LEEDS UNITED picked up only their second FA Premiership away win of George Graham's reign last night to drop West Ham further into relegation trouble.
Two long range strikes - the first from a Gary Kelly free kick - were enough to ease Leeds' worries in that department against a West Ham side lacking a cutting edge up front and the requisite degree of quality everywhere else.
Both sides went into the game burdened by a tale of woe. West Ham's vital statistics included a less than shapely one win in 13 games and the lowest number of goals scored in the four divisions just 18.
Leeds were close behind, the second lowest scorers of all 92 clubs with 19 goals, managing just one win in their last eight games. The metamorphosis predicted under Graham has yet to happen, a record before this game of W5, D3, L9 since his arrival in September anchoring Leeds too close to the relegation area for comfort.
No surprise then that it took 14 minutes of last night's game to create a chance, West Ham's Mike Newell, playing his last game on loan from Birmingham, heading wide.
Lee Bowyer was equally off target at the other end and Brian Deane more wayward still, hitting a shot from 12 yards within inches of the corner flag. The watching Graham Gooch must have been half tempted to stand up and signal a wide.
He must have struggled to enjoy a scrappy, cramped first half But the travelling contingent, many of whom stripped to bare torsos during a half time singsong, were obviously still prepared to put their shirts on Leeds.
And their cold faith was soon rewarded. After 54 minutes Slaven Bilic tangled with Deane 25 yards out and almost straight in front of the West Ham goal. Up stepped Kelly, who fired in a curling free kick to the right of Ludek Miklosko. The goalkeeper dived, but the ball struck the underside of the crossbar and a split second after Miklosko fell to earth, the ball followed him, landing on his shoulder and bouncing over the line.
It was a cruel blow for Miklosko and for West Ham, who had begun the half brightly, most notably when Julian Dicks fired inches over from fully 30 yards. But a lack of invention dogged the home side and their way back looked a hard one when after 70 minutes Leeds increased their lead.
After a break down the left, Deane's cross was cleared to Kelly whose shot was blocked by Dicks.
But the ball fell to Bowyer who fired into the corner from the edge of the area.
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