As others have already said last night was just not good enough -OK the
unbeaten home record had to go some time but to lose it to such a poor and
unadventurous team as Walsall was awful
After what was supposed to have been a good display on Saturday, SG stuck with
the same 2 - Johnson and Kilkenny in centre midfield - and given the injury to
Kisnorob (& Higgs) picked what I agreed was out best possible line up. With
Snoddy and McSheffrey on the flanks we had width allied to skill and guile and
with Beckford back up front I really could not see anything other than a
comfortable home win ! (shows what I know !)
We started brightly , pinning them back in their own half and a lovely ball
from McSheffrey was met by some would say audacious , I would say ridiculous
volley from Becchio that went miles over. Then another good move ended with a
crisp strike from Johnson that the keeper saved well (I do love Clayton Ince -
one of the few 'characters' in todays game - joining in MOT at half time again
and generally playing up to the crowd). Then it all started to fall apart. It
reminded me of many of our cup games against lower league teams where they seem
to realise after 20mins that we are not that great and somehow lower us to
their level -for make no mistake Walsall are awful , as bad as any team to
visit us this season. The half then petered out with us mainly camped in their
half but never finding the right ball to create openings and looking decidedly
suspect when they broke forward. 3 times on the run Lowry played an easy ball
down the left flank that went
straight into touch. Johnson kept trying to beat a man on the edge of our area
with a little turn that got us into trouble, and our passing was woeful at
times. Still 0 0 at half time and things could only get better we thought as
the crowd gave muted applause \ some boos as the team left the field. I agree
with those listers who have already had a go at the booing and catcalls etc -
not what is required. A crowd of 18,000 meant that almost half the Leeds fans
who turned up on a Wednesday night to watch us v Spurs (a game on TV) did not
bother last night - I know cash is tight and we have 3 home games in 8 days but
even so...
The 2nd half got off to a nightmare start - we let them make a few passes near
our area and failed either to clear the ball or get tight on the man and a ball
pulled back was smashed with some style past Casper.
We did up our game a bit as they sat back and wasted time wherever possible -
then McSheffrey ran down the wing and his ball in went into the net - I think
Mr Emmott is still in a minority of one if he thinks McSheffrey meant it -
although he did celebrate as if he did with no hint of embarrassment. We took
the mickey out of Ince - the regulation "1 1 and its your keepers fault" joined
by the witty "you're not dancing anymore" which set Ince off skipping and
dancing to prove us wrong.
A double sub led to Grella and Gradel coming on with 30mins to go - Beckfords
reaction when the number 10 went up for being subbed was very noticeable - he
shook his head vehemently at the bench and was not pleased. We could not
decide if that was because he was not fully fit and wanted subbing himself or,
more likely, he likes Becchio being there to take the weight off him - perhaps
a reason why Grella is never in the starting line up ?
The 2 Gs added a lot of pace and directness to an otherwise lacklustre
performance but we kept playing the wrong ball - Crowe being guilty of one of
the worse when Gradel was tripped after a mazy run and the ref played advantage
as Crowe stormed into the box but instead of picking out his man blasted it
over everyones head - either an awful cross or an even worse shot. McSheffrey
seemed to want to prove his goal was not a fluke and on 2 or 3 occasions
balloooned his cross into the crowd. We huffed and puffed and only some
desperate defending kept us out.
Then on a rare break they go a corner and the huge centre back beat Naylor in
the air and Casper clawed the ball back from his goal - the flag went up and
there was confusion all around till we realised a goal had been given. It was
impossible from the Kop to tell if it was in and no replay on the screen was
allowed with it being a 'contentious' decision. What made it worse was that the
defender should not have been on the pitch - he had been booked and then pulled
down Beckford who was clear of him - a cast iron yellow but the ref - a Sikh,
Monty Panesaar look-a-like, bottled it and let him off with a last warning.
Other than that decision I was well impressed with the ref. We kept on going
and when the board went up with 5 extra minutes the crowd did come to life and
tried to roar the team on to at least a draw but despite a lot of effort we
continued to mess it up with a number of high balls being meat and drink to
their giant centre back against
Grella, Gradel and Beckford. So it our home record ended with barely a whimper
(and a lot of boos) to a team who are nowhere near as good as us (3 defeats in
4 home games now in all competitions - fortress Elland Road ???)
To me Beckford did not look fully fit - given the amount of ball and territory
we had it seems amazing that he never had a decent shot all game.
So now is the time for Grayson to prove that he really is the manager to take
us up - Wise and McAllister both looked like frozen rabbits when things started
to go wrong and could not make the necessary changes either to personnel,
tactics or attitude - lets hope Simon can, starting with 3 points on Saturday
Dave
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