The old stadium could not have looked lovelier on this perfect Easter day, packed to the rafters in glorious spring sunshine. The mood has been nothing but celebratory, of course, ever since the 7-0 demolition of Fulham, but we were all nevertheless outraged by the news that the FA had banned Kalvin Phillips for the rest of the season as his hairstyle brings the game into disrepute. Most people around me were in general agreement, but found the timing highly questionable.
As expected, Berardi came in for Phillips, but not as expected, he actually occupied KP's berth, leaving White in his normal spot. I was a bit confused about the Stoke lineup as they seemed to be playing with 12 men. I wondered if the FA had granted all teams a special disposition to field an extra player against Leeds because otherwise Bielsa's boys just overwhelm everybody, but then a lad behind me told me that Martins Indi is actually one player with two names, not two players. Stoke pulled the pathetic, infuriating and inevitably backfiring stunt of making us kick towards the Kop first half. This seemed to annoy the lads, and they were snapping into tackles right from the off. Berardi was booked after 4 mins for upending both Martins and Indi with one plough. Stoke were under the cosh, but finally ventured upfield and even registered quite a good shot from the edge of the box. Meslier was forced into the first real save he's had to make as a Leeds player and tipped it round the post competently. The 19 optimists in red-and-white scarves got all excited, although what the point of their Harry Potter chant was I couldn't fathom. You fools, I thought..........and sure enough, someone managed to head the ball away from around the penalty spot, Klich touched it to Costa who raced away with the ball. He spotted Harrison sprinting up the right wing and played it on to him. Harry took it on a bit, cut inside onto his left foot, and slid a lovely ball into the box for an onrushing white shirt, who swept it imperiously into the top corner. To everyone's amazement, the wearer of that shirt turned out to be........Berardi! We kept on dominating, pinging the ball about, switching positions, working not just triangles but complete bloody dodecahedrons. One Stoke player had to have a new top brought on because he had been dragged about so much that the stripes on his shirt were all twisted. Harrison hit the bar. The lad behind me reckoned that this was the 13th match in a row that Harrison had hit the woodwork and was sure it was a World Record. Butland in the Stoke goal was, of course, having the game of his life. But eventually, on about the half hour mark, the second came. We swung a corner into the mixer, it pinged about a bit before falling to, yes Berardi again, and he lashed a volley into the roof of the net. Two minutes later, after another lovely move saw the ball switched back to Pablo, he touched it on to Berardi, about 35 yards out. Shooooot, cried the crowd, predictably. What was not predictable was that he did shoot, and it bent into the top corner like Billy's famous goal at Hampden Park. 3-0! Get in! Two minutes later, Berardi again tried to separate Martins from Indi and received his second yellow card. He tried to get the ref to give him the match ball before departing, but the bastard in magenta refused. So, a lot to talk over at halftime. I was surprised to see that everyone was drinking corona beer. I asked one lad why, and he said he wasn't sure, but it seemed that one person kind of got the bug to drink it, and then it seemed to spread like, er...........a virus? Weird times. In the second half, our 10 men were still too good for the 12 of Stoke, but with a crowded easter programme ahead, we sensibly elected to just knock the ball about and cruise home without any major alarums. Scores on the doors: Berra 10 Everyone else 8.75 _______________________________________________ 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
