25 August 2007 :: by
Chris Hudson
Nottingham Forest 1 v 2 Leeds United
In the last minute of the game Jermaine Beckford fired Leeds United to their third consecutive league victory and to the top of the 'real' League One table. Dennis Wise's makeshift Leeds United squad, assembled with a pre-season of just eight days is making a mockery of the attempts of the Football League and its ego-centric Chairman "Lord Mal-whiney" to relegate them again by making them kick-off the season with minus fifteen points. The effect of Mal-whiney's power play has been to unite the fans behind a chairman and manager who were pariahs to them pre-penalty. The squad has similarly responded; delighting in making fools of the Football League Board and the chairman of other clubs who voted for the penalty - how they must wish they could vote again and avoid creating the maelstrom that is over-running everything in its path.
Wise will be delighted that his other main striker Tresor Kandol has at last begun to find the scoring form that brought him to Elland Road last season. The ex-Barnet Congolese hit man gave the Whites the lead in the first half before Commons hit back early in the second half for Forest.
This clash of the League One giants drew a bumper crowd to the City Ground of over twenty-five thousand with Leeds fans making their vocal presence felt by the team as Dennis Wise had asked of them.
Jamie Clapham made his debut today for Leeds; Flo came on for Prutton in the sixty-second minute - a little earlier than the fifteen minutes hinted at by Wise before the game - but it was a day for the youngsters, with four juniors on the bench for Leeds - and it was young Jermaine Beckford who claimed all three points to send Leeds fans into heavenly raptures and condemn Forest fans to a disappointing addition to a dismal start to the season.
Forest represented a real challenge to spoil the superb start to the season of the Whites and the fact that Leeds took all three points, away from home, against last season's play-off finalists will boost the confidence of the squad and throw down a real challenge to those teams who thought that by voting for a 15 point penalty that they had seen off the threat of Leeds United to their own title ambitions before the season had even begun. Thank you Mawhinney and sundry chairmen - one and all! :-)
Nottingham Forest: Smith, Chambers, Wilson, Morgan, Bennett, Perch, Lennon, Clingan, Commons (Bastians 78), Holt, Agogo (Tyson 74).
Subs (Not Used): Roberts, Sinclair, Thornhill
Leeds United: Ankergren, Richardson, Heath, Marques, Clapham, Prutton (Flo 62), Douglas, Thompson (Howson 84), Carole, Kandol, Beckford (Parker 90).
Subs (Not Used): Bayly, Gardner.
Booked: Bennett (Forest), Thompson, Beckford (Leeds)
Goals: Commons 50 (Forest) Kandol 17, Beckford 89 (Leeds United)
Attendance: 25,237 Half-time: 0-1
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