Keane backs Leeds to beat drop
Robbie Keane may have returned to Elland Road to again haunt his former club, but he insists Leeds can still escape the spectre of relegation from the Premiership.
It is now five league games without a win, and three successive defeats under Eddie Gray who yesterday rounded on his players for the first time since becoming caretaker-manager two months ago.
Gray accused them of lacking the courage and confidence to play, particularly in front of an Elland Road crowd who have backed them to the hilt this season, but who clearly can stomach no more as they too voiced their dissent at another abject display.
Only striker Mark Viduka had a legitimate reason for not pulling his weight, with his thoughts elsewhere due to a member of his family being ill, resulting in the Australian flying back home last night after only playing the first half.
It was perhaps inevitable Keane would hammer another nail in Leeds’ coffin as the Ireland international has a happy knack of scoring against a club he left in August 2002.
Keane’s 55th-minute winner was his third goal in four appearances since a £7m (€10.1m) move, with the 23-year-old part of an exodus last season which also saw Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Bowyer, Robbie Fowler and Olivier Dacourt all depart.
Leeds are continuing to pay the price for their financial mis-deeds, with the ultimate penalty of relegation looming larger with every game that passes.
Keane, who refused to celebrate his goal with a trademark cartwheel out of respect for his former team-mates, concedes Leeds face a tough task in escaping the drop, but not an impossible one.
“I’m very surprised at where Leeds are in the table,” said Keane, who now has eight goals for the season.
“But when you all of a sudden let a lot of players go, you can’t expect them to be right up there and be challenging for anything.
“It’s going to be tough for them – it would be tough for anyone – but they still have quality players and with the table so close, I don’t see any reason they cannot be right up there if they get a few results.
“If they get a few back-to-back results, as we have, then they will shoot back up there and I really hope they do.
“I’ve a lot of friends here and a lot of respect for people, especially for Eddie Gray who was someone I could always have a chat with when I was here.”
Gray, though, faces a problem in raising the morale of a team who are five points adrift and who would appear to have an eye on the distractive off-field problems as the prospect of administration is potentially just a week away.
Gray feels that would be a lame excuse for their recent performances, with the 55-year-old instead believing it is due to a lack of quality that Leeds find themselves in such dire straits.
“The financial predicament shouldn’t affect the players,” insisted Gray.
“It doesn’t affect how I think. They should just go out and play football because I don’t think they’ve a lot to worry about. It’s not as if they’re going to be out of work.
“What’s worrying is they are lacking the courage and confidence to perform and if you don’t show that then we are not going to get anywhere.
“We’re also not creating chances, which is a big concern. To win games you need to score goals and since I came back to the club we’ve not created enough chances and you’ve got to have quality to do that.
“It meant for the first time this season the crowd had a bit of a go at them and it was justified.
“If the supporters at a club see players not willing to take responsibility then they will have a go, which is understandable because the players didn’t give them a lot back. They have to start giving them something back.”
At least Spurs are seemingly repaying their supporters’ faith as back-to-back league wins for the first time this season testify.
Keane is hoping a corner has been turned as he added: “We were in the bottom three and that wasn’t nice.
“It’s been well publicised that we have not been playing as well as we can and that we’ve been down the bottom of the league.
“But we knew we were good enough to be up there with the likes of Charlton, but we have not had the luck like we’ve had in the last few games.
“It was only a matter of time before we would turn it round and hopefully we can kick on from here, but there’s still a long way to go and you can’t get too over-confident.”
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