LEEDS United are to lodge an appeal against the sending-off of midfielder Alan Thompson who will otherwise miss the last two games of the season.

Thompson was sent off in the 23rd minute of the match at Southampton and even though Leeds' ten men hung on grimly they were eventually beaten by Bradley Wright-Phillips' 84th minute shot that went in off the bar.

With Barnsley, Leicester and QPR all winning, Leeds manager Dennis Wise admits his side's only realistic hope of climbing out of the bottom three rests with overhauling Hull City, who picked up a point at Stoke, their 90th minute equaliser coming from former Leeds player Nick Barmby.

Wise was angry at referee Tony Bates's decision to dismiss Thompson after the midfielder grabbed Kenwyne Jones round the neck during a melee.

"Alan got penalised for trying to calm things down," Wise said, adding: "All I've done since I joined Leeds is talk about referees and the poor decisions they've made. Yet they don't get penalised.

"They need to look at themselves. We need strong referees and there are not enough of them. We need a couple of Graham Polls in our division. They need to get to his standard.

"We didn't deserve it but that doesn't change the result and we don't have too many games left.

"We've got to rely on Hull slipping up but we've also got to get our own results right.

"We've been positive all the way through and we will keep believing we can get out of this."

Leeds were without influential defender Lubo Michalik who was recalled by Bolton at noon on Friday, but were coping quite well with the Saints until reduced to ten men.

That forced Wise to sacrifice Robbie Blake to bring on Hayden Foxe with Rui Marques pushing into midfield.

"The boys worked fantastically hard to hold out - full credit to them. We always knew it was going to be difficult," Wise added.

Leeds' chances were few although Radostin Kishishev squandered a golden opportunity minutes before Southampton scored, failing to put away a superb pass from Eddie Lewis.


Leeds match facts

Coca-Cola Championship: Southampton 1, Leeds 0 (at St Mary's Stadium)

Southampton: Bialkowski, Baird, Pele, Lundekvam, Surman, Idiakez (Belmadi 65), Guthrie, Viafara (Wright-pHillips 54), Skacel, Rasiak (Best 88), Jones.

Subs (not used): Davis, Cranie.

Goal: Wright-Phillips 84.

Booked: Baird, Pele, Lundekvam.

Leeds United: Ankergren, Richardson, Heath, Rui Marques, Elliott, Blake (Foxe 38), Kishishev, Thompson, Lewis (Kandol 85), Healy (Armando Sa 65), Cresswell.

Subs (not used): Stack, Moore.

Booked: Rui Marques, Elliott, Foxe, Cresswell.

Sent off: Thompson.

Referee: Tony Bates (Staffordshire).

Attendance: 29,012.