Almost forgot: subs. Grayson did manage to change things up and in the way
most of us wanted - go for the win since we had nothing to lose at that
point. Becchio had been getting songs almost from the kick-off, so the
faithful were happy to see him on for a tiring and tactically nullified
Johnson. He did his schtick - which is no bad thing since it meant some of
our more speculative high balls carried more threat. Watt for Kilkenny was
the right call, too, although we'd been so slow getting up from midfield
that I doubted wingers would make much difference - their crossing options
would be limited.

In fact, of course, Watt was involved in Snoddy's goal - well worked, but
about our only really convincing and coherent passage of play. Nevertheless,
it shows why Grayson's the gaffer and I'm not.

Bruce's second bookable looked dubious from the stands (we were all
applauding the tackle, which was right in front of us), but Ipswich fans say
he's prone to diving in, and we're hardly the most unbiased group of
observers. So perhaps the replay shows different. (The Suffolk fuzz reacted
to a surge at the barriers in the lower stand after the ref got his cards
out by deploying 2005-vintage home video cameras and taking a group shot. It
was quite funny, like a rowdy wedding. If the Met want to cut their budgets,
perhaps they should buy some of those old Samsungs and forget all that
high-def DV technology they cart around... Mind you, it did lead to a very
rousing "If you hate Leeds United Have a go...")

After that, it was do or die - and with Naylor getting worse by the minute
in the last quarter hour, it was a matter of time before we were overrun on
the break. Which we were. I still can't believe they didn't score when they
were 4-on-1 (seriously - and our "one" was Naylor huffing back from about 40
yards out) and we had our fourth-choice goalie between the posts.

To repeat - there was enough on display to suggest we won't be troubling the
bottom three. And with players back, top half remains a high probability.
Just don't expect it to be pretty.

RIchard
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