Ipswich Town 1 - 2 Leeds United

	John McGreal and Chris Makin go double-team on Robbie Keane (CraigPrentis/Allsport)

After Manchester United's fabulous recovery at Spurs, and impressive away wins by Arsenal and Liverpool, David O'Leary's side remained focused on doing what is necessary to regain the lead.

Victory at Portman Road yesterday put them three points clear and maintained their unbeaten record in the Premiership.

The result was significant but the performance unimpressive. For three-quarters of the match, Leeds looked casual, almost uninterested.

Good teams win matches when they play well. Great teams, however, play badly and win anyway. Leeds have shown fantastic potential. Now they are showing the knack of exploiting it.

After the comeback of the year at White Hart Lane, O'Leary and his players might have been overawed by Manchester United's seemingly divine right to win. What do you do in that situation? Sink or swim? Shrink or fight?

The latter every time, according to O'Leary. He said: 'We had the same situation two seasons ago when we went to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and we were playing the day after everyone else almost every week.

'We know what we have to do, though, and we know we have to keep accepting the challenge.

'I don't think any team in the country is playing particularly well right now and we just have to keep picking up the points to keep us up there so that when November comes, we can kick on and keep it going when things get tougher.'

Yesterday was good preparation for the hard times ahead. Leeds, a goal down going on three and losing their battle with the highlyeffective Ipswich offside trap, were struggling for inspiration. Struggling, that is, until Harry Kewell decided to shed his anonymity.

After 69 minutes, Kewell controlled Danny Mills' cross-field ball and struck a pass with the outside of his left boot towards Robbie Keane. That something so sweet could so savagely split the home defence took John McGreal by surprise.

Keane, who had hammered straight at Matteo Sereni's legs when he was one-on-one only a minute earlier, made no mistake in converting his second chance.

Minutes before that, Sereni had managed to block a rare Mark Viduka shot to fuel Leeds' frustration.

George Burley's side had succeeded in every department where Leeds are normally dominant. They were solid at the back and creative in possession, while Marcus Stewart and Alun Armstrong managed to make the England duo of Nigel Martyn and Rio Ferdinand look nervous.

Stewart brought down a half-clearance by Mills in the 12th minute and sidestepped his marker, only to see his bending shot clatter off the post and end up being cradled in Martyn's arms. Finidi George worked well on the right but it was from a free kick by the ill-fated Mark Venus that Ipswich took the lead.

A floated cross saw Stewart make a late run, losing Mills in the process, to beat Martyn with a header. It was no more than Ipswich deserved but they would regret their inability to kill off the visitors.

As Leeds' surges became more frequent and harder to resist, Kewell managed to conjure up a sequel to his first work of art when he read Chris Makin's misplaced header and sped inside the defender towards the goal line. The cross was perfectly timed for Viduka's arrival at the back post but it never reached his team-mate as Venus got there first to deflect it into his own net.

Venus could do nothing, though that will be little consolation to a man who also scored at both ends in Ipswich's defeat by the same score in the corresponding fixture last season.

Burley's side are much better than their current position of 17th suggests. O'Leary, however, will have noticed that even luck is going his way at the moment and that the prospect of some silverware heading to Elland Road is closer at hand.

He said: 'The first trophy is always the hardest to get but once you get one - and I don't feel it is far away - this side is capable of getting more.'