Well that was bloody shambles wasn't it? Team of stiffs, kids, loanees and 2 or 3 first team regulars contrived to make Bury look good enough so that no-one could really argue with the result. To be fair we really got a wind behind us with about twenty minutes to go and were all over them in their penalty area - their keeper pulling off two or three excellent saves to deny various Leeds efforts - the pick of them being the "Gordon Banks" reflex save to deny the young right back Madden who had come up on the blind side and threw himself at a cross which went over everyone, he sent his header back across the goal and the keeper, but somehow the keeper got down with a good hand to palm it away. It was excellent play all round.
So we started with Lucas, Madden, Marques, Huntington, Parker at the back; Carole, Prutton (capt), Da Costa, Howson in midfield; and Constantine and De Vries up front - those on the bench that came on were Douglas, Heath and Kandol - I didn't hear the other unused subs. A controversial man said "he's picked a team to lose this"... First half hour all went reasonably well, we'd clearly given Carole and da Costa freedom to go out and go wherever they wanted and try stuff...and it worked in a small way. Da Costa was a bit nervy at first but after he settled both him and Seb were leading Bury's midfield and defence a right merry dance. Yes sometimes, it got overelaborate and the ball was lost, or one or other of them found themselves being marked by two or three Bury men and eventually crowded out. After about 10 minutes or so, Parker fed a lofted ball down the left, Carole took it on the bounce and lobbed the ball over the last defender into the path of Constantine, who got there first, had a couple of touches - a decent CHalf would have robbed him here - before lofting the ball over the keeper and into the net. So far so good. For the next few minutes Da Costa and Carole fizzed around - supported by Prutton and Howson - there were a few half chances which no-one least of all de Vries, looked capable of converting. Da Costa does strike the ball beautifully, he is really early with it and packs a punch - he had 3 or 4 shots in this spell all of which had the keeper fumbling along the ground trying to mop it up. Howson hit a belter out of the blue from 35 yards with his left foot that just flew over - unfortunately this convinced him that he was Peter Lorimer and he had to have 3 more goes that were increasingly wayward before remembering he is Johnny Howson. At this point the defence had not been unduly worried. Then it all went pear-shaped. Firstly, they got a corner on the right, swung high and glorious to the back post where their huge (6ft 5?) defender headed unchallenged (the radio said he was De Vries' man) a looping header back over the keeper (poorly positioned?) and over the line - one of our blokes cleared it, but the lino flagged for a goal and so it was given. Not long after - almost a repeat except the header was half cleared and there was a scramble before someone stabbed it home. Bury fans go wild. Shortly thereafter and Da Costa and Howson get a bit mixed up with a couple of their boys, feet fly and everyone ends up in heap. Red card da Costa. I was too far away and unsighted to see what he did - people reckon it was either stamping or going over the ball - either way pretty stupid. Somehow we limped through to half to time - just enough time for Prutton to get another stupid booking and is now suspended I think. Half time - team needs a rocket, a re-think and possibily a re-jig to get back in to the game. We get Douglas for Prutton. Douglas proceeds to prove that even against 4th division opponents he is one-paced, one footed and still can't pass to his man. Nevermind the rash bloody kicking out and violent lunges at opponents. The whole of the second half was spent pushing up on Bury - lofting long balls at the front two and it achieved nothing. For variety in our ineffectiveness we took Carole - our only chance of inspiration - off and put Kandol on. That was such a genius move that left us with 3 huge lumps up front and no-one to cross it to them. For 15 or 20 minutes here Howson came to the fore, snapping into tackles and spraying the ball about well - this coincided with Madden, who had up that point been tidy and little else, suddenly coming into the game well. He got some good support play in and some decent crosses and was unlucky not to score. Kandol's first touch was a header which the keeper did well to parry - his second almost produced a goal again - after that he did nothing. In order to boost our lump quotient up front, we brought Heath on with 10 minutes to go... 18000 came and saw - loads of them sounded like they'd never been to a football match in their lives before - screaming for red cards for Bury players for the slightest nudge... LUCAS - didn't do much - probably shares some blame for positioning on goals - did not inspire much confidence MADDEN - possibly our most pleasing performance - steady for an hour or so, before really coming into it for the last 30 PARKER - decent steady game at the back - occassionally screwed up but mainly calm - stormed forward a couple of times MARQUES - steady, composed HUNTINGTON - looks shaky at times - not robust enough to handle big forwards at the moment PRUTTON - played a smooth holding role for the first half - in truth didn't get much involved - subbed off at half time CAROLE - biggest threat for 35 minutes - disappeared thereafter - subbed with 20 minutes to go DA COSTA - was really encouraged by his brief appearance - but not by his stupidity - guess he's suspended now... HOWSON - had an in and out kind of game - only really took hold with 30 minutes left DE VRIES - a big bloody useless lump, that we've taken down off the shelf twice... CONSTANTINE - I know he's short of match practice and fitness etc, so maybe I'm being harsh, but he looked rubbish to me yesterday. ------------- DOUGLAS - rubbish - he should dominate and didn't HEATH - looked eager - achieved nothing KANDOL - didn't even look eager - nearly scored ------------ But really - as long as we go up - who cares? _______________________________________________ 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 DELETE THE FOOTERS WHEN REPLYING YOU LAZY SODS!!!! DELETE THE FOOTERS WHEN REPLYING YOU LAZY SODS!!!!
