Well I am much happier with tonights game than the Boro one, although it has got to be the first time I have left a ground thinking our striker had not scored and then found out he had got 2 goals !
As is so often the case this was a curates egg of a match, with some woeful football mixed in with some good play. Both sides really struggled at times to string a couple of passes together or keep the ball. My mate reckons that it was due to opposition players flying in to tackles and the man on the ball not having the skill to control the ball quickly enough. In a way Danny Pugh could be the poster boy for this Division - he is so typical of what goes on - he made 2 or 3 good interceptions, 2 good crosses - one of which was brilliant - and did some good stuff. In the same game he made such unforced errors of control and judgement that you wondered how he ever became a footballer ! He deserves to keep his place but is an accident waiting to happen. He really is that inconsistent. Overall we played OK, and we definitely deserved the victory - they were mainly reduced to long range shots that did not trouble Kenny who did make one great close range save at the end of the first half. They put us under some pressure with a number of free kicks, throw-ins and corners into the box but the back 3 stood firm. Marius looks a real find so far, Pearce once again has shown why he was so well thought of at Pompey, and Lees hardly put a foot wrong, although twice he had the ball in a good position but had no clue what to do with it. In addition to our two 'lucky' goals we hit the post, had a couple of headers just wide (Pearce) and Mowatt had a great turn and shot that just whistled past. A couple of great crosses (Pugh and Rudy) just failed to find a Leeds shirt in the box, and then there was the miss by Smith. He robbed the defender on the edge of the box and found himself one on one with the keeper - it was 1 0 at the time and was our chance to kill the game- but he never looked confident and hit it very tamely at the keeper, he really needs to score in that position. Both the goals had a touch of fortune / confusion about them - the first was a deep corner by Mowatt that Lees (not Pearce as Sky said) headed goalwards, it bounced around and Ross hit it over the line bouncing off 2 defenders. We thought it was possibly an own goal or that it went over the line directly from the Lees header - it must have been deemed 'contentious' since they did not show it on the screen and I had to wait and see it on TV when I got home - it definitely crossed the line and was Ross' goal. The second was a free kick by Ross that seemed to go straight into the net (I had a fleeting worry that it was an indirect free kick (it wasn't - just my panic) but Pearce seemed to claim it and the replay looked like it had glanced his head but again Ross is being credited with it (on TV looks like Pearce missed) I also thought we should have had a penalty when Mowatt was brought down in the box. So overall a decentish performance - we did look mainly solid at the back , but it is a worry that once we went ahead we just backed off and let them into the game. I thought Mowatt again looked like he is a player, and I was impressed with Murphy , he is a tidy little player who does the simple things well, OK we want more from a £1m pound signing and he did show with a couple of great passes that he does have more in his locker but he has settled in well without setting the world alight , hopefully he will continue to grow into the role and will soon be able to really grab a game by the scruff of the neck. Peltier also did well making a few good tackles and the crowd are mainly off his back (although we all want to see Byram back). At least one member of the crowd sat a bit behind me was on Smiths back the whole time and slated everything he did. That was very harsh, yes he missed his sitter, and yes, he is cumbersome and ungainly at times but, to me, he won most of his headers and caused them problems all night. So all in all a good night - 5 on the bounce at home now I believe- and the various ticket offers meant there was a crowd of nearly 26k to witness it - much better than the sub 20k crowds midweek games were getting last year. The attendance announcement brought more chants of 'he's out of our club' and the mood in the stands was such an improvement on last few seasons. At one point we chanted 'Brian give us a wave' Brian ignored the chant which led to the song 'He's Brian McDermott he waves when he wants' - something that shows that humour etc is back. Haigh has said there is more good news to come so good times are just around the corner ? In the Pavilion (£3.60 to get in / a pint !!!) an admittedly drunk Peter Lorimer said the investment was 'very imminent' and they were just waiting for the FL to do the 'fit and proper persons test' Bring on Watford on Saturday and hopefully another 3 points at home Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] John 'Grampa' Sykes Rest In Peace old lad 28th Oct 1938 - 12 Nov 2013 MARCHING ON TOGETHER
