I Ran Out Of Superlatives To Describe The Performance In This Headline

Anyone who goes to the football with their family will know that Mum's describe the beautiful game fairly simplistically. Sometimes their insight is so simple that it's frustrating, but occasionally they produce something straight-forward that sums up the situation perfectly. And whilst I sat toiling over how to analyse the game for this very blog my own Mum came up with a line that summarised the game perfectly; "they don't half fight these days". Well done Jane, I'm proud of you.

Neither of them look this pretty after tonight.

She was right. When both centre halves leave the field with bandaged heads, you could have a pretty good guess that they'd been involved in a struggle. That doesn't even cover the half of it; as much as it's cliched, Jason Pearce genuinely looked as if he had gone nine rounds with Mike Tyson. If he had, I'm fairly sure he would have lost. But instead, he and centre-half partner Tom Lees took on the likes of Fellaini, Pienaar and Jelavic. And they won.

They were both outstanding. But if I backed any member of the Leeds team to take on Mike Tyson and win, it'd be Rodolph Austin. Tonight the Jamaican finally produced a performance that I've been crying out for. The game-plan seemed obvious; mark Fellaini out of the game and it was executed so beautifully by Austin that it was hard to tell which of the two would be taking on Southampton this upcoming Saturday. The Leeds man won every header, every tackle and left Fellaini as a passenger for much, if not all of the game.

It was undoubted that a good start was imperative if Leeds were to have any chance. I'd call taking the lead after four minutes a pretty good start. So far this season, Aidy White has performed very "un-Aidy White like", showing none of the pace and urgency that we have come to love. His defensive abilities have always been questionable, as has his final delivery, but after four minutes against Everton the Republic of Ireland Under-21 produced a moment of pure magic. Picking up the ball mid-way inside the Everton half, his turn of pace saw him breeze straight through the heart of Everton's defence before he curled a majestic strike into the far corner. It was, as mentioned earlier, extremely "un-Aidy White like", but this time, for all the right reasons.

That moment of quality represented Leeds' first half performance; one of real grit and determination but one which did show glimpses of brilliance. At times our football was as good as its been all season; the passing and movement not only matching our Premier League opposition, but exceeding it. At the back we looked solid and went into half-time with a fairly comfortable 1-0 lead; a lead that could have been 2-0 had goalkeeper Jan Mucha not kept out Jason Pearce's goal-bound header. Enter the big guns.

As expected, Moyes threw on Pienaar and Neville for the youngsters Gueye and Junior and immediately, more nerves kicked in. In one of my last pieces, I mentioned my fear of Pienaar's pace, fully expecting it to get the better of whichever full-back he had the joy of facing. But it didn't. Young Sam Byram was again excellent in dealing with everything Everton threw at him and on the other flank, Danny Pugh was also solid; those who follow me on Twitter will know I am Pugh's biggest critic and even I was fairly surprised at the quality of his performance.

Michael Brown defied his age for the ninety minutes, covering more yardage than potentially anyone on the pitch. And our pressing gained us a second goal; Danny Pugh's strike catching a deflection off of Austin on its way into the back of the net. Elland Road erupted once more and the atmosphere cranked up slightly as the home fans' delirium was met with the annoyance of Everton's travelling army.

The away side improved slightly, bringing on Nikica Jelavic in the hope of getting the better of the heroic Leeds defence. Goalkeeper Ashdown was on hand to parry away a long-distance drive and Victor Anichebe fired wide as Everton turned the screw. Despite the heroics, Leeds' habit of conceding soft goals again got the better of them as Everton pulled a goal back from a soft free kick, which allowed Sylvain Distin to score a looping header into the far corner. Once more, the final five minutes at Elland Road was to be a nervy one.

Despite a few balls into the box and a little bit of pressure, the four minutes of extra time passed with minimum of fuss and Leeds clung on to take an unlikely victory. Everton weren't at their best, but the quality of our performance cannot be denied. Neil Warnock's Leeds is a Leeds that we haven't seen for years; one that can win games purely on work-rate and one that can look bloody impressive when that work-rate is mixed with just a little bit of quality. The delight on the players' faces was a sight to behold and the crowd were still in full voice as El Hadji Diouf completely his weekly lonely parade around the pitch at the end.

Never write off Leeds United; this team could produce something special.