Well what a night - incredible - the scoreline does not do this topsy turvy game justice. As the team was announced fans were happy to see the back of Kebe, Stewart, Peltier and Warnock and welcomed back Pugh, Marius Pearce and Byram. They were less impressed with the realisation that we were going 5 at the back but to be fair we had had some success with that earlier in the season. So the game kicked off (30mins late) and the crowd put aside the disgust they felt from Saturday and got behind the team. The team largely responded and were snapping into tackles and closing them down. Rudy pulled a shot wide and then Wickham had a decent shot that was easily saved and then it all changed. A poor backpass led to Pearce and Butland both waving their hands and leaving the ball to the other letting a Reading player sneak in and walked it into an empty net. The players confidence disappeared as the ball crossed the line and the patience of the crowd snapped. Suddenly Reading were first to every ball and our challenges were weak and ineffective, players forgot how to do the simple things and Tom Lees became the butt of the fans ire as 3 times his passes went into touch or to an opponent when under no pressure. On the stroke of half time it was nearly game over as their foward got the ball in the six yard box under no pressure but took too long and Butland smothered the shot. Halt time was met by a few boos. Then came the incredible second half - within a minute they got a free kick on the edge of the box and put it in the top corner. As our players trooped back to the re-start we could see all fight had gone out of them , the lad in front of me nearly had a heart attack laying into them for their lack of emotion. So it was no suprrise that within 5 minutes they cut us open twice more and the scoreboard read 0 4 . That was enough for some fans and at least 20 from the bottom of the Kop left the ground. The rest of us stood in stunned silence and then the vitriol started "we're shit and we're sick of it" "what the f is going on" and even worse "you're not fit to wear the shirt". The fans having vented their spleen chose sarcasm instead of venom and began to 'Ole' ever Leeds pass - this showed them up even more as it went ole ole oh dear, ole ole oh dear as we could not string more than 2 passes together. A weak shot from Murphy brought huge cheers and pretend goal celebrations as we took the piss even more. Then a miracle happened in the shape of Matt Smith. He lumbered on as Marius was jeered off. Within a minute a long cross was bundled home by 'Freak Boy' - he might not look elegant but he knows where the goals are. The crowd cheered, then seconds later Rudy ran through and unleashed one of his thunderbolts - amazingly instead of it hitting Row Z it hit the back of the net 2 4. We could'nt , could we. The crowd got behind the team as only Leeds fans can and the players responded in kind. Rudy turned into Rudy the Beast as he was everywhere with crunching tackles and long passes. Smith was unplayable in the air and these 2 rubbed off on the rest as Reading were like rabbits in the headlights in front of a baying mob.It was real gung-ho go for it stuff, not the prettiest but effective. We even managed with Byram and Mowatt to play some football but mainly it was hit it to the big lad. It was always too big an ask but we could have done it, a cross came in that Smith missed by inches, then his header glanced the post and later a shot hit the defender and bounced at 100mph into Ross, on another day it would have ricocheted in, this time it went wide. We peppered them with shots and for about 10minutes we genuinely thought we would get a draw at the very least. OK on the odd occasion they broke it was scary and would have ended our resistance but it was enthralling and exhilarating stuff. As the clock wind down we realised that the impossible come back was just that impossible but it had been great while it lasted. Why o why could we not have played with that effort and tempo at 0 0 or for the rest of the season ? At 0 4 and all expecting 0 7 Brian was out of a job, will that 20mins have saved him (or at least delayed what looks inevitable) who knows but it was a great 20mins - very similar to the Liverpool 4 5 game when we were also 4 down and Chapman got a hat-trick and another wrongly denied - I have said before that Smith is the new sub standard Chappy and last night proved it Chappy got 3, Smithy only 1. It was almost a pleasure to be there BUT at the end of the day we lost 2 4 and have conceded 9 in two home games we expected to win, so despite the fun of last night it was only when it was all over that we did anything and even then we only papered over the cracks. We are a very poor side, can the players take anything from that 20mins into the game on Saturday who knows, we had similar bright moments v Watford (again when it was almost game over) and Huddersfield but as last night I think it is all too little too late Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org
John 'Grampa' Sykes Rest In Peace old lad 28th Oct 1938 - 12 Nov 2013 MARCHING ON TOGETHER
