Ipswich 1 - 2 Leeds

	Robbie Keane celebrates his goal (CraigPrentis/Allsport)

Leeds had earned a valuable victory and he had contributed to both the goals that defeated Ipswich. A good afternoon's work.

For his team-mates it was a satisfying conclusion to a uniquely unsettling week in which the competitive rituals of the Premiership offered a fleeting vision of normality.

At first glance, watching the Leeds players train in freezing fog before their departure for East Anglia, nothing had changed. Coaches barked orders and drew individuals aside for murmured tuition. Players preened and schemed. Their skill was sublime, their language industrial. Events were underpinned by a cruel wit. It was not an environment in which to make a crass mistake.

Footballers are conditioned to be single-minded. They have looked after number one since adolescence. But the set-piece courtroom drama being enacted in Hull has intruded into their carefully constructed cocoon of celebrity. The impact of having four team-mates on trial for charges relating to an alleged attack on an Asian student is felt most in those introspective moments in the build-up to matches.

The case has hung over the club for a year but has been unavoidable for only a week. Ignored for so long, it has become the dominant topic of conversation in the dressing room. Leeds officials, obliged to make themselves available for pre-trial legal arguments, cannot stray far.

Two of the defendants are currently peripheral figures in the first-team squad. Michael Duberry will not play again this season because of injury. Tony Hackworth is a reserve forward.

Of the other two, Jonathan Woodgate is not available because of a heel injury sustained eight days ago in the FA Cup defeat by Liverpool. It was only yesterday, when he reported to the club's training ground at 9am, that he was able to have proper treatment.

That has shifted the spotlight to Bowyer, ferried to Ipswich from the courtroom on Friday evening in a club car. Since he had been able to train only once during the week, on Monday evening, it helped that he is the type of player admired among the freemasonry of the game. In the argot of the trade he has 'two engines', the metabolism and mentality of a long-distance runner.

He is leading the voting for the supporters' player of the year and was regaled by chants of 'Bowyer for England' by the travelling fans, corralled in the corner of the ground. These invocations represented an inevitable response to the persistent heckling to which he has become accustomed. Incongruous as the only player to wear gloves on a mild afternoon, Bowyer was booed the moment he touched the ball.

David O'Leary, the Leeds manager, knows the game is not above the law. He was a character witness for Tony Adams before his former Arsenal colleague was imprisoned on drink-driving charges.

O'Leary is a naturally articulate man, but he hesitates before offering even a basic professional assessment of Bowyer, who, on current form, is a key player in a young, evolving, team. 'Lee doesn't let you down,' he said. 'I'm just grateful we don't have to pay him by the mile, because of the distance he covers during a match. He's been a revelation, a credit to himself.' Aware of legal restrictions, he stopped and asked: 'Can I say that?' It is less complicated when his team does his talking for him.

Leeds have been chronically inconsistent, a common fault in a sub-standard Premiership. Victory allowed them to retain aspirations of qualifying for next season's Champions League. Ipswich could have been three goals to the good by the interval. Instead they found themselves two down. Marcus Stewart wasted a chance by delaying his shot. Nigel Martyn palmed away a Matt Holland free header and then diverted Alun Armstrong's prodded effort from a James Scowcroft cross-shot.

Bowyer featured in both goals. He set up the first in the 28th minute, combining with Danny Mills on the right before fashioning a low, near-post cross which Mark Venus, under pressure from Robbie Keane, sliced into his own net.

Then, four minutes from half-time, he was the link man in Mills' surging run from the halfway line. Titus Bramble missed a chance to clear the cross, teeing it up instead for Keane, whose volley brought his fifth goal in six League games.

Venus almost conceded another own goal, a reflex defensive volley smothered by Richard Wright, before he gave Ipswich hope with a 25-yard free-kick in the 63rd minute, which took a deflection off the wall. That hope was duly extinguished by the dismissal of Stewart 16 minutes from time, for a late lunge at Ian Harte.

A cruel game, football. But only a game.