Leeds beat Spurs in goal-feast

Chris Perry (centre) holds off two-goal Alan Smith

Leeds 4-3 Tottenham

Leeds produced a fantastic second-half performance to beat Tottenham in a thrilling game at Elland Road.

Strikers Mark Viduka and Alan Smith scored two well-taken second-half goals apiece for the home side to take them to victory.

The efforts cancelled out a Sergei Rebrov brace and rare Chris Perry goal for Tottenham.

The thrilling second-half was in stark contrast to the dour and tight first, which ended with Spurs 1-0 up.

Both midfields were very tight early on, passes were frequently misplaced and there was a lack of ingenuity from both teams.

The first-half began to swing Tottenham's way after Darren Anderton's introduction for Les Ferdinand, who was stretchered off after sickeningly clashing heads with Lucas Radebe.

I think two managers have seen some very bad goals given away/ I thought we gave a soft goal away in the first half when I felt we were controlling the game. But personally I can see where they came from because we've got a patched up team and have had to send inexperienced players on

  Leeds manager David O'Leary

And on 36 minutes they went ahead through £11m Ukrainian striker Sergei Rebrov.

Carr played a neat one-two with Iversen on the left-hand side and then squared the ball to Rebrov on the edge of the area.

He hit a first time shot, and although he didn't strike it at all sweetly, it went wide of Martyn into the Leeds goal.

Leeds came out firing in the second-half and scored three goals in just seven minutes to effectively put the game past the visitors.

Thatcher (l) and Bowyer challenge for the ball

They equalised on 52 minutes. Goalkeeper Neil Sullivan palmed a corner against his crossbar and Viduka was on hand to hammer the rebound into the roof of the net.

Just three minutes later the powerful Australian striker put Leeds ahead, when he re-directed a speculative long-range effort from Kelly past Sullivan from inside the area.

Viduka's strike partner Smith quickly got in on the scoring act himself. Bowyer floated in a free-kick from the left and Smith directed a glancing header past Sullivan.

I think the first half was very low key and low tempo and I was delighted with that. It was very quiet and when we scored I thought we'd go on to win it. But then we had a crazy 12 minutes

  Spurs manager George Graham

On 60 minutes Tottenham pulled one back, with Chris Perry showing great determination to head Anderton's in-swinging corner in from close-range.

Leeds restored their advantage when Smith directed a powerful header inside the post from a Bowyer free-kick.

He came desperately close to a hat-trick when he struck a Dominic Matteo pass powerfully against the crossbar soon after.

Rebrov ensured an exciting finish when he scored his second and Tottenham's third. He struck an overhead kick from close range and the ball was headed out of the goal by Smith, but it was adjudged to have crossed the goal line by referee Neil Barry and his linesman.

Viduka went off to an ovation near the end and his replacement Michael Bridges quickly had an excellent chance to score after being played in by substitute McPhail, but he hit his shot tamely at Sullivan.

Tottenham had a great chance to get a last-minute equaliser when Martyn fumbled a Carr centre to Sherwood, who was unable to get a good contact on the ball inside the six-yard box.

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Leeds: Martyn, Kelly, Harte, Radebe, Mills, Bowyer, Dacourt, Bakke, Matteo, Viduka, Smith.
Subs: Bridges, Huckerby, Robinson, McPhail, Hay.

Tottenham: Sullivan, Carr, Thatcher, Perry, Vega, Sherwood, Leonhardsen, Freund, Ferdinand, Iversen, Rebrov.
Subs: Walker, Anderton, Clemence, Thelwell, Dominguez.

Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe)