Football story by Dominic Taylor, Wed, 23 Nov 2005 18:48:00 GMT


Leeds United continued their strong push towards the top of the Coca Cola Championship with a facile 2-0 win over Burnley. After their astounding 4-3 victory over Southampton, Leeds needed to consolidate and they did so in superb style against Burnley at Elland Road last night.

This loss meant that Burnley's four-match unbeaten run came to an abrupt stop. Last Saturday, Leeds was looking forlorn as they went into the break trailing 0-3 to Southampton. But David Healy came on in the second period to turn the match in their favor 4-3 in what must surely go down as one of the remarkable matches this season. Healy was again in the thick of the things against Burnley scoring off a penalty before Robbie Blake's stunner from 25 yards sealed the match in Leeds favor.

The victory pleased Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell no end and he has in fact challenged his team to see if they can catch up with the top two in the Championship. Blackwell said that both Reading and Sheffield United were at the top of their game, but Leeds just needed to keep winning, "It's like a bike race, people go way out in front but it's funny how they get caught.

The problem for both of those clubs is that they'll know that they need to keep looking over their shoulder," he said. "If we can put any pressure on them then great, but if we can't, we'll just keep plugging away and make sure we're in that top six." He added that to stop a Burnley side that was on a roll was a job well done.

His counterpart at Burnley Steve Cotterill admitted that the difference between the two sides was Robbie Blake, "I don't want to give him any praise, but I thought he was the difference, I thought he was superb," he said.

Referee: T Bates (Staffordshire).

Leeds: Sullivan; Kelly (Douglas 89), Butler, Kilgallon, Harding; Miller, Derry, Lewis; Healy (Richardson 79), Hulse, Blake (Pugh 89). Subs: Bennett (g), Gregan

Burnley: Jensen; Lowe, Sinclair, McGreal; Duff (Elliott 79), Spicer (Karbassiyoon 79), Hyde, J O'Connor, Harley; Akinbiyi, Dyer. Subs: Grant (g), G O'Connor, Noel-Williams

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