Well this was far from being a classic but for those for whom the end result is all that counts this was a good day. Most of the game was very forgettable with both defences on top for most of the game -Higgs did not have a shot to save until injury time at the end of the game, and apart from the goal a first half Johnson header was about as much as we could muster. It probably says it all that Andy Hughes at right back was my man of the match, closely followed by Bruce, Collins and McCartney. Grayson kept faith with Bruce and him and Collins do look so much better as a pair than Collins and Naylor who are too similar with the same strenghts and more worringly the same weaknesses. McCartney looked to be the best left back since Mickey Gray and was defensively sound throughout and offered some assistance going forward. The whole game was fairly scrappy and not helped by as bad a refereeing performacne as you will see. His performance was summed up just before haf time when a cross into the Sheff U box was blatantly handled by Johnson, everyone in the Revie Stand if not the whole ground saw it, it was so obvious but the ref gave a penalty - we were all stunned until the lino called him over and told him it was Johnson and not a defender who handled it and he was forced to give them a free kick. It was so obvious that no Leeds fan even moaned at the reversal. Like I say our only chance of note - and the only incident of note - in a first half which we largely dominated possession wise was a good cross by Gradel (?) was well met by Johnson but his header was saved The second half was more of the same boring stop start stuff with the ref constantly blowing for minor infringements. We made all 3 subs with 20mins still left, Snoddy, Kilkenny and McCormack replacing Sam, Gradel and Somma. I suppose you could say the subs worked in that McCormack defending at the edge of our box hoofed the ball forward and the defender, in a similar fashion to Naylor v Millwall, missed it and it ran to Snoddy. He seemed to make hard work of it and insrtead of playing it inside to an unmarked Becchio beat a couple of defenders and seemed to have wasted it only to pull it back to Johnson who put it into an empty net. Snoddy then got a soft booking for interfering with a free kick , then minutes later an innocuous block saw him get a 2nd yellow - unbeliable stuff.This let them have their only clear chance of the game:a free kick found a man in space and his chip was headed onto the bar but the follow up header was well saved by Higgs. Then with seconds on the clock a tackle on Kilkenny borught a straight red - I could not tell how bad it was. So 1 -0 it ended and 3 good points that we just about deserved though we could not have grumbled at 0 0 so poor was the game overall Another win on Tuesday and things will be looking rosy Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
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