However on the hour Walker received the ball in the box for

However, on the hour Walker received the ball in the box for a third time and this time went down under Stewart McKimmie’s challenge. The verdict was a penalty which Van Hooijdonk buried low to Snelders’ left.Aberdeen withdrew both wide players in favour of Duncan Shearer and Peter Hetherston and funnelled bodies forward through the middle. Shearer hit a bicycle kick just beyond the post and Jess made Marshall teeter back to hold a free-kick. But the change in tactics was not mirrored by one of fortune..

LEEDS need to score three in midweek against one of Europe’s finest defences. Not mission impossible, according to Gary Kelly in yesterday’s programme, but mission highly improbable. True, the impeccable McAllister did score a hat-trick: one was a cruel deflection; the second came from a fortunate free-kick and the third was a hotly disputed although coolly converted last minute penalty.
Coventry’s workmanlike back line was well-marshalled by the former Leeds player David Rennie and their balanced attack of Dion Dublin, supported by the delicate pace of Peter Ndlovu and Nii Lamptey, deserved better. Indeed, the result only did justice to John Lukic’s three excellent second- half saves.Richard Jobson, Leeds’s pounds 1mmidweek signing from Oldham, had to produce a couple of incisive tackles on the speeding Zimbabwean Ndlovu but only after uncomfortably clattering two of his new colleagues.He did, though, concede the corner from which Dublin headed the opener in the 12th minute, and he should have conceded a penalty in the 33rd minute when Ndlovu fell in the area.That was Ndlovu’s last meaningful action. Minutes later he lay writhing off pitch after John Pemberton’s innocuous challenge, McAllister marched into midfield and his 25-yard shot went in off Dave Busst.Four minutes later McAllister added his second. Kevin Richardson fell on the ball and conceded a free-kick on the edge of the area and, after waiting an age while the referee Gerard Ashby paced out the 10 yards for the wall, he drifted the ball over their heads and into the goal.The second half, though, was as ugly as Coventry’s purple and yellow strip. Tony Yeboah briefly flickered into life but with Paul Telfer and Richardson running Coventry’s midfield, the visitors looked more likely to score.Leeds sneaked an 89th-minute penalty when an up and under dropped on to Marcus Hall’s hand.

“Somewhere along the way we have run over a black cat,” the Coventry manager Ron Atkinson bemoaned. “We looked as good as a good side.”Howard Wilkinson huffed and puffed like his team to produce anything positive: “There was a disputed penalty, we’ve blocked things on the line, our keeper’s pulled off some good saves but I’m happy to take the result.” He won’t be so happy on Tuesday in Eindhoven.. AFTER a couple of games when they saw everything come unstuck in the last five minutes West Ham’s apprehension as the minutes ticked away at Hillsborough was understandable, if eventually needless Nobody could deny they were worth their victory. Always the more ambitious and adventurous in midfield, where Chris Waddle found himself matched for invention and overtaken in effort by John Moncur and Ian Bishop, West Ham found enough of a cutting edge when Iain Dowie hooked Robbie Slater’s cross low past Kevin Pressman in the 39th minute.
The visitors had already seen their woodwork tarnished twice when Mark Pembridge and Waddle hit Ludek Miklosko’s crossbar. On the stroke of half- time Guy Whittingham missed an open goal when Waddle’s 25-yard free-kick surprised the keeper who parried the ball straight to the feet of the striker.It was West Ham’s turn to knock on wood in the second half when Dowie headed Slater’s fine chip on to the crossbar and Tony Cottee – beautifully released by a perfectly timed ball from Michael Hughes – struck the foot of Pressman’s right-hand post.For all their late pressure, Wednesday still did not create a real scoring chance and the replacement of Whittingham and Michael Williams by Mark Bright and Marc Degryse failed to improve matters. The Belgian was given the best opportunity by a glorious 40-yard Waddle pass but he shot high and wide. Andy Sinton had caused West Ham most trouble down the left flank, but veteran Alvin Martin was superb in the visitors’ defence.

Julian Dicks played his part too, but earned a yellow card after a foul on Whittingham.Most representative of the spirit and skill which saw West Ham through was Hughes. The commitment and menace he carried down their left wing will pose a threat to many Premiership defences. The Upton Park terraces will be grateful to Strasbourg for his release.. WIMBLEDON’S manager Joe Kinnear had warned before this game that his team was “likely to be the only fit men I have available”.

But by the end of a match which had the intensity of a Cup tie in its final stages, Wimbledon had more casualties to contend with – their sixth Premiership defeat in a row, and the defender Scott Fitzgerald both sent and carried off, with what looked like knee injuries sustained in an aerial challenge which brought his second yellow card. Southampton, for whom this was only the second Premiership win of the season, will take home not just the points but a conviction that they can continue to play passing football and survive. They were comfortably the better team in a rather tepid first half after Neil Shipperley’s early goal – turning home Gordon Watson’s cross inside the six-yard box – plainly did nothing for the home team’s confidence.
Dean Holdsworth completely mis-hit a clear scoring chance after Richard Hall’s mistake and, in the Dons’ best move of the half, Marcus Gayle could only send his powerful header straight at Dave Beasant after Holdsworth’s flick had set up Kenny Cunningham’s cross.The one certainty that sustains Wimbledon, and will do so again judged on their second-half performance, is that they will continue to unearth promising new players. Yesterday it was Jason Euell, promoted from the reserves into the number 34 shirt, a gangly teenager who produced a marvellous piece of athleticism to bring Wimbledon level midway through the second half.