Manchester United 3, Leeds United 2; by Richard Sutcliffe.

Leeds United grabbed their first league goals at Old Trafford for more than seven years, but they weren't enough to prevent David O'Leary's men slipping to their first away defeat of the season in the Premiership.

The result was rough luck on Leeds who produced one of their most impressive displays of the season against a Manchester United side who looked to be suffering the effects of their arduous midweek Champions League trip to Barcelona.

The Whites' lively front pairing of Jimmy Hasselbaink and Harry Kewell caused the Reds defence problems throughout the afternoon and both struck with well taken goals.

However Leeds were left to rue two very good chances which the otherwise impressive Australian striker wasted as goals from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Roy Keane and Nicky Butt condemned them to defeat.

Reds boss Alex Ferguson admitted that Leeds' display was their most attacking-minded at Old Trafford in his 12-year spell in charge and the credit for that must lie with his counterpart O'Leary.

Far too often in the past, Leeds' main ambition at the home of their bitter rivals has been to force a goalless draw.

Before the game, several home fans were confident that Leeds' usually negative approach would see their side run out convincing winners.

However unlike his predecessors Howard Wilkinson and George Graham, O'Leary was determined his side would take the game to their opponents and the game was enjoyable to watch as a result.

Both sides created numerous chances once Hasselbaink had opened the scoring after 30 minutes with a drilled shot and, on the balance of play, a draw would have been a fair result.

Solskjaer levelled just before the break and Keane made it 2-1 just 23 seconds after the restart when Leeds had been forced to replace injured Nigel Martyn with Paul Robinson.

However this merely signalled the start of Leeds' best spell of the game which saw them dominate possession for around 25 minutes.

Stephen McPhail was superb in midfield while Alf Inge Haaland and David Hopkin also provided the service for Leeds' strikers and there looked like being only one winner.

However Butt struck with a fine goal 12 minutes from time to stretch Leeds' miserable sequence of no wins in 17 years at Old Trafford.

O'Leary said: "I take great heart from the way we played. We got the ball down and passed it in the right areas. I felt we deserved something from this game."

Manchester United: Schmeichel, Brown, G Neville, Stam (Berg 77), P Neville, Scholes (Sheringham 71), Keane, Butt, Solskjaer, Yorke, Cole (Giggs 64). Subs: Curtis, Van Der Grouw.

Leeds United: Martyn (Robinson 45), Halle, Harte, Hiden (Wetherall 25), Woodgate, McPhail, Hopkin, Haaland, Ribeiro (Smith 85), Hasselbaink, Kewell. Subs: Wijnhard, Granville.

Man of the Match: Harry Kewell (Leeds)

Referee: Graham Poll (Hertford)

Attendance: 55,172.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.