Douglas stayed at right back and Snodgrass kept his place up front alongside the returning hero Beckford. He showed with two goals, another one given offside and one miss, how important he is to us, however once again his petulance and general attitude gave his critics ammunition, but sod them he is our most important player and him keeping fit and on form will be the key element in us going up.
I must admit that when he went off on one in the second half I was chuntering to the boy Sean that I wished he give up as he was going to get sent off and Sean said either that or he'll score. Thankfully it was the latter. As his four bookings are now expunged he should, fitness or the odd stray elbow permitting, be available to us for the rest of the season and will I think hit the 30 goal mark at some point in the not too distant future.
Fans near me all screamed that Hooper had handled it but I did not see it if he did.
A definite handball but there was no way either the ref or linesman would have been able to see it from their respective positions.
The game deteriorated with lots of fouls and niggle both on and off the ball (including a spat between Beckford and Howson) and the ref seemed to lose all control - he was poor throughout.
Being of the old school I like a bit of blood and thunder in my football, good hard tackles and all that, but I thought Scunthorpe were one of the nastiest, niggliest sides I've seen in a long time. The "tackle" on Rui in the first half could have broken his leg and the offender escaped with just a talking to whereas Johnson was booked for something half as bad. They also did lots of little pushes and shoves before the ball arrived and left their feet in after the ball had gone on many occasions, most of these offences going unnoticed/unpunished by an appalling referee. On one occasion, right under the linesman's nose, as Beckford and a defender raced for a through ball with Beckford's superior pace winning, another defender just stepped across in front of Beckford and blocked him off without any attempt to play the ball, indeed he wasn't anywhere near within playing distance of the ball.
There's no wonder Beckford gets so pissed off at times. Respect? My arse! _______________________________________________ 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
