93 minutes gone MOTM heaves yet another clearance into touch...this time out of the ground severely endangering all the Trabants in the car park...new ball tossed on...throw-in at the corner flag on the left wing taken by Hughes, to Carole with his back to his man, turns to face the man ball at his feet, he's 3 yards from the dead-ball line, starts...stops...starts again, this stop has bought him half a yard, the sliding defender can't get this back, Carole swings a beautifully flighted and bending cross with his left foot (his wrong 'un) from just about in the corner-kick arc, to Westlake steaming behind everyone else just beyond the penalty spot where he hits a sweet right foot (his wrong 'un) volley first time into the roof of the next...Cue ABSOLUTE PANDEMONIUM...fans, players and bench all going ape-shit...Oldham players can't believe it, heads bowed, hands on knees...and before we can even launch into "1-0 in your cup final..." the final whistle is blown...
In truth if we hadn't have got this winner in this pretty dour match there would have been lots of griping. We were solid at the back, poorish in midfield and hopelessly lost up front - it doesn't do to make such a big deal of the front guys, this being their first game for us and with each other, suffice to say that Tresor and Jermaine will waltz back into the starting line up on Saturday. It is a shame that neither of these got the chance to take on Gregan but there you go. It was made easy for Gregan and his fellow defenders; De Vries is huge - think a muscled up Kandol - and can sometimes control the ball when played into his body, but he doesn't win much in the air for a big guy, while the other new fella, Andrews, is pretty fast, he just has a problem remembering to take the ball with him. The biggest problem yesterday was of our own making - the reintroduction of Thompson, who had his worst game so far. In open play he was nothing - barely left the centre circle except to take dead balls; never found a Leeds player with a pass; took our first 5 free kicks and never once got it beyond the first man; 3 times tried fancy back heel flicks, in stupid areas, twice fell over the damn thing and each time gave it away in the midfield. The changes that DW needs to get right for Saturday are the obvious, Kandol and Beckford, plus Hughes back into CMidfield for Thompson (bench) and Clapham back in defence. We lost Hughes' energy in midfield and had a right-footed midfield player playing left back with a specialist left back on the bench. It wasn't the right decision. It is only a coincidence, but it is a sweet one nonetheless, that we didn't score until Thompson went off and Westlake replaced him. Our game plan for most of the night was to lump it long, wait for a foul on the forwards and get something from the free kick. It really didn't work at all - not only because the forwards didn't win over much, nor did they have much support but even when we did get a free kick Thompson wasted it. We played very narrow. Richardson and Prutton on the right and Carole and Hughes, both right footed, on the left really didn't get much going down either flank. This piled everything up the middle, which was congested, and up in the air. It was poor stuff. Oldham didn't offer much. We had one decent chance right at the end of the first half when Andrews went through the middle but fired over from 16 yards or so. The only other real chance was when Carole finally insisted to Thompson that he was taking the free-kick on the left wing, bending it in with his right, and he swung it onto Prutton's head, forcing a good save from their keeper (Crossley...!) The atmosphere in the away end was cracking - apart from the smelly bastard in front of us who was dropping some of the worst farts in living memory - seriously something had died up there - folk for 4 or 5 rows behind us were doing the gagging faces and pulling their shirts/sweaters up over their noses... That aside loads of loud singing - "15 points, who gives a fuck, we're super Leeds, and we're going up!" and all the rest. ANGKERGREN - little to do - done well - took some good crosses, under pressure - some intelligent distribution RICHARDSON - relatively untroubled at the back although they did have a pacy winger who made Fraser work a bit sometimes - little to offer going forward HUGHES - played out of position, nevertheless got stuck in to the challenges and marking well, although caught wrong-side a few times - struggled with any distribution that necessitated using his left foot - always tried to turn inside onto his right, this lead to several "almost caught out" situations where the defender is running past challenge after challenge before finally hoofing clear MARQUES - outstanding again - despite Ricketts' attempts to flatten him jumping into him time and again with a leading arm/elbow - ricketts by the way was shit HEATH - solid defensively - was the recipient of a lot of passes from Hughes which wasn't really playing to his strengths PRUTTON - not as influential as in recent weeks - unlucky with the header - got through a lot of work THOMPSON - shite - uninterested - unbalanced the team - drop him DOUGLAS - quitely got through a lot of work without ever really standing out CAROLE - quiet for very long periods - was lively for the opening 15-20 minutes or so then never seemed to get another pass - teams are wising up to him (like Kandol) when he does get the ball he instantly has two men on him. Was the creator of our two best chances - the movement and cross for the goal were peaches of their type DE VRIES - disappointingly bad in the air - slow off the mark - not brilliant touch ANDREWS - as above only faster - disappointinglybadintheair-slowoffthemark-notbrillianttouch (boom boom) ------------ Subs Westlake - came on - touched it once - that'll do fine.. -------- Question - after Saturday's shenanigans in Kent - how can their number 10 take at least 3 dives - which the ref sees each time and awards a free kick to Leeds for simulation, one of which earns him a booking; leave elbows and feet in all the shop when late into challenges which again get punished with the award of free-kicks to Leeds; and then when on a yellow card be allowed to kick the ball away without any reprisal...? No wonder the Leeds began singing "Jermaine Beckford..." Consistency is all we ask. _______________________________________________ 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!
