BUMP !! That was our recent hopes and optimism coming back down to earth,
Yesterday was pretty much as bad as it gets - 90mins without once troubling the
keeper. We basically put together one good move which ended with Delph flicking
it on to Johnson who lashed it home for the would be equaliser - only snag he
was offside. That apart, we had one low shot by Douglas which the keeper
gathered easily, a header from Becchio that went over and a free kick by
Robinson which was heading for top corner (keeper probably had it covered) when
Becchio deflected it wide !!
We were very poor in all areas of the pitch and were out muscled by a team who
had two decent players - the keeper and number 9. The striker meant that Rui
and Naylor had their hands full and the keeper, Ince, meant that 99% of our
corners, free kicks and crosses were plucked out of the air by him.
Casper was back to his shaky self and the defence in the first half was unsure
and uncertain although they did tighten up second half.
Johson was invisible and ineffective, Douglas showed his usual, decent breaking
stuff up but poor on the ball. Robinson was very poor first half and showed
little improvement second half.Delph showed that he still has a long way to go
- this was a game crying out for someone with quality to take it by the scruff
of the neck Steven Gerard style but Delph failed to do so, though he did
impress in patches. Trundle may of well not been on the pitch the number of
times he touched it and Beckford showed why he is still at an average 3rd
Divison team - he was uniterested and petulant and never looked like getting a
goal. He got clattered into once from behind and you thought he had been
crippled for life the way he rolled about and gingerly picked himself up etc. I
did not see the alleged v sign at Leeds fans but given his attitude on the day
it would not surprise me - what does continue to surprise me is the abuse he
gets from Leeds 'fans'. A group of lads
behind me gave him dogs abuse with 55mins of constant stick - they seemed to
forget he is our top scorer and most potent weapon.
Their goal came when a nice one two down our right left Hughes for dead and
then Rui was out jumped by the striker who glanced it into the net - both Rui
and Casper should have done better.
So once again we half fill a ground - we had one full side and a full end - but
it proved too much for our team.
So far Grayson has impressed with his use of subs but even that did not work
yesterday - I think it was wrong to take Beckford off, yes he was having one of
those games but when you need a goal you don't take off your best goal scorer.
Snodgrass did make a big impact - for me he has to start ahead of Johnson - and
was about the only one who did play well.
Howson came on for the last 20mins but to no real effect.
Looked at in isolation it was a bad result no argument, but it is still 9
points from 4 games which is a good return. We now need to win on Tuesday and
make sure we pick up 3 points from the two away games, which would be Ok even
though before the game on Saturday I was hoping for four points as a minimum.
One thing is for sure we need to play a lot better than we did if we are to win
on Tuesday (others will need to do report since I am not going)
Dave
_______________________________________________
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
Sorry Macca - it's the curse of Bates old lad
