Nice day out today. The day started with my pregnant wife acquainting her breakfast with armitage shanks finest porcelain, whilst I tried to find my colours in between rubbing her back and saying "Are you sure it is ok to go to the match" whilst crossing fingers. Being the ever dutiful husband I was taking the nipper with me and leaving the grumpy teenage one to tend to his mums every need. I am sure that she would have felt guilty in not letting me go as it was my birthday, an honour I share with a certain Mr V. Jones albeit he has a five year head start on me.
The 300 mile round trip wasn't it's usual pain in the arse stop / start drive up the M5 / M6 that it normally is, the only cloud was when the nipper realised that he wasn't going to Goodair Towers for fish and chips like last time! Honestly, 7 year olds have such high expectations these days, he does like going to other folks houses ;o) Got to the ground in plenty of time and took up our seats in the upper south stand, not been in there for a number of years as we normally sit in the MNES, Got to say that the service in the stand tea bar is still shite, it's about time that they upped the pay to minimum wages level. The match kicked off and it was a revelation to actually see some nice short quick passing play with plenty of movement off the ball and was a bit surprised not to see balls chipped over their Left Back, who incidentally must be one of the shortest footballers ever! The crossing from Richardson and Prutton was as consistent as it has been for the past few months and it really should be something that they need to practice on the training ground. The new boy Kilkenny was a revelation in midfield and to be honest he must have been involved in more passes in this game than the whole team have strung together in the past 6 weeks, everytime a Leeds defender had the ball he was looking for a short pass, playing the ball then looking for the return and MOTM by far, but after hearing him interviewed on Radio Leeds he really does need to develop a more butch speaking voice, also a bit quiet when compared to the usual gobby aussie ;o) Rich W was right in that this is how the midfield should have been playing all along. There were some shocking decisions made by the officials during the first half, the worst of which was giving a goal kick for a ball that didn't even come close to going out of play, there was also an incident where a player lead with an elbow (it was obvious from where I was sitting 60 yards away) and even the ref gesticulated the action, I have seen games where this type of incident has warranted an automatic booking and was extremely surprised to see the lad get away with it. Beckford came close with a shot that was quickly smothered by a rapidly advancing 'keeper. Personally, still not sure about Flo, for a tall lad and a centre forward he has about as much ability as a elephant in getting his feet off of the ground, on more than one occasion he lost out on an aerial ball simply by not jumping for it, even their midget left back sussed this out and marked him on a couple of set pieces, he might be able to hold the ball up and dink the odd pass here or there but he just doesn't press the right buttons for me and he still lacks the fitness to compete Nice goal by Richardson, must have gone past at least 4 northampton players, perhaps one of them twice and hit a nice shot, my view was slightly obscured by the post but I think that it may have taken a slight deflection. Cracking goal all the same. Second half was more of the same but with twice as many goals, not sure how Beckford didn't get onto the score sheet, not sure about Rui's goal as I didn't get that good a view, according to Radio Leeds that is something that they practice on the training field but I can't believe that Rui would be the natural target for that kind of set piece. Nicely taken goal by Weston, the guy sitting next to me reckoned that had we not been winning by a clear margin then it would have been disallowed as the barge that weston gave the defender was fairly hefty, still who cares it went in. Even though I thought that Leeds produced the best passing football of the season so far they were helped by what the Northampton manager described to Eddie Gray as "a crap team performance", nice to see a manager being quite so candid about his own team. A major improvement would be for Leeds to actually do some marking and occasionally for Carole to pass the ball more than 2 yards when anywhere near our own penalty area, wasn't sure if it was my eyes deceiving me but I am sure that he even managed a tackle this afternoon, so a round of applause to Mr Carole. Anyway, good enjoyable game, fair result and nice atmosphere even though not even full. And as for the 6000 that didn't turn up today to watch a team that has just suffered it's worse run of the season, shame on you for being bloody glory hunters. Cheers Chris _______________________________________________ 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!!!!
