Football: Fox fuels Leeds' fall

Leeds United. . .0

Norwich City. . .4

THE travel sickness that hampered Norwich City's pursuit of the Championship last season has been well and truly quelled. They achieved their second victory away from Carrow Road with almost embarrassing ease against a Leeds side in which the failings of last season suddenly rushed back to haunt them.

Sloppiness and immobility at the back have long been the chief of these, and Norwich, who defended confidently in numbers, and broke with pace and flair, exploited them. Ruel Fox was involved in all four goals and his runs from midfield pulled the back four out of shape time and again, though Leeds made the biggest contribution to their own downfall with poor clearances.

Tony Dorigo was the main culprit, starting the rot in less than three minutes when his weak header fell to Mark Robins, whose shot was blocked by John Lukic, leaving Fox with a simple tap-in. Then another poor Dorigo clearance allowed Fox to feed the unmarked Chris Sutton, who scored at the near post.

It would have been four by half-time had not the linesman's flag twice nullified Robins's goal, but it was merely a stay of execution.

On the hour Jeremy Goss volleyed in a perfect Fox cross before Lukic, under no pressure, ended a miserable afternoon by clearing straight to Fox, who promptly rounded the goalkeeper to score his second.

Leeds, prompted by Gary McAllister, applied their share of pressure but Norwich's ability to get men behind the ball and their speed in the tackle restricted them to 30-yard efforts by McAllister and Jon Newsome, both beaten out by Bryan Gunn.

It was only Leeds' second home league defeat in 46 games and their worst under Howard Wilkinson, but their only excuse was the loss of centre-half David O'Leary after 20 minutes with a recurrence of an ankle injury. By then, however, the Canaries were already in full flight.

Leeds United (4-4-2): J Lukic; G Kelly, C Fairclough, D O'Leary (J Newsome, 20 min), T Dorigo; G Strachan, D Batty, G McAllister, G Speed; N Whelan, B Deane. Substitutes not used: Rod Wallace, M Beeney (gk). Manager: H Wilkinson.

Norwich City (1-3-4-2): B Gunn; I Culverhouse; I Butterworth, J Polston, R Newman; M Bowen, I Crook, J Goss, R Fox; C Sutton (E Ekoku, 81 min), M Robins. Substitutes not used: G Megson, S Howie (gk). Manager: M Walker.

Referee: M Reed (Birmingham).

Goals: Fox (0-1, 3 min), Sutton (0-2, 41 min), Goss (0-3, 61 min) Fox (0-4, 69 min).