Cardiff weren’t much better, and while their good start to the season continues, it is hard to see them as the promotion dark horses some believe them to be. The last time Leeds beat Cardiff was 23 years ago, since when City have gone seven games unbeaten against the Yorkshire team. There was a confidence about the way Dave Jones’s team snapped into their early tackles which suggested they were confident of repeating the feat.
They had to make those tackles, though, because Leeds began brightly. Without the suspended Geoff Horsfield, United gave Robbie Blake his first start of the season, alongside David Healy. Steve Stone and Eddie Lewis gave them width on either flank.
Leeds’ best chance of the opening period came from a set-piece, Lewis curling in a free kick from the right which Matthew Kilgallon should have done better than head over. If Cardiff were coping capably enough at the back, however, they weren’t asking too many questions up front. Their first chance, a Michael Chopra shot from outside the penalty area that Tony Warner saved easily, took 26 minutes to arrive, though Warner had to make a slightly more athletic save from Stephen McPhail’s free kick soon afterwards.
Stone’s withdrawal with a recurrence of a groin problem, and his replacement by the more prosaic Eirik Bakke, did not help the game’s slide into mediocrity. Cardiff’s best chance of the first half arrived three minutes before the break, when Joe Ledley picked out Chopra with a cross which the former Newcastle forward headed wide.
In the second half Cardiff began to push forward in search of a winner. In the ongoing absence of Jason Koumas, their main source of creativity is McPhail, and the former Leeds man nearly put them ahead in the 70th minute. His free kick from the left touchline was misjudged by Warner, but cleared by Paul Butler.
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Leeds had just lobbed in a series of aimless crosses when Cardiff pinched the winner on 83 minutes. Riccardo Scimeca and Willo Flood broke upfield, and an exchange of passes so perplexed three Leeds defenders that Flood was able to pull away from his marker and convert Scimeca’s low cross under no pressure at all.
There was still time for Darren Purse to get sent off for what appeared to be an off-the-ball push on Healy.
Leeds 0 Cardiff 1
Star Man: Stephen McPhail (Cardiff)
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Player Ratings: Leeds: Warner 6, Kelly 5, Butler 5, Kilgallon 6, Crainey 5, Stone 6 (Bakke 33min, 5), Derry 5, Westlake 6, Lewis 6 (Carole 85min, 5), Healy 5, Blake 5 (Beckford 68min, 5)
Cardiff: Alexander 5, McNaughton 5 (Johnson 87min, 5), Loovens 6, Purse 5, Ledley 6, Kamara 5 (Flood 68min, 5), Scimeca 6, McPhail 7, Parry 5, Chopra 6 (Blake 90min, 5), Thompson 5
Scorer: Cardiff: Flood 83
Referee: N Miller
Attendance: 18,246