Defeat pins Leeds to bottom of the table

Southampton 2 Leeds 1

Can it really get much much worse for Leeds?

Bottom of the Premiership, five defeats in a row, administration apparently only two weeks away, mystical Sheikhs allegedly promising fools gold in the background and a casualty list as long as a Crimea hospital.

And no luck at all in a thrilling grandstand finish when, after slipping two goals behind, they made a late reply with Matthew Kilgallon’s 75th-minute header and then saw James Milner’s cross deflected onto the inside of a post by Michael Svensson with seven minutes left.

It seemed there might be some relief for Leeds against a Southampton side badly out of salts themselves after just one goal in five games and starting without benched top-scorer James Beattie.

But the Saints took the opportunity to expound hope that manager Gordon Strachan might still grind out enough results to fulfil his wish of staying for a dignified exit at the end of the season.

Indeed, with sharper finishing his team should have at least doubled their tally long before some worrying late wobbles.

He knows though that in the previous 20 league encounters they had scored in only nine – and that last season when cruising along 3-0 up against Leeds they eventually had to settle for a nervous 3-2 success.

For 36 minutes Strachan’s side, also missing injured key defender Claus Lundekvam, looked just as inept up front as their visitors, who had been relegated to the bottom of the table by Wolves’ shock win over Manchester United even before matters proceeded at St Mary’s.

Strachan plumped for Brett Ormerod and the till-now disappointing Kevin Phillips to fill Beattie’s shooting boots but they had to watch a terrible finish by Leeds’ on-loan Jermaine Pennant to discover which way the goal actually was.

After that, and another miserable blunder – this time in defence by Leeds’ Zoumana Camara, making his first start since November – it should all over by half-time.

Zoumana tripped Anders Svensson and gained a booking for sheer clumsiness but Pennant suggested he might have been kitted out by the same footwear manufacturer with an appalling 33rd-minute miskick when he had only Antti Niemi to beat from James Milner’s marvellous run and cross.

Stop-gap defender Fitz Hall had already headed a Rory Delap long throw against the Leeds crossbar and then Ormerod chipped over the angle of post and bar with another good chance.

But when Jody Morris – also making his first Leeds start since November – was just too high at the other end after a neat link between Milner and Alan Smith, it just looked another of those typical Leeds’ days.

And Leeds paid a heavy price when Ormerod gave Saints the lead just three minutes later.

Smith lost possession and David Prutton broke intelligently away to set up Ormerod, who smartly wrong-footed Kilgallon before driving his sixth of the season beyond the helpless Robinson.

And it got even worse for Leeds when a blunder by Camara, who failed to make an easy clearance, let in Phillips to slide home only his second league goal since joining Saints, six minutes later.

There appeared no possible way back but somehow a fizzing Phillips drive failed to find the target in the second half and then Ormerod struck the junction of bar and post.

But Kilgallon’s first Premiership goal from a piece of short-corner magic by Irishmen Ian Harte and Gary Kelly finally inspired Leeds to a late rally that had Saints defence looking a wreck.

When the brilliant Milner’s cross came off Michael Svensson and hit a post before bouncing into a relieved Niemi’s arms seven minutes from time, you knew the Leeds luck was right out again.