Leeds defeat puts pressure on Reid
LONDON, England -- Crisis-hit Leeds United are rock bottom of the English Premier League after slumping 6-1 at Portsmouth on Saturday, a result that increases the pressure on manager Peter Reid.
Leeds made a promising start and Alan Smith cancelled out Dejan Stefanovic's headed opener. But Gary O'Neil, with the first of his two goals, scored in first half stoppage time. Hayden Foxe, Patrik Berger, Yakubu Ayegbeni and O'Neil again rounded off the rout after the break.
The West Yorkshire side have lost eight of 11 Premier League matches and are $134 million in debt, leaving Reid with little room to trade in the transfer market.
To add to their problems, star Australian striker Mark Viduka has fallen out with the manager and has been left out of the last two matches. He is expected to be sold in the winter transfer window to ease Leeds' parlous financial position.
Reid, himself, narrowly avoided the sack earlier in the season and is sure to come under scrutiny again after this latest defeat.
"There was no desire to play football, to win a tackle. It's very disappointing because the team is my responsibility," said Reid.
"I have to get on with it. It's a big job but I will try to do it but if this happens again it will be very difficult.
"I'm not sure if the players understand how serious the situation is. We need to pull our sleeves up and battle. We needed a kick up the backside."
Their cause was hardly helped by the battling 1-1 draw achieved by fellow strugglers Wolves at home to high-flying Birmingham.
Norway striker Steffen Iversen scored the Wolves equalizer, but missed a golden opportunity to give them victory in injury time.
The former Tottenham player bundled the ball home at the far post from Henri Camara's cross after 66 minutes to cancel out Mikael Forssell's strike. And only a superb last-ditch block by Birmingham captain Kenny Cunningham stopped Iversen winning it in time added on.
Despite being outfought by their Midlands rivals, Birmingham will regard the outcome as two points dropped after their strong start to the season.
And manager Steve Bruce will also have been concerned to see French World Cup winner Christophe Dugarry carried off ten minutes from the end with what appeared to be an injury to his suspect right knee.
Wolves had enjoyed the better of a frantic opening half, keeper Maik Taylor turning Alex Rae's 20-yard drive round a post and then denying Iversen from close range.
But it was Birmingham who went ahead shortly after the restart.
Dugarry fed Forssell on the edge of the box and the Finn capitalised on Jody Craddock's slip to tuck a low left-shot past Oakes for his fifth goal since joining Birmingham on loan from Chelsea in the summer.
