Leeds United pegged back after Morison double
Steve Morison
Leeds United were left frustrated again as they let a lead slip at Crystal Palace to draw another Npower Championship game.
Two Steve Morison goals had the Whites 2-1 ahead, but they were left having to settle for a point after Glenn Murray took advantage of slack defending to equalise with his second goal for Palace six minutes from time.
It was not quite the injury-time agony suffered by United at Leicester a few days earlier, but once again they had failed to see out an away game and had let a chance go to close the six-point gap on the play-off places.
Leeds boss Neil Warnock named an unchanged starting 11 for the fifth time in a row and saw his side match their hosts who were looking for points in their quest for an automatic promotion place.
An early header from Kagisho Dikgacoi went wide and Morison was off target from a corner at the other end, but both teams took time to settle into the contest.
Paddy Kenny was forced to make his first save as Murray got a header in from Wilfried Zaha ‘s cross. But the Leeds keeper had no chance as Palace took the lead on 27 minutes when Murray was left free at the far post to head home a cross after looking suspiciously offside.
Palace almost doubled their lead soon after only for Kenny to save well low down from Jonathan Parr.
But the Whites ended the half well and could have levelled when Paul Green raced through. Although home keeper Julian Speroni came out to save the ball fell to Luke Varney who was unlucky to be denied by the Palace defence.
Leeds did make it 1-1 on 57 as Varney’s low cross found Morison in the box and the ex-Millwall man beat Speroni with a shot into the corner of the net.
Morison made it 2-1 12 minutes later when some awful defending by the hosts allowed Kenny’s long kick to clear everyone. Morison raced onto the ball and added his second goal with a well struck volley.
They then had a chance to put the game to bed as Morison did well and Ross McCormack was able to get a shot in only to see it fly just wide.
The hosts were not done, however, as Stephen Dobbie went close before Murray came up with their late leveller after left-back Stephen Warnock was caught ball watching, allowing the prolific Palace striker to sneak in behind him to volley home an angled cross.
Leeds put on all three subs in a bid to nick a winner, but time ran out for them and they are still looking for a first away win against a top half team this season.
Match facts
Crystal Palace 2
(Murray 27, 84)
Leeds United 2
(Morison 57, 69)
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Npower Championship
Att: 19,976
Palace: Speroni, Dikgacoi, Ramage, Delaney, Parr, Williams (Wilbraham 87), Jedinak, Zaha, Dobbie (Moritz 83), Bolasie (Phillips 74), Murray.
Leeds: Kenny, Byram, Peltier, Lees, Warnock, Green, Tonge, Norris (Austin 88), Varney, Morison (Habibou 90), McCormack (Hall 88).
Referee: D Whitestone
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Sunday 26 May 2013
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