Really enjoyed this early kick-off even if it was bloody perishing over in
Lancashire. Probably something to do with the atmosphere - we had two sides of
the ground and they had two sides - must have had about 5000 out of the 11,000
or so gate - and the result of course. Given the number of Leeds there, the
policing was as sensible and "light-touch" as possible, from what I saw.
We started with: Angkergren, Richardson, Sheehan, Marques, Michalik, Hughes,
Delph, Douglas, Snodgrass, Becchio and Beckford.
Missed the first five minutes queuing for my Bovril - the slowest queue in the
world - but we heard the several "close call" cheers before the big one for the
goal - so it sounded like they opened with some gusto. The TV makes it look
like we were all over the shop and unable to clear the lines...so nothing new
there.
By the time we'd taken our seats, well, stood in front of them, Leeds were
beginning to pass the ball, on a poor bobbly surface. Snodgrass was moving and
linking with the front two well. Douglas was commanding in the middle of the
park, stamping everything out that Stockport tried to get going before laying
it short to Delph, Sheehan or Snodgrass. He was even winning loads of headers.
Becchio was making a nuisance of himself with his energy and persistance and
was winning quite a lot in the air. After about 25 minutes me and my mate
agreed that Stockport were there for the taking, because despite being a goal
up they had showed nothing else and for long spells they coudn't get the ball
back. The pressure we were building got closer and closer to goal - Beckford
nearly snapped the bar with a thundering overhead volley and Becchio headed the
rebound over the bar; Snodgrass got on the end of another cross but just slid
it wide; Beckford had another
bicycle kick effort, this one flew just over, with the keeper beaten again;
Becchio had a shot from the edge of the box that the keeper fumbled and there
was an almighty melee as Beckford, Snodgrass the keeper and about two defenders
all dropped on it the loose ball...in the end we scored from a right scrambled
effort.
A corner from the right which Snodgrass took and barely lifted above waist
height, Douglas was the first there and he nudged it on before Becchio got
another nudge on it from about a yard and in it went - don't know if it was his
hip, his knee, or his knob...don't care really...sometimes its all about being
there. It was just after this that we started having serious doubts about the
ref. To score this goal Becchio had to be running in towards goal, once it had
gone in his momentum carried him past the post to the area behind the deadball
line, where the Leeds fans were. He celebrated briefly with a few of his
teammates, and got booked.
Shortly afterwards, Sheehan got booked for a dive while in a crossing position
- was too far for me to see whether it was a foul or a dive...Douglas got
booked for objecting to one of these two incidents - can't remember which one.
From here on in there was a definite feeling that we were playing 12 men - the
linesman on this side wasn't too clever either - giving a dead ball to Leeds
when it hadn't gone out; missing several clear off-sides, for both teams; and
then missing a blatant handball, when a Stockport boy was doing a cute bit of
ball juggling to get around Sheehan, misjudged it a bit and used his hand to
keep it in play, right in front of the Leeds fans, who let out a huge shout,
the linesman flagged and gave a free kick to Stockport for obstruction...
After the goal we pressed for another for a few minutes with little end result.
As the half moved towards a close Stockport really turned the screw, with first
Sheehan, then Lubo clearing off the line and Caspar making two or three good
quality, and brave, saves. The only other thing of note was Beckford pulling up
limping and holding the back of his thigh, which he seemed to run off again
shortly before getting a kick on his foot which kept him limping til half time.
All things considered, evens at half time was about right.
The second half started promisingly for us with an early free kick on the right
hand corner of the Stockport box which Snodgrass took and whistled just over
the angle with the keeper nowhere. After that it was pretty much all Stockport,
they had the majority of the possession and moved the ball about well in
midfield - winning a few corners but never really hurting us. They never made
the defence scramble like they did at the end of the first half. Beckford went
off, having never really been fully fit, especially after the couple of knocks
at the end of the first half, along with Snodgrass for Christie and Howson.
Again the subs proved to be good/lucky decisions.
The goal to take the lead followed their keeper's poor clearance falling
straight to Delph widish on the left about 35 yards from goal. He took a touch
to control and then looped his volley towards the empty net, over the heads of
any defenders...fortuitous and brilliant. Stockport stepped up efforts to get
level. But with little noticeable success - except for the referee giving them
free kick after free kick. It out to be said that the back four and midfield
were getting stuck into the defensive duties with proper application at this
point - even Becchio was back defending at times. Then with the clock ticking
down Caspar picked up the ball and launched a long clearance straight as an
arrow down field, over the Stockport defence. Christie let it bounce once in
the box before firing across the keeper and in off the far post - very classy
piece of finishing. All over, thanks very much.
ANKERGREN - one or two shaky moments but his hard work leading up to half time
kept us in it - and despite all their possession he wasn't really worked after
the restart - plus an assist on the final goal
RICHARDSON - real solid hard working performance
SHEEHAN - rash challenges and stupid booking aside - a decent game
MARQUES - commanding, battling - everything you could ask for in a CHalf
MICHALIK - getting better
(you have to ask why these 5 just weren't up to it before, because they are
beginning to build confidence now...they're not the finished article yet but
they're getting more solid with each passing game)
HUGHES - does my head in how the crowd chant his name - cannot control or pass
a foot ball to save his life - but sure he runs around like a headless Forest
Gump and often gets a bandage on his head...
DOUGLAS - immense first half, bit quieter in the second - nevertheless our MOTM
by my reckoning
DELPH - tried to mix it up a bit - some good tackles, some rash challenges -
some great little flashes of skill, some over ambitious passes - great goal
SNODGRASS - good opening half hour - faded
BECCHIO - bags and bags of effort - is undoubetdly a better player when
Beckford gives the defence something else to worry about - yet again, a hero of
the crowd who seem to value effort over ability
BECKFORD - on the other hand, gets cat-calls seconds after thundering a bicycle
kick against the bar, while clearly not 100% - caused them problems - we need
to keep him and keep him fit if we're to have a realistic hope of promotion. He
will never be a premier league star, but at this level his pace, aggression and
eye for goal are dynamite
-----------------
Subs
Howson - came on for twice as long than on Boxing Day and was about half as
effective - nevertheless he is a decent player, lets hope he can continue to
improve
Christie - was struggling to get into the game, the odd touch looked off the
pace, until his goal, which was pure instinctive quality - let's hope he kicks
on from there
Prutton - came on for the last couple of minutes for Hughes and didn't do much
------------
Ref - possibily the worst I've ever seen...nowhere near play, biased...dreadful
and fat
-----------
Crowd - loads of banter between the "two sets" of Leeds fans - good atmosphere
----------
Grayson - well he looks to have instilled some steel into the defence which is
a bloody good start - funny enough its last year's back 5...who'd have thought
it?
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