Leeds crisis grows as Viduka flies home

Never let it be said that Leeds do things by halves. The crisis in the boardroom is now matched by the crisis on the field at a club that staggers from one dark day to the next.

While their former leading lights return to haunt them on a regular basis, caretaker manager Eddie Gray is losing his remaining players almost as quickly as Leeds lose matches.

Hard on the heels of Jonathan Woodgate's stylish performance for Newcastle, their former striker Robbie Keane produced the inevitable goal that plunged Gray and the fans into depression.

Chief executive Trevor Birch's efforts to sell the club, £83million in debt and threatened with administration and even the Premiership boot, depend largely on Leeds' success in avoiding relegation.

Former deputy plc chairman Allan Leighton is poised to mastermind a bid, with Birch set to urge creditors to extend their January 19 deadline, while Yorkshire property tycoon Paul Sykes is also being mentioned in informed circles.

But to Gray's dismay and Birch's alarm, the performance that an admittedly belowstrength Leeds turned in smacked of the First Division and left them looking up at a six-point gap to safety.

Worse still, Gray lost two more of his best players for an indefinite period. The team has had the heart ripped out of it to such an extent that they are no longer too good to go down.

Michael Duberry's late hamstring injury, which left Leeds to finish with 10 men and could rule out their brave defender for several weeks, was a harsh enough blow. But their best hope of scoring the goals that could rescue them flew halfway around the world yesterday as striker Mark Viduka returned to Melbourne to be with his seriously ill father, Joe.

Viduka might well have been heading off anyway, with Manchester United and Middlesbrough hoping Birch's no-transfer stance will falter, but that is currently a moot point.

The big Australian insisted on starting but left at half-time, and Gray said: 'He'll decide when to return. There's more important things in life than football.'

On Saturday Gray squeezed an hour from Nick Barmby, the former Spurs player's first senior game since last March, and a half out of Michael Bridges, also short of match fitness after a long absence through injury.

He must now hope that ever-willing skipper Dominic Matteo's suspect knee holds up and that Birch can resist Chelsea, Spurs and anxious Manchester City, who are all willing to pay £3million for goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

Keane, due for a night out later with Leeds defenders Gary Kelly and Ian Harte, put friendship aside to inflict Leeds' fifth home defeat.

He said: 'They let a lot of players go and you can't afford to do that. It's going to be tough for them.'

Here is the real irony. He demanded a move because Terry Venables, up to his eyes in strikers, could not guarantee him a place. Now his name would be printed in block capitals on every teamsheet.

Until Keane's intervention, Tottenham were hardly any better. But buoyed by a goal that left Leeds sagging, they finished the game with some panache - mainly from Stephane Dalmat.

Spurs' acting manager David Pleat said: 'It will have to take its course at Leeds. If you've been over-ambitious, if you've lived the dream and not been careful it's hard for staff, they have to keep going.'