Mann, playing surprisingly effectively at stand-off against his old club, sent Hall striding away and his fellow New Zealander confirmed the good impression he has made since arriving from Bradford last month, declining to pass to Schofield or Marvin Golden in support and going alone from 50 yards to score.Gibbs had a try disallowed before taking advantage of a comedy of handling errors to plunge over. Instead, Innes made up for his error early in the second half, catching the Saints’ defence in a slack moment and scything through from 20 yards out.Graham Holroyd’s second goal put them 12-6 ahead and the only impressions Saints could make on that lead was from a Goulding penalty.On top of Innes’ contribution, it was the further Kiwi connection of George Mann and Carl Hall who gave Leeds what should have been a comfortable advantage. Innes lost the ball in the tackle after carrying it one-handed in front of him and Karle Hammond scored from close range.Bobbie Goulding, needing 10 points for a thousand in his career, kicked Saints level and could have given them lead if he had enjoyed a better day with the boot. Substitute not used: Gudmundsson.Referee: R Dilkes (Mossley)..

St Helens 14Leeds 20

Leeds kept their theoretical chance of winning the Championship alive by winning at St Helens for the first time since 1988, writes Dave Hadfield.
Leeds survived a late scare, stirred by Scott Gibbs’ try with three minutes to go, finally making sure of taking the one-sided battle a little deeper into January when their substitute, Mick Shaw, did what he does better than anyone else by scampering in from dummy-half.The visitors always had the better of a match which, if it was sadly lacking in precision, had plenty in the way of passion for compensation.They took an early lead through Garry Schofield, who confirmed his recovery from a hamstring injury with a composed and influential game at scrum- half, but lost it through a mistake from their Kiwi centre, Craig Innes. Substitute not used: Wetherall, Couzens.Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Flowers; Berg, Marker, Coleman, Kenna; Ripley, Batty (Holmes, h-t), Bohinen, McKinlay; Shearer, Newell (Fenton, 75). To the exasperation of the crowd, that was as good as it got.Leeds United (4-3-1-2): Beeney; Kelly, Jobson, Palmer, Worthington; Ford, McAllister, Speed; Brolin (Wallace, 61); Deane, Yeboah. Thereafter, he was marked into anonymity by Carlton Palmer, whose return Wilkinson had facilitated by dropping David Wetherall.Leeds, for whom Mark Ford outshone more illustrious colleagues amid the gloom, had their best spell just before the interval. A below-par Gary McAllister sent an inviting low pass across the six-yard box; Tim Flowers scooped a shot by Richard Jobson off the line, and Deane glanced wide from Gary Kelly’s centre.

This game was not only devoid of comparable drama, but also of incident once two teams evenly matched in their mundanity tired after half-time.Alan Shearer had two opportunities to start a second century of Premiership goals, being thwarted by Mark Beeney and then firing over in the first 10 minutes. “It’s just not fair to the playing public when players are so fatigued,” the Blackburn manager said, going on to cite the “wear and tear” of the holiday programme for David Batty’s withdrawal with a groin injury.”At top level, the pressure and tension are extreme, and it’s not fair to ask people to play four [games] in nine [days] as we have.”Leeds is where Blackburn’s barren away sequence began back in April, when Brian Deane’s last-gasp equaliser set nerve-ends jangling for the championship run-in. I took Tomas Brolin off today because although he’d told me the night before how well he was bearing up to the strain, he played without zip or spark.”Wilkinson’s view found support from Ray Harford. “If we’d not played for a week, I’d admit the match was eminently forgettable. Maybe it was, anyway, but we looked like a team who’ve had too much football.

The last three have been played in fewer than six days.”One of our four games was against Manchester United, which is always highly charged, and two were played in sub-zero temperatures. Howard Wilkinson, the Leeds manager, also pleaded mitigation for both sets of players, particularly his own, whom he claimed betrayed the effects of a fixture schedule even more congested than is customary over the Christmas “break”.”Most of my lot have just played four games in eight days, and there were times when players got into good, wide positions but couldn’t get crosses in,” Wilkinson said. Leeds, cheered to the echo after beating Manchester United a week earlier, were jeered off yesterday after failing to inflict similar damage on Blackburn, who themselves seldom looked capable of recording a first away win in their defence of the Premiership title.
The fog which swirled around the stadium gave the game an eerie atmosphere to which neither side were able to respond positively. Leeds United 0 Blackburn Rovers 0

A new year at Elland Road brought only old failings and a familiar chestnut about too much football. However, the Swede failed to find the target.Hibs badly needed a goal at this stage, and it came courtesy of the head of Michael O’Neill, playing his first match for almost a month, after a measured cross from Kevin McAllister.Then, shortly before half-time, the industrious Andy Millen played a short free-kick to Darren Jackson and Keith Wright headed his pass into the path of Harper, who scored with a venomous volley.Hibs dominated the second half but the agility of Hearts’ French goalkeeper, Gilles Rousset, and some lacklustre finishing meant they had to be content with what they had.Hibernian (4-4-2): Leighton; McGinlay, Hunter, Tweed, Tortolano; McAllister, D Jackson, Millen, O’Neill; Harper (Evans, 89), Wright.Heart of Midlothian (4-3-3): Rousset; McManus, Bruno, Ritchie, Pointon (Lawrence, 84), Mackay (Smith, 49), Fulton, Millar; Johnston, Eskilsson (Colquhoun, 58), Robertson.Referee: W Crombie (Edinburgh)..

It was a thrilling match that ebbed and flowed, with five bookings.Hearts took the lead after seven minutes with a well-worked goal. Pat McGinlay, playing out of position at right-back, allowed Neil Pointon to drift away from him and, when Allan Johnston swept over a cross, the former Oldham player steered a precise half-volley past Jim Leighton, the eighth goal the Scotland goalkeeper had conceded in three days.Hans Eskilsson had an excellent opportunity to put the match beyond Hibs midway through the first half when John Robertson presented him with an opening. That Hibs did not make the task easier for themselves in the second half was due to careless finishing rather than any resistance from Hearts. This was the perfect hangover cure on New Year’s Day, and supporters and players alike breathed a huge sigh of relief on the referee’s whistle.
This was as much about strength of character as footballing ability, and Hibernian went about achieving the win the hard way by conceding a goal to their fiercest rivals after only seven minutes.