A close derby game ends goalless in front of 3,000 boisterous city fans and 19,000 silent Leeds types.

It's not entirely sad to herald the demise of Leeds United. The decline at Elland Road is, however, remarkable in its extent and intensity. A once proud and atmospheric stadium is crumbling away - tatty, half closed on one side, a lick of paint desperately needed closely followed by the steeplejack's bulldozer. The home support is commensurately shabby where once a fearsome cacophony introduced opposition players to the Elland Road pantheon - today the place was soulless and silent throughout large tracts of an entertaining game while the pre-match build up was drowned out by drivelling house music until the very second that the referee's whistle blew.

The team isn't in much better shape either. Faded stars are interspersed with last-chance-saloon supping loan players and the occasional journeyman. In a new departure, Leeds even elected to field in their first eleven a child - Howson - who looked barely old enough to qualify as a mascot, yet alone a Championship footballer. They do have one thing in their favour though - a manager that appears to be bothered. And it was his tactical nous that sealed the home side a point when at half time it looked as though City might romp to a memorable victory.

In the other dug-out Phil Brown continued to tinker with the attacking formation thrust upon him last week, although in this case the tinkering was largely enforced by injury and transfer clauses. As a result City lined up with an interesting "five up five back" formation thus:

Myhill
Ricketts Turner Delaney Dawson
Coles France Marney Fagan
Bridges McPhee

Coles sat in front of the back four (perhaps Delaney would have been the natural choice for this role but Coles did OK) while France and Marney scurried around the midfield as energetically as possible, covering when out of possession and bursting forward to support the attackers when in possession. Up front Bridges replaced the injured Barmby - in my view Bridges is a far better exponent of this "in the hole" role than Barmby in any case - while Fagan and McPhee pulled the back 4 around by working the flanks and making clever diagonal runs. Alas, too many of the passes to meet those runs were today overhit or slightly misdirected, a shame because Leeds' high-line defending coupled with a slow central defensive pairing left them vulnerable to passes dinked in behind them being met by onrushing strikers.

The game also saw the return to first XI action of Michael Turner, a player with obvious potential but an infuriating lack of consistency, the worst of all deficiencies for a centre back. And the opening quarter allowed Turner to demonstrate his full repertoire of good and bad. On 3 Turner missed his first headed challenge with the awkward non-leaguer Kandol (more of whom later) but the error cost nothing. Then stateside wideman Eddie Lewis, playing left back with a licence to roam, whipped in two fine crosses in quick succession that Turner butted away adeptly when under pressure. In between Turner had carried the ball out of defence after Warner had fisted clear, only to lose the ball horribly on halfway ("doing a Lynch", as it's also known). Turner climbed to his feet, hunted his man down and made up for his error with a superb crunching airborne tackle. For all his defensive qualities, Turner's errors encourage opposition strikers and spook his defensive partners. Not great.

As the half progressed the City fans found their voice and the team found their attacking feet. Alas, all our resultant shots were either weakly struck, or straight the keeper, or both. On 14 Bridges and Marney combined tidily in midfield to release Ricketts down the right and his low cross (yes, low cross - we played on the deck and to our strengths - joy!) was half cleared to Marney whose rushed shot floated into the keeper's hands. Leeds briefly threatened at the other end when Turner headed weakly back to Myhill (grrr) and Kandol stole in, but he was forced wide and no shooting chance was created. Back at the other end Bridges found space 20 yards out and hit a shot similarly weak and ill-directed as the Marney one that went just before. Then Bridges again found space, this time wide right, on 19 but his low cross was deflected away from an unmarked Fagan on the back post.

As the second quarter began City's dominance started to ease and Leeds had some chances to go forward. Neat passing from left to right flanks resulted in the portly Teessider Blake cutting inside and driving a left foot shot just wide of Myhill's near post. Then Richardson tried the same thing and shot straight at Boaz. Finally, an intricate Leeds corner was worked to Douglas 25 yards out who had time to line up an accurate shot, but the pug-faced midfielder elected to swipe his rushed effort high into the scattering of home fans in the Lowfields Road end, aka the "Revie Stand".

Part of the reason for this flurry of Leeds chances was the disruption suffered in the City 11. McPhee had already had the attention of the magic sponge once when on 28 he sank to the floor suffering obvious pain in the groin area. He hobbled off to be replaced by Nicky Forster, who I had erroneously assumed would have been sent south in Parkinson's wake, and our experienced striker put in a reasonable hour's shift working the inside right channel.

On 39 the best chance of the half fell to Leeds' striker Kandol, who drove a powerful header goalwards from a fine Lewis cross only to see Myhill snake out a hand and divert the ball over the bar. A top drawer save. From the resulting corner France was booked for not retreating 10 yards - Leeds have a nifty two man corner routine you see, but it doesn't work if the opposition try and tackle them. As France slunk back a few feet Blake worked a chance to shoot but he struck well wide.

As the half petered out Marney won a free kick 35 yards out then clumped the dead ball over the crossbar. It was a 45 minutes that City dominated in terms of possession, although our actual goal threat was rather more modest.

Into the second half and Leeds had changed their shape, flooding midfield and leaving Kandol to work the front line alone. This stifled City's forward progress and forced Coles back into auxiliary centre back far too often (I'm certain that this wasn't the plan) and it was a half that the home side shaded in terms of possession and domination. Again however, genuine gilt edged scoring chances were almost entirely absent. City started brightly when Marney struck a splendid pass from the left back position to inside right Forster, deep in Leeds territory, and the final cross was headed weakly at Warner by Ryan France. Leeds had much of the ball and City's excellent rearguard action was typified by Delaney's constant timely interventions and a terrific Dawson tackle on Richardson deep in City's box as the Leeds man shaped to cross.

On the hour the dangerous Bridges was withdrawn for Yeates. I guess Bridges was starting to pay for his recent lack of matches and was tiring, however I would contend that Michael Bridges at the end of a double marathon would be more effective than the lame Orville impersonating Yeates, a young man that is reputed to be a professional footballer but hides it pretty well. I don't like Yeates. He doesn't try when he doesn't have the ball at his feet, and that is unforgivable in the pro game. I'm afraid his 30 minute performance proved me right, none more so than when he jogged alongside Eddie Lewis for a full 60 yards before allowing the puffing American to fire an unchallenged cross into City's box. On this occasion, as with countless others, Delaney intervened to remove the danger. Next time Phil, throw on Elliott!

On 70 a moment of rarely-matched stupidity. Robbie Blake had gone down with an injury of the halfway line and Leeds had cleared the ball to touch to allow the trainer on. Blake was obviously in no fit state to continue and was immediately withdrawn and replaced by Healy. The resulting City throw was then rolled back to Delaney who shaped to clear the ball upfield and return possession to Leeds, as is the way in the modern professional game. At this moment worthless non-league toe rag Kandol took it upon himself to charge down Delaney's clearance and take advantage of City's lack of shape to advance on our goal. Thankfully, Kandol was hunted down rapidly and dumped on his arse by Fagan, then was surrounded by a baying handful of furious City players and a general shoving match ensued. To be fair the Leeds players stood their ground but seemed faintly apologetic at the crass idiocy shown by their striker, who was promptly and correctly booked by the splendid referee Clattenburg for unsportsmanlike conduct. Kandol was roundly booed for the rest of the game and carried no further threat as he contemplated his daftness.

Fagan had a brief sight of goal on 75 as he chested down a deep cross beyond the far post, but his shot was deflected wide. Immediately Leeds attacked and found the youthful Howson in too much space 12 yards out, but the plucky primary school kid understandably lost his bottle and scuffed a weak shot into Myhill's grateful arms. Leeds were by now enjoying the lion's share of possession but Delaney, Turner and Ricketts adopted a strict and effective "none shall pass" policy while Dawson mopped the threat out wide. And in the closing minutes it was City that came closest to scoring, first when a Marney shot drifted wide then when Ricketts received a pass from the tireless Fagan and struck a left foot shot a yard wide of Warner's near post. Into injury time and Yeates, with ball at his feet and trying, dribbled forward and drew a free kick 40 yards out. Yeates himself swung a dangerous cross to the back post that stretched the Leeds defence into conceding a corner. Then Yeates took the corner that cleared the other 21 players on the pitch and landed a full 20 yards beyond the back post before rolling out for a Leeds throw. No offence like Mark, but bugger off, eh?

This was a decent point. Leeds showed a modicum of desire, something that has obviously been missing from their performances in recent months. Whether this was because the lively away support cowed them into action I cannot say, but its the sort of thing that Wise has to focus on and nurture if they are to have any chance of survival. That said, it's not easy to see which two other teams will join Southend beneath Leeds in May when the final reckoning is done. Hopefully the Tigers won't be one of them.

On that subject, City carried on the good work shown against Cardiff and produced a decent attacking performance, albeit one that carried far less threat than last week's thanks to Leeds employing a rather more resolute approach to defending than was offered by Dave Jones's back four. The City players are clearly relishing the chance to pass it around a bit and create chances with the rapier rather than the bludgeon, and it is a tactic that plays to the strength of key players like Marney, Bridges and Barmby. Two home games now against average opposition, the Great Escape Mark 2 could well start here!

HULL CITY (4-1-2-3): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Delaney, Dawson; Coles; Marney, France; Fagan, Bridges, McPhee.  Subs: Forster (for McPhee, 28), Yeates (for Bridges, 61), Elliott, Byron, Duke.

Goals: None

Booked: France

Sent Off: None

LEEDS UNITED: Warner, Richardson, Ehiogu, Heath, Lewis, Howson, Derry, Douglas, Westlake, Kandol, Blake.  Subs: Healy (for Blake, 71), Sullivan, Carole, Moore, Kilgallon.

Goals: None

Booked: Howson, Kandol

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:  M Clattenburg

ATTENDANCE: 22,578