Whites players on disciplinary tightrope
Six of Leeds United's players will walk a delicate disciplinary line on Saturday as the club creeps towards the Football Association's yellow card amnesty.
United will recall Jermaine Beckford at the end of a three-match suspension for Scunthorpe United's appointment at Elland Road, but Luciano Becchio is set to trade places with his regular strike partner this weekend after incurring a ban of his own.
The five yellow cards accrued by Becchio, punishing him with an automatic one-game suspension, will deprive manager Simon Grayson of his second-highest scorer while Beckford, United's top striker, returns to the fold, and half-a-dozen other players are one caution away from a short period on the sidelines.
Beckford is among the crowd on the brink of a fifth yellow card, and stand-in captain Richard Naylor would also be punished with a one-game ban if he is booked during what should be a fiercely-competitive meeting with Scunthorpe.
Neil Kilkenny, Robert Snodgrass, Lubomir Michalik and Bradley Johnson complete the roll of players who will be forced to tread with care on Saturday afternoon.
United completed last weekend's 2-0 victory over Cheltenham Town without receiving a single caution, and Grayson will hold his breath for another clean outing with the FA due to wipe clear the disciplinary record of every player in the English leagues after Saturday's round of fixtures.
The amnesty applies to the threshold of five yellow cards – players who accumulate a total of 10 cautions before April 19 will still be hit with a statutory two-game ban.
Beckford's recent penalty was imposed by the FA retrospectively for an incident involving Millwall goalkeeper David Forde during this month's game between Leeds and Millwall at Elland Road, and United have dropped six points during the three matches he missed after pleading guilty to a charge of violent conduct.
The booking which carried Becchio over the FA's five-card limit, meanwhile, was received for a show of dissent at Hereford last Tuesday, and the standard of United's discipline this weekend could be of great consequence to their manager.
Beckford's return, however, is a major development after another period in which the striker's absence has been keenly felt by his club.
Saturday's clash with Cheltenham – the last game of his ban – was the eighth league fixture which Beckford has missed this season, a tally of matches from which United have claimed two wins and sustained six defeats.
The 25-year-old's most recent exile from the first team has been his third of the term after two previous hamstring injuries, and Leeds have struggled during his suspension, a fact which underlined the cost of an offence which Grayson described as "indefensible".
Beckford is League One's fifth-highest scorer despite his repeated absences and he is one of only two players in Grayson's squad who have produced more than five league goals this season.
Peter Lorimer, United's all-time leading scorer, feared that Leeds would suffer over the course of Beckford's ban, and the 62-year-old believes the striker's punishment will have reminded Grayson's dressing room of the value of professionalism.
"I had a feeling when Jermaine first got suspended that the club would miss him quite badly," said Lorimer. "With him involved, I do think Leeds would have taken something from Huddersfield and Hereford.
"It's not fair to say that the club rely too heavily on him but he's a major player for Leeds and he knows that himself. Keeping him fit and available is going to be a crucial factor in where the club are in the league table at the end of the season.
"His suspension was needless and Simon must have been disappointed to see Becchio pick up a fifth yellow card for dissent. The discipline of the players in general has been very good this season but those little moments can have a big impact on results.
"With Jermaine, he's a guy who I'd confidently expect to score 20 goals every season in this league. His finishing's excellent and big players always come to the fore at this point of the season. The last thing you want is to see guys like him in the stand, serving a ban."
Beckford's personal tally of goals stands at 23, including two hat-tricks and six braces, but the yellow card he received against Millwall – issued by referee Alan Wiley for an offence prior to his elbow on Forde – has added him to the group of players who are in danger of incurring a ban this weekend.
Grayson said: "I want players to be putting their feet in and making tackles but I'm delighted that nobody else has picked a yellow card up (against Cheltenham).
"It would have been nice to keep the same team next week but we've not got a bad replacement for Becchio in Jermaine."
United's discipline has been largely commendable this season – Lubomir Michalik, Alan Sheehan and David Prutton are the only players to have been dismissed in competitive fixtures – and a Football Association spokesman confirmed that yellow cards will be erased from the slate of every professional after this weekend.
Beckford's comeback in time for a three-day spell in which Leeds will play two clubs who hold places inside League One's top six – Scunthorpe and Oldham Athletic – is a welcome boost for Grayson.
Prior to Saturday's defeat of Cheltenham, United had dropped 18 points from the seven league matches in which Beckford had failed to feature, the only exception to that near-continuous string of defeats being a 2-0 victory over Brighton midway through January.
Lorimer said: "Jermaine's been unlucky with injuries this season but he'll learn a good lesson from his ban.
"The same goes for Becchio because the Scunthorpe game would probably have been to his liking – very closely-fought and very physical.
That's when he tends to be at his best.
"Personally I'd say it's vital that Jermaine is available for every game now because Leeds have seen what happens when you lose your top players.
"Other clubs must be delighted to find a player like him out of action, and Scunthorpe won't be thrilled to see him back in the team on Saturday."
YEP
