A good turnout of Leeds fans saw the second win of the Scottish tour at Fir Park, as we came from behind to beat Motherwell through goals from Bruce and Nunez.

As ever, there was a good turnout of Leeds fans (1913 according to the official site, though it seemed like more) and I could tell by some of the accents that a few Scottish Whites had come along to boost the numbers. And a fine range of songs included ‘Engerland’, ‘Bates Out’, and the intro to ‘Just can’t get enough’, by Depeche Mode.

During the course of the game we managed to use no fewer than 21 different players, with ex-Motherwell player Mc.Cormack being the only one to get the full ninety minutes. As he was getting one or two boos from the home fans, Grayson obviously wanted to annoy them for as long as possible by leaving him on the field.

We should have gone in front in the first minute, when an excellent cross from the right found Paynter completely unmarked beyond the far post, but he could only roll the ball across the face of goal. So his form has continued where it finished at the end of last season, which is a bit worrying with both Becchio and Somma out with injuries. A few minutes later Paynter did get the ball in the net, only for it to be disallowed for offside.

Motherwell we very close to taking the lead with their first decent attack of the game, with Hamell cutting in from the left with a great run, passing several defenders before smashing the ball against the post. Then at the other end we were awarded what looked a fairly generous penalty, as Sam went to ground after a challenge from two ‘Well defenders. Mc.Cormack stepped up to do the honours, but could only scuff his shot, and Randolph had no trouble getting down to his left to make the save.

So far we’d had quite a lot of the possession, but as ever we’d looked vulnerable at the back whenever the home side came forward. And so it was no great surprise when ‘Well took the lead in the 39^th minute, a fairly soft goal when Murphy was given plenty of time and space to roll the ball into the net after a cross from Humphrey. There was still time before the break for Leeds to have another goal disallowed, and for Aidy White to go on a great solo run down the left, before his cross was deflected over the bar.

For the start of the second half Grayson decided to make the effort to get back into the game, as his four changes at the break included throwing his two first choice wingers Gradel and Snodgrass into the action in place of Clayton and Sam. The second half team went onto put Motherwell under a bit more pressure, but first we had to do some defending of our own, as Connolly and Bruce both had to make last ditch clearances.

We then forced a couple of corners, though Motherwell seemed certain to score a second on the break before Rachubka came racing off his line to make an excellent save. At the other end Randolph made a couple of decent saves from Thompson and Snodgrass, but in the 68^th minute he made an absolute howler to present us with an equaliser. By now the rain had started to fall steadily, and he found a corner from Gradel to slippery to hold onto, dropping the ball for Bruce to smash into the net.

Shortly before this we’d had another clutch of substitutions, with Lees, Turner and Nunez all coming into the action, and it was the last of this trio who put us in front with a delightful goal in the 75^th. minute. The Honduran linked up with Gradel on the left before cutting inside and beating several defenders and knocking the ball into the corner of the net. And didn’t he look delighted to score! We can only hope that he will get the opportunities he deserves in the first team once the season proper gets underway.

We had to endure a bit of late pressure from the SPL side, but Rachubka and Parker both made timely interceptions to keep them out. But we held on without too much difficulty to finish the brief Scottish tour with a 100% record. In truth this was a fairly unconvincing win, and by all accounts the performance at Falkirk was fairly rubbish despite the result, so there were quite a few grumbles from the Leeds contingent as we filed away from the ground.

Let’s see how we do at Rochdale on Tuesday night

Photo: Action Images

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