Leeds edge John Moores in thriller
On a gloomy afternoon Leeds made the journey to Liverpool John Moores in a bid to keep their title hopes alive.
The game got off to a frantic start which saw Leeds take an early 2-0 lead within the first five minutes thanks to goals from Joe Crame and Chris Sampras.
Despite this early dominance the game began to even out with Liverpool JM looking to capitalise on any defensive errors. The Leeds goal remained un-breached until the 30th minute when a Liverpool drag flick found a neat deflection leaving Leeds keeper Will Sanchez with little chance of keeping it out.
After the break it was Leeds who again started playing with a higher tempo and enjoyed the majority of possession. Chris Sampras soon made the score 3-1 after a large over-head from overseas player Michael Spickman found Jessie Hanley on the right hand side who played the ball in for Chris Sampras to eloquently finish it off for his second.
Despite losing a player to the sin bin, LJMU hit back with two goals of their own, again from short corners, bringing the scores back level again at 3-3.
Man of the match Chris Sampras then completed his fantastic hat trick of open play goals to hand the lead back to Leeds. However in true form to the game, LJMU responded with a fast breakaway that allowed their forward a free run into the D and was able to wrong foot Will Sanchez bringing the score back level again.
Leeds continued to fight and press Liverpool high in their half and would have had more luck if it wasn’t for the hard work of the opposition keeper.
The much deserved winner finally came from Leeds in the 65th minute after a superb individual goal from Alex Smithers capped off a resilient display from the away side. The team were in a buoyant mood on their journey back east with news filtering through of a Manchester loss meaning that promotion hopes were back in the forefronts of everybody’s minds.
The team host Liverpool University at fortress Weetwood next week in what promises to be an exciting match.
