The concept of meaningless end-of-season fixtures seems to be an alien one to that clutch of Premiership clubs apparently safely marooned mid-table. Leicester City, Coventry City and Southampton have all fought like alley cats against supposedly hungrier animals over the past week and Everton joined that list last night with a defiant display that could well cost Leeds United a small fortune.
Despite going behind to Michael Bridges' 21st goal of the season after half an hour, despite then having Richard Dunne ordered off for an ugly two-footed lunge at Bridges five minutes after the interval, and despite ending the game with nine men after referee Andy D'Urso dismissed Don Hutchison with three minutes left, Everton still left Elland Road with a point.
The denying of all three to Leeds, courtesy of Nick Barmby's 60th minute equaliser after Nigel Martyn's atrocious error, leaves Leeds one point ahead of Liverpool this morning and means that Leeds may now have to win at Upton Park on Sunday to secure that lucrative Champions League berth. But then Leeds also had a player sent off, Michael Duberry, (five others were booked) and ultimately the scoreline was not an unjust one. Both David O'Leary and Walter Smith chose the diplomatic option when commenting on D'Urso's performance.
According to Liverpool's chief executive, Rick Parry, the difference in revenue between a third and fourth place finish is a minimum of u5 million. For u5 Stg£5 million. For £5 million O'Leary acquired the prospering talent of Bridges from Sunderland last summer and the 21 year-old has justified the outlay by weighing in with his goals, 19 of them in the Premiership. Increasingly, money shouts in football. Leeds welcomed their millionth fan of the season through the turnstiles last night, an indication of the interest in O'Leary's young side. To continue the economic theme, given that every one of them will have spent around £20 on their ticket alone, the fans have probably paid the bulk of Leeds' escalating wage bill. Even before this game, therefore, it has been a profitable season.
Judging by the opening 20 minutes, it has also been a very long one. Leeds began with heavy legs and tired thoughts. In defence Duberry started with the touch and sophistication of a prop forward, a slow one, and got worse. He was rightly booked for the latest of his poor tackles on Hutchison, although the foul on Mark Pembridge which earned Duberry his second card was relatively innocent. Just clumsy.
Ahead of Duberry, Stephen McPhail and Eirik Bakke tried to engineer some early momentum but found themselves frequently outnumbered by the blue shirts. The consequence was stalemate. Before Bridges scored there had been just one shot on target, that a weak one from Pembridge.
Thus the breakthrough was something of a surprise, certainly to Everton. When Lee Bowyer collected Gary Kelly's short pass wide on Leeds' right touchline about 30 yards from his own net, Everton cannot have expected one simple 50-yard pass would split them. But it did.
Bridges hared after Bowyer's through-ball having sneaked on to the blind side of David Weir. Bridges let the ball bounce and then smacked it past Paul Gerrard from eight yards.
It would be incorrect to say the goal galvanised Leeds, but at least the first half ended with a worthwhile Harry Kewell volley. He began the second with another and then the sparks flew. In the 50th minute Dunne was shown a straight red card for his assault from behind on the ankles of Bridges, but the disparity lasted only four minutes before Duberry was also sent off.
Roused by the dismissal of Dunne, Everton were pressing but had no reason to expect any reward from Hutchison's punt forward as Martyn ran to the edge of his area to catch. Martyn completely misjudged the bounce of the ball. It went over his head. Barmby got to it first and though Martyn was on his feet again and Alf Inge Haaland was on the line, Barmby found a gap. Kevin Keegan will have noted two contributions there.
Leeds were left to rue them.
LEEDS: Martyn, Kelly, Duberry, Woodgate, Mills, Bowyer, Bakke, McPhail, Wilcox (Haaland 56), Bridges (Huckerby 80), Kewell. Subs Not Used: Hopkin, Jones, Robinson. Sent Off: Duberry (54). Booked: Duberry. Goals: Bridges 30.
EVERTON: Gerrard, Dunne, Unsworth, Weir, Ball, Pembridge (Ward 79), S Hughes, Collins, Barmby, Hutchison, M Hughes (Cadamarteri 73). Subs Not Used: Jevons, Clarke, Simonsen. Sent Off: Dunne (50), Hutchison (87). Booked: Ball, M Hughes, Hutchison, Unsworth, Barmby, S Hughes. Goals: Barmby 60.
Referee: A D'Urso (Billericay).
