To resurrect the 'word of the year' from a few years ago, yesterday was a total 'omnishambles' - they could not have organised worse if they had tried ! We got a taxi to the Old Peacock and were there for 11.30 - 15minutes before the turnstiles were due to open - the queue was already down the side of the West Stand, past the South Stand , past the Bremner statue and as far as the eye could see past East Stand - thousands had turned out For some reason the club had only expected 3,000 despite the fact that the u23s had sold out (with fans acutally paying) at Guiseley on 2 occasions for league games with evening kick offs, this was free to everyone, at ER and on a Bank Holiday Monday. We stayed in the pub, who judging by the queues at the bar were also taken by surprise, this despite the fact that I saw loads of fans on twitter saying they were going to go to the game. No worries we thought they will delay kick off - surely they will not start with literally thousands of fans stuck outside ? Next thing someone in the pub was watching the game on their phone - ridiculous ! Ok given the make up of the crowd, Dads with kids mainly, there was not going to be any trouble but even so, LUFC and the players had asked for our support, got it and then ignored it. At around 1.pm so 30 minutes gone, the queue only reached the South Stand so we went and joined it, only for loads at the front to come past us saying they had been giving out free tickets but had none left so there was no chance of getting in - they needed to count people for safety reasons. We took a walk round the ground and even contemplated crawling under one of the open turnstiles - but I decided I could not manage it. A couple of hundred fans had left by the time we got round the ground and back to the West Stand car park where they were suddenly handing out tickets again - they had managed to print more, and so we got in and sat in front row of the Kop for the final 30 seconds of the half - then it rained and so we had to move further back. After all the waiting and palaver we wanting a good game - we did not get one- as both sides pretty much cancelled each other out and chances were at a premium although both teams did hit the woodwork. We watched with an eye on who is ready for the first team - the answer is none of them on this showing. Clarke flittered in and out with not much end product. Shackleton was his usual busy self at right back, getting forward all the time but again and again his cross was low and hit the first defender. The one fans had been clamouring for , Edmondson pretty much did not touch it - he totally fluffed his one good chance , totally miskicking the ball after a good move ended with it being pulled back to him. Bogusz was also largely anonymous but did have 2 wild shots that went miles over and one good free kick that went close. The most impressive was our number 5 (I think Struik) who showed good positional awareness, good tackling and interceptions and some quality on the ball.
The half came and went and so did extra time (so at least we saw 75 minutes of football) with barely a chance or action to enthuse the nearly 10,000 fans who had made it into the ground Great, at least we were going to get a penalty shoot out, and given we were right behind the goal, only 5 or 6 rows back we would get a great view - but no, the final shambles - they decided to take the penalties in front of an empty South Stand instead of the 1,000 or whatever in the Revie Stand. Crazy decision, made even worse by the fact that both sets of penalty takers stood in the centre circle in 2 lines so we could hardly see - cue lots of little kids running down to the very front, onto the advertising hoardings so they could watch the penalties. Now I know it was probably Birmingham who chose that end but 2 points, 1- football is still an entertainment business and yesterdays crowd was the crowd of the future, but they will not have enjoyed not being able to see, 2 -these players are, like ours, presumably on the fringes of the first team (5 of ours have indeed played in the Championship this season) so it would sure be good for them to take penalties in the face of some opposition (there was no chance of real hostility or things being thrown! But no they bottled it. I did not see the first 2 penalties as such but worked out we were 1 down, another shambles they never put the tannoy on so no-one knew the names of some of the players, so I could not tell you who scored or missed (I know Edmondson did score) but by the time we came to take our 5th they had missed a few and we just needed to score to win , which we duly did, and so won the Cup - hurrah ! So a total shambles and a pretty rubbish match - the person in charge of the game - general manager or whatever , has a lot of questions to answer - thousands missing most of the first half and hundreds if not more walking away with disappointed kids - The overcrowding was made even worse since a thousand or so fans had turned up to buy Derby tickets in person ! So not my best Bank Holiday day out (though had a few beers and a laugh with my mate, so not all wasted - better than being dragged around the shops or garden centre etc) Anyway back to the real thing this weekend 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
