Beardsley cool in the frenzy

NEWCASTLE have been wobbling for a few weeks now, as they did at this time last season when they also looked credible Championship contenders. The difference this year is that there is a persistence to go with the prettiness and the narrow defeats are being turned into draws and even, such as this, victories out of adversity.

Yesterday they fell behind to a goal by Brian Deane for a resolute Leeds United, whose toughness and discipline - for 70 minutes at least - sometimes evoked their predecessors of 20 years ago, and for a long time thereafter it seemed that their 100 per cent home record would go at the hands of the last team to win at St James', last Easter Monday.

Then Robert Lee, embodying Newcastle's industry, pounced for an equaliser and within a frenzied, astonishing minute Peter Beardsley, embodying Newcastle's invention, struck again. They lead the Premiership by six points in advance of Manchester United's match at Nottingham Forest tomorrow night.

A draw at Tottenham, narrow home squeaks over Liverpool and Blackburn, a draw after being behind at Aston Villa and now this. November has been full of fortune for Newcastle. Then again, they have made much of their own luck with their refusal to bow to what has sometimes looked the inevitable. "It will go down as the month of character for me," the Newcastle manager, Kevin Keegan, said.

Unlike many, Leeds came without the baggage of apprehension that burdens so many. Indeed, quite apart from last season's, they had not been beaten by Newcastle in the short history of the Premiership.

The early indications were that they were well aware of it themselves. They gave Newcastle little opportunity to settle as Carlton Palmer, Gary McAllister and the promising Mark Ford, a member of their FA Youth Cup- winning team of a few years ago, chased and harried. The winged sources of so much creativity, David Ginola and Keith Gillespie, were quickly closed down by the full-backs Gary Kelly and Tony Dorigo.

It gave Leeds the platform to fashion some chances, at least one of which they should have taken before they actually did. Shaka Hislop saved well Yeboah's fierce shot from an angle and Brian Deane's lazy stab at the rebound. Ford then sent Yeboah clear but he was slow to respond and poked the ball well wide. McAllister's bicycle-kick from Gary Speed's cross was closer.

Unsettled by some stiff Leeds tackling which incensed the home crowd - further annoyed when Darren Peacock was booked for a challenge on John Lukic - Newcastle were misfiring. Les Ferdinand volleyed then headed straight at Lukic and Beardsley was wide with a shot from the edge of the area.

So it was no shock when Leeds did score the goal their approach work had suggested was likely. After a move down the left, Dorigo whipped the ball in from the wing and at the near post Deane flashed a header past Hislop. It was a goal to stun St James', which had not previously this season seen a visiting side take the lead in the league.

"Don't stop believing in what we are trying to do," was Keegan's half- time tonic for his troops. They didn't, but after Lukic had saved low from Ginola's shot and Peacock's header it seemed unlikely that it would bear fruit.

Then Beardsley sent Lee on a run and after a shimmy and a gap opening up he drove low and precisely from the edge of the penalty area into Lukic's right corner. From the restart Leeds surrendered possession, enabling Ginola to cross for Ferdinand. Lukic saved the header but Beardsley was alive to the rebound.

"We lost the ball too easily up front and didn't give them enough work," Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson said of his side's chanceless second half. There were signs, though, in the newly signed Richard Jobson, of a less porous central defence, and perhaps the pounds 4.5m Swedish signing Tomas Brolin, restricted to a late substitute's appearance with weight still to lose after his long absence through injury at Parma, will give Yeboahsupport as Leeds strive to move higher than the top of the second tier of the Premiership. Newcastle can still entertain realistic hopes about finishing on top of the top tier.