Premiership: O'Leary sweats over Radebe

Leeds defender Lucas Radebe is a major doubt for Wednesday night’s Champions League quarter-final clash with Deportivo La Coruna after damaging knee ligaments in his side’s 2-0 win at Sunderland.

Midfielder Olivier Dacourt is also facing a race against the clock to be fit after being stretchered off with a shoulder injury, but manager David O’Leary is more concerned about the South African.

"Olivier’s got a bang on the shoulder, but I don’t think it’s anything severe," he said. "I think Lucas Radebe’s more serious with a knee ligament injury. I think Radebe has got to be a doubt for Wednesday."

The injuries and the dismissal of striker Alan Smith for two bookable defences added a sour note to a good afternoon on Wearside as the Yorkshiremen leap-frogged their hosts with a 2-0 victory to preserve their perfect Premiership record against Sunderland.

Goals from Smith and Mark Viduka clinched the points to make it six wins out of six against Sunderland since the Premier League was established, and 11 in succession in the top flight.

O’Leary was delighted with a hard-fought victory, although less than pleased with Smith’s indiscretion after he kicked out at defender Patrice Carteron.

"It was great to get three points," he said. "When you come to Sunderland, they’re very direct, they get the ball into the box from every angle, but we defended very well.

"When Radebe went off, we put Danny Mills in alongside Rio Ferdinand and I think that’s the 20th pairing we’ve had in central defence this season.

"I was a bit disappointed with the finishing, but for all the pressure Sunderland put on us, I thought we had the more clear-cut chances.

"The best chances of the game fell to us and I thought we could have scored more goals even with the pressure we were under.

"We could be a lot better off than we are. I think we’ve dropped 20 points at home and if we’d had half of those 20 points, just think of the position we’d be in then."

Of Smith, he said: "I’m disappointed, very much so. Believe you me, I’ve had a little word with him. I’ve no sympathy for him."

But while O’Leary had no issue with referee Steve Dunn’s decision to send Smith off, Peter Reid was furious that the official saw nothing wrong with Rio Ferdinand’s first-half challenge on Kevin Phillips which could quite easily have resulted in a red card.

The Sunderland boss was stopped from confronting the official at half-time, but he later insisted that the decision, which came seconds before Leeds went in front, had changed the game.

O’Leary had some sympathy, but pointed to a similar incident involving Smith and Jody Craddock at the other end of the pitch which also went unpunished.

"They change games decisions like that," said Reid. "I wouldn’t disagree with Mr O’Leary, but ours was a crucial decision at a crucial stage of the game, and if that decision goes our way, we would have been in front."

Reid was reasonably pleased with his side’s performance, but concerned that both goals came from dead balls.

"The two goals weren’t clever," he admitted. "There were two free headers off a corner for the first one, which is poor defending, and then we fell asleep towards the end from a free-kick when we’ve gone dead. When the ball’s dead, we’ve got to be alive.

"I didn’t think we got any breaks when we were going forward. Their keeper made a couple of good saves and all in all, it was a couple of bad defensive errors by us that cost us.

"It’s a very, very disappointing result against a top-class side, but there’s still another seven games to go. Seven threes are 21 points, so there’s a lot to play for."