Well this is my first trip to Gillingham, and I have to say the town is a dump, and the away end of the ground is gave Luton's away end a run for it's money in the shit-hole stakes. Temporary seats and scaffolding with no roof meant the noise we generated didn't seem a patch on previous away games this season, apart from the second half when the 'Look at me I'm Danny McDermid – Complete Twat' show reached it's grand finale'.
The starting eleven was the same as at Swansea, Casper in goal, Richardson, Marques, Heath and Clapham as the back four, Prutton, Douglas, Hughes, Carole, and Beckford and Kandol up front. The first twenty minutes was typical from what I have seen of Leeds this year (apart from the Swansea game) in that Gillingham had most of the attacking play, and we struggled to build up any real rhythm without Gillingham posing any real threat. We did have a couple of spells of possession, which showed we had far more quality than Gillingham. Our passing and movement in passing is improving game to game. Gillingham despite their initial possession really lacked quality, and you got the distinct feeling that we were going to take our chances, while they would contain to struggle to break down our defence. >From the off Gillinghams centre half Sodje (resplendent in ridiculous bandana) was happy to batter Kandol (and to a lesser extent Beckford) while the Ref stood by and waved play on. Both Kandol and Beckford were getting more and more frustrated. At the same time, he was whistle happy in midfield, blowing constantly and not allowing the game to get any sort of rhythm at all. He booked Andy Hughes (who had a strong game in the first half – work-rate fantastic, flying into tackles, neat passing) for a challenge, which to be fair some ref's would have booked him for, and some ref's wouldn't, but let go several similar challenges from Gillingham. His inconsistency was shocking. His linesman were clearly reading from the same script as the referee. David Prutton was continuing from where he left off against Swansea, he is starting to look pretty classy, and it was from his run, we won the freekick on the edge of the area, which ended up with Carole heading it in the back of the net. I am really pleased with the fact that we always look dangerous from set pieces under Wise. From this point on Gillingham gave up, and we ran the rest of the half, until Tresor Kandol got sent off just before half time, with his second yellow for clapping the ref for awarding for giving us a free kick after the umpteenth time he'd been dumped on the floor. The second half, we still looked the more likely to score – Carole was working hard, and his confidence seems to be growing game by game, he regularly won the ball of his Gillingham counterpart, and seems to be expanding his repertoire of tricks to beat his men. Prutton and Hughes were tackling strongly in midfield, and Prutton in particular seems to expanding his range (and accuracy of his passing) I think I would prefer to see him and Hughes in the middle in the long run, with Carole on the right (assuming we get a decent left sided midfielder) Douglas, who I have been critical of already this season looked much better – his endless running made a real difference, and his distribution is improving. However, even before Kandol's sending off, the midfield seemed to sit back too deep, leaving Kandol and Beckford isolated at times. 10 minutes into the second Beckford sees his second yellow for a tackle which Gillingham players had been doing all match and off he walks. >From this point on we've got 8 defenders, and Seb Carole up front (later to be replaced by Weston) and the grit and team spirit of this Leeds team was displayed for all to see – Douglas, Prutton, Richardson and Marques were magnificent (Hughes was taken off to stop him from incurring a second yellow from ref - who had by this time completely lost the plot) and as the minutes ticked by you could see the players visibly tiring. There equaliser was a result of our tiredness, rather than any ingenuity by Gillingham, they were rubbish, and if we had had eleven men on the field then we could have played until Xmas without them scoring. _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist 6 in a bloody row!
