Leeds remained dominant and frustration boiled over when Keane and Gianluca Festa squared up after Leeds had a penalty appeal turned down.

The second half began brightly for Leeds with Jason Wilcox forcing a fine save from Schwarzer and after 55 minutes came the breakthrough.

Keane converts

Viduka moved into the Middlesbrough area and as he knocked the ball past defender Curtis Fleming it came off the defender's hands.

Terry Venables has come in and given us a lift and organised us into a team that is hard to beat

  Boro defender Curtis Fleming

Referee David Elleray gave the penalty and Keane struck his first goal for Leeds since his loan move from Italy.

Again Middlesbrough went back into their shell and Leeds found it hard to overcome the visitor's stubborn defence.

There were two more appeals for penalties from Bowyer who felt he had been fouled, first by Festa and then Robbie Mustoe within minutes of each other.

Alan Smith came on for Keane with 15 minutes left but Leeds seemed out of ideas and Robinson was called upon to stop a fierce Boksic shot.

The Croatian then missed a golden chance to win the game when he mishit in front of goal after being set up by substitute Phil Stamp.

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Leeds: Robinson, Kelly, Radebe, Ferdinand, Matteo, Bowyer, Dacourt, Batty, Wilcox, Keane, Viduka.
Subs: Martyn, Harte, Woodgate, Smith, Burns.

Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Ehiogu, Festa, Vickers, Fleming, Mustoe, Okon, Karembeu, Gordon, Boksic, Ricard.
Subs: Deane, Stamp, Crossley, Whelan, Hudson.

Referee: D Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill)