Leeds 2-0 Ipswich

	Mark Viduka and Matt Holland clash at Elland Road (LaurenceGriffiths/Allsport)

Brian Kidd was mobbed by relieved Leeds United players as David O'Leary's beleaguered side scraped their first win in 11 games that have seen the club's season slide to the brink of turmoil.

It needed a huge slice of the luck that O'Leary has been seeking all season as Leeds benefited from a goalkeeping bloomer and a dodgy penalty.

But a win is a win, especially when your last one was on New Year's Day, your last goal was over seven hours of football ago and the fans are threatening the open rebellion that all chairmen dread.

So it was hardly surprising that the players put on a show of unabashed emotion as they celebrated with O'Leary's No.2 Kidd, the head coach who has taken the brunt of fans' flak for Leeds' flagging season.

When Robbie Fowler broke the deadlock a minute into the second half with more than a little help from the hapless Andy Marshall, it was substitute Olivier Dacourt who offered a quick hug to the under-fire Kidd.

But when Ian Harte sealed victory with a penalty 13 minutes from time, the left-back led a gleeful posse of players towards the dug-out for a mass celebration.

It was a message received and understood by the 39,000 crowd, a section of which had chanted against Kidd to such an extent at Everton on Sunday that chairman Peter Ridsdale risked arrest to placate them.

O'Leary said: 'We're all in this together and the buck stops with me, but I was delighted for Brian Kidd. Maybe what happened on Sunday will turn out to be a good thing, because it's shown how highly people at the club think of Brian.

'I told the players before the game that they'd spoken up for Kiddo but now they had to go out and do it for him.

'He's a quiet person and didn't say much, but he's been lifted by all the calls he's had from people in the game. There's no better No.2.

'We got a flukey first goal and without the penalty they might have got anxious, but I hope we can look back and say this was a turning point.'

Ipswich, whose third successive defeat leaves them looking over their shoulders at third-bottom Blackburn, could feel aggrieved.

Marshall looked to have Fowler's speculative shot well covered until it reared up, while Alan Smith had already pushed the ball wide when the goalkeeper conceded a debatable penalty.