Yeboah on the go again
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Yeboah 80
Chelsea 0
Attendance: 36,209
WITH Tomas Brolin unable to take part and Ruud Gullit ruled out by injury, there was always going to be something lacking in this match. For Leeds it looked likely to be a goal until Tony Yeboah, without one since 30 September, ended his drought 10 minutes from time to pierce Chelsea's well-organised defence.
The Ghanaian had deserved a goal more than anyone on the field, having both shot and headed wide in the first half, hit a post and forced a save from Dmitri Kharin in the second. And all this despite the close attentions of Chelsea's three-man central defence, none of whom ever seemed to be far from his side. It is an indictment of his teammates, really, that opposing sides can afford to devote so much energy to policing him, but Leeds can be conspicuously reluctant to take collective responsibility.
It will be in Brolin's brief, presumably, to dispel this notion of a one-man team. The Swedemight have made his debut here had the Italian authorities provided international clearance in time. Now the pounds 4.5m attacking midfield player, signed from Parma, must wait until next Saturday's visit to Newcastle.
The Leeds manager, Howard Wilkinson, insisted that Yeboah's eight-match goal famine had never been a worry to him but there was relief in the player's eyes when the goal came. It was an unspectacular affair from a man who specialises in winning Goal of the Month, poked in from close range after Brian Deane had challenged Kharin for a cross.
"I felt somehow we would score and we deserved to," Wilkinson said. Not surprisingly, his counterpart did not concur. Indeed, Glenn Hoddlesuggested the goal should not have stood and felt that referee Mike Reed should have been asked to account for his decision. "I thought it was a foul on the goalkeeper and so did my players," he said. "It was a tough one to take and I wonder if it is time that referees are asked to justify themselves as managers are. We felt it was a wrong decision and it has cost us dear."
You could understand his frustration. With Gullit and eight others injured, a Chelsea side in which Dan Petrescu was making his debut had performed with credit and carved out second-half chances for Craig Burley, Mark Stein and Mark Hughes, who saw his effort cleared off the line. But on balance, Leeds - or rather, Yeboah - just about shaded it.
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