That level of optimism is beyond even me !Mind you IF we beat Fulham in midweek ......
From: Nicholas Armit <arm...@yahoo.com> To: "nat...@sky.com" <nat...@sky.com> Sent: Saturday, 31 March 2018, 17:58 Subject: Re: [LU] Bolton Dave, Only three games off the playoffs. Chase on! Nick Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Saturday, March 31, 2018, 5:50 AM, nat...@sky.com <nat...@sky.com> wrote: The fact that this is the first match report and even I have left it overnight pretty much sums up the tired feeling around ER at the moment,we are all just counting down the games till we can put the season to bed (don't let the 35K 'biggest crowd of the season' fool you) I hesitate to start with the cliche -it was a Good Friday for us - but what else can be said when we acheived our first win for what feels like months (I know it was actually Brentford at the end of Feb) We did deserve the 3 points but boy did we make hard work of it at times against yet another awful team (if not quite as bad as Sheff Wed) We were not over-impressed with the line up -( no Forshaw (out for the season ? but that cannot be helped) with Pearce not getting a second chance, no place for the much touted and promised (ok it was the Mi**or) Jack Clarke and both Hernandez and Lassogga starting despite it being unclear to say the least that they will be here next time. We also kept the on loan Pennington in the line up but I don't think we had any choice.We put Berardi back to left back and Dallas at right back. Heck did go two up front for once at home - better than Monk and TC, and it paid dividends early on as we really got at them from the off. Ekuban hassled the defender and played in Alioski in the first minutes and he had a curler just wide, then on 4 minutes the dream start, a lovely cross by PML and the ball fell to Ekuban who shot home from the corner of the 6 yd box - a cool finish and a weight off the lads back, would this be the start of something good from him ? The very influential Alioski , having one of his best games for us (sorry Dave, but I thought he was excellent yesterday) put in a great cross that Lassoga could not quite reach and then missed a decent chance himself. They had little to offer and we went in at half time 1 up and looking comfortable for the most part,with a header from Jansson from an Alioski corner nearly doubling the lead at the death. So much so that my mate who had money on us winning 2 0, added a bet for us to win 3 0. His confidence looked well placed when early in the second half twice Alioski went rampaging down the right wing, his first ended in a lovely ball to Hernandez whose shot was well saved, a minute later the same thing except Alioski tried his own shot which the keeper again saved but Hernandez showed real commitment beating the two defenders and slotting home 2 nil so we could all relax and enjoy us romping home to an easy victory ? No chance this is Leeds United . Just after second half started we realised that Adam Le Fondre was playing - 'oh shit, he's bound to score' I said and lo and behold within 5 minutes of saying that he had done so. A free kick by the lanky Ameobi was met by Le Fondre who got ahead of his marker (O'Kane?) and glanced home,a good goal from their point of view, poor defending from ours This set back really rocked us and we almost fell apart as they created a few chances and a draw started to look the most likely result. However Heck had one ace up his sleeve the little maestro Saiz who he brought on to great acclaim and he soon showed his worth pretty much running the game from then on, in fact twice in the last quarter we should have got the third goal as ekuban twice had it put on a plate and twice messed up - the goal he scored not leading , so far, to the goal glut we were all hoping for.In fairness one was well saved but a striker through on goal one on one is excpected to score and he didnt. Pennington also had a very late chance to get the third whilst at the other end Will Buckley again failed at ER (his loan spell was pretty poor) and he fluffed a decent chance So the game, like the season, petered out with little enthusiasm or noise from the 'biggest crowd of the season'Just in case anyone is not aware - this crowd owed more to the fact that ST holders could bring a friend for free than to any brilliant support on our part. I have no idea whether this promotion worked either in terms of getting non attending fans to buy STs or at least start watching when they have to pay or if the loss of ticket revenue was covered by extra beer, food and merchandise sales. , but, fair play to the club they did try and sell more stuff by having a 'cupboard' in the Revie Stand selling hats (and scarves?) so they did try and milk it Not a great game and not sure we will have learned anything from it ? Maybe that Ekuban will still not be prolific, maybe that Hernandez is certainly worth another contract for a year, and maybe that the impressive Vieira can still become the next Delph / Cook as he looked back to something like his best. Bailey Peacock Farrell also looked solid again, he made a couple of good catches from crosses, something we have missed for the last few keepers and looked confident albeit he did not have much to do So only 3 home games to go - what will Heck do with the rest of the season? Will he blood Jack Clarke and will he give Pearce another chance ? or will the season just meander on and we go back to square one over the summer? Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ RIP Jimmy WAC-COE _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ RIP Jimmy WAC-COE