United held by Leeds

Manchester United 1 Leeds United 1

Lifelong Leeds fan Alan Smith gave the cash-strapped Yorkshire club’s supporters a rare reason to smile at Old Trafford this afternoon.

For almost three years the Elland Road outfit have staggered from one crisis to another and are currently floundering on the brink of administration, relegation and possibly both.

But today, without Paul Robinson and Mark Viduka, Smith emerged a hero, nodding home the second half equaliser that gives Leeds realistic hope of avoiding the drop and at the same time delivered a potentially fatal blow to their Roses rivals’ Premiership aspirations.

The draw means United have fallen seven points behind league leaders Arsenal and, in a further blow, Mikael Silvestre was injured in a 50-50 challenge with Smith and could be sidelined for a lengthy period.

United have come back from similar positions before but, with Rio Ferdinand likely to miss the rest of the season and Gary Neville now out for the next four domestic games after picking up yet another booking, it is difficult to see them doing it again.

With Wednesday’s return to Champions League action in mind, Roy Keane’s absence from the United starting line-up could have been predicted.

Louis Saha’s failure to make Sir Alex Ferguson’s side was far more of a surprise and probably came as a result of a training ground knock yesterday.

At least it went some way towards evening up the imbalance in squad strength as Leeds had been forced into the game without goalkeeper Paul Robinson and top scorer Mark Viduka, the Yorkshire side still furious at the Australian authorities for requesting the striker’s suspension from the game.

After the home fans had set aside their antipathy for their Roses rivals for 60 moving, completely silent seconds in memory of John Charles, hostilities instantly recommenced and, initially at least, it seemed as though the Red Devils would have plenty to cheer.

Carson was called into action inside the first minute to prevent a deflected Paul Scholes effort looping into his net and the teenager’s magnificent reaction save to deny Silvestre’s far post effort from Ryan Giggs’ corner suggested a torrid afternoon.

Instead, the sloppiness Keane that complains has been creeping into the training ground began to emerge.

Quinton Fortune was guilty of giving the ball away needlessly on three occasions, John O’Shea’s struggles continued and Kleberson looked anything but a Brazilian World Cup winner as his first touch continually let him down.

Amid all this, the United boss watched on helplessly as Silvestre was first helped to the sideline, then down the tunnel in obvious discomfort, unable to put any weight on his left leg, a legacy of a 50-50 crunch with Smith that had been contested fairly by both parties.

Leeds, who had travelled across the M62 with no real hope of recording their first Old Trafford win for 23 years, visibly gained in confidence, even though Tim Howard remained largely untested.

Giggs did hit a post with a shot on the turn but what followed was a series of missed opportunities from Scholes, Kleberson and even Van Nistelrooy.

In his prolific United career, Leeds are one of the few sides the Dutchman has never scored against and somehow he failed to find the target from about four yards as he got underneath Giggs’ far post cross and headed over.

It got no better after the interval either as Scholes wasted a couple of chances and Carson palmed away an acrobatic Nicky Butt volley.

Under those circumstances, it was no surprise that Keane was called on to rescue his team and within six minutes of the Irishman’s arrival, United had made the breakthrough.

The goal owed everything to Scholes’ willingness to continue his run into the area after feeding Gary Neville down the right.

When Carson could only push the England full-back’s low cross back into the danger zone, Scholes was on hand to rifle home the rebound.

The relief that swept across the ground could almost be touched, yet it lasted just a couple of minutes as Didier Domi appeared on the left to flight a cross onto Alan Smith’s head that the England striker, unmarked, glided into the corner past Howard’s despairing dive.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was thrown on for his first appearance since September as United desperation increased.

But it all proved to be in vain as Van Nistelrooy lifted the final chance over the bar from inside the six-yard area.