The 4 - 0 scoreline flattered them, we could have had double figures. The game started slowly with the gusting wind looking like it was going to ruin the spectacle, then with 15mins or so on the clock and with neither team creating anything a big kick from Kasper was nodded on by Snodds and Watt turned his man and lashed it home. His first for the club and hopefully he will go on to score a lot more - it is something that has been missing from his game so far. We had barely finished celebrating when a lovely through ball from Snoddy was taken on by Max and he controlled it threw a dummy that put the keeper on his backside and then just walked it into the net - true class. We knew that this should have been game over with Scunny being so poor and offering nothing but Preston, Portsmouth etc had more than a few us of us still a bit worried. Soon even those worries were put to bed when a lovely run by Snoddy across the edge of the box including a nice one two with Max, led to two of theirs diving in on him and the ball coming loose to Johnson. For once he kept his shot down and it rippled the back of the net. 3 0 and not yet half time. At the break SG took off Becchio who had been largely anonymous and ineffective (though we did score 3 with him on the pitch) and brought on Paynter. Paynter knew he would never get a better chance to open his account for us and he did in fact come close with a couple of chances - one blocked on the line by Somma and he had a couple of long range shots one was appalling and one went close. He again showed that he is better in the air than Becchio and has a better touch but just does not seem to be as effective or as much a handful for defenders. McCormack also came on and gave a decent cameo appearance with nice touches etc. The game was beginning to peter out a bit and they even had two chances, the first a good shot pulled just wide and the other took a massive deflection and hit the post but they did not deserve to score and our defence did not deserve to concede. Just as we thought we would have to settle for a comfortable 3 0, SG brought on Somma and Max beat a player and played a lovely ball into Sommas path and he just smacked it into the net - a great finish from a clinical goal scorer, we somehow need to get him on the pitch more, though SG seems to doubt that he can play the lone striker role. All in all a great performance and result in a very one sided game. Given some media talk about interest in Max from the Premiership I will be happy when the window closes, because Max was almost unplayable, even if he is still too greedy on occasion. IF Max had a good game then Snoddy was just magnificent , having a hand in the first 3 goals and just tormenting them all game. Watt was also impressive with assistance from Johnson who is having a good spell and Howson who was quiet but effective. In defence we were rarely troubled with Bruce and O'Brien starting to look a decent partnership. Both full backs helped out going forward and McCartney went on one amazing run beating 4 players with skill and pace. Whether Paynter did enough to oust Becchio is doubtful but it is another 45mins under his belt and both McCormack and Somma showed they have something to offer. Whilst I don't think we will beat Arsenal we may at least give them a game, and on this showing a play off place is not out of the question - Max and Snoddy will cause all teams problems at this level and Sam is good back up. The defence is starting to look a bit more solid and if we keep the same back 4 we can only improve Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org
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