Although it is 2 defeats in 2 I felt pretty good coming away from ER.I thought that we played very well in parts and all the players gave it everything they had - epitomised by 3 defenders all throwing themselves at the ball in the last few minutes, over and over Bromby and Kisnorbo put themselves on the line - good to see when our defence has been so soft recently.The keeper did well, one tip over from close range being a great save, and he looked assured at corners etc rather than just flapping at them a la Caspers x 2.Clayton really is a revelation - whether SG has played a master stroke keeping him out of the team until now,or missed a chance of promotion last season by not playing him ahead of Livermore and Bannan, I am not sure - but he does look a class above. His audacious and well executed chip nearly got him goal of the season, if that had been Kilkenny it would not have happened.I was a bit worried when I saw that the back 4 were all centre halves - happened last season / season before when Lowry and Bromby were full backs, but yesterday we did look pretty solid. I too would prefer to see Lees at centre half, learning from KIsnorbo,but Bromby did well yesterday. Like others, not over impressed with O'Dea but he did ok.We do really need to get some support for McCormack up front -he ran about a lot and put in the effort (as well as throwing himself to the floor at every opportunity) but he is not a lone striker (oh for the return of Luciano ?!?!?)So where did it go wrong then yesterday ? The ref and a studpidity by our players. In the first couple of minutes Max and the defender clashed - the ref, lino and probably all the fans in the ground missed what happened in the ensuing handbags but the ref instead of just telling the players off and saying he would look later to see if a punch etc had been thrown, took the stupid decision to book both, even though he did not know if both were to blame. Soon after one of theirs hacked down Clayton(?) after he got past him - 100% booking, so it was stupid of Max to make a similar diving in tackle soon after -most around me thought it was not a foul but we are pretty blinkered - so a card for Max and down to 10. Then just before half time Howson powered past the Boro player who put his arm accross him and Howson went down like he had been shot holding his face - I was disgusted with him,but it worked and the ref showed the Boro player a 2nd yellow so 10 v 10 for the second half. Howson got himself booked 'taking one for the team' - player on a run and he took him out - simple. Then one of theirs has the ball just inside our half and was breaking forward - a long way from goal but no-one ahead of him. Howson went near him and he fell to the floor - ref gave free kick to us and looked ready to book the Boro player who was rolling on the ground. I said that it was a strange thing to do, take a dive in such a situation and it showed the lad had no confidence in himself, we were arguing the point when we saw the ref seem to change his mind and reverse the decision as to the free kick and booked Howson for the foul. I need to see it again to know if that was right (my frrst thought before the ref blew was that Howson had fouled him) but the ref made a total mess of it. It seems according to SG that the 4th official got him to change the decision but surely that is not legal ?So down to 9 v 10 and despite some heroics we just could not keep them out and / or force a goal ourselves despite sending the keeper up for a couple of last minute corners.So a depressing result but a heart warming performance.Whether the performance will be a confidence booster or if being one and then 2 men down for so long will lead to tired legs on Tuesday I am not sure - with Max and Howson then being out for West Ham away it could easily become 4 defeats in the first 4 games - not the start we need.Zac Thompson came on as a sub - some think that it was a message from SG to Bates on how small the squad is - whatever the reason he did not look up to much (though far far too early to write him off). White was about to be brought on before Howson got sent off so maybe he does figure in our plans.As for the anti Bates protest - it seemed poorly attended and pretty futile. Like RIch I don't think the anti Bates chants during the game help the team at all, so although in favour of the sentiments I pretty much did not join in apart from a couple of times. Re Bates in general my son was asked to get involved in Risdale v Bates on the Scracthing Shed site - he took Bates side for the sake of the debate (though his last line kind of shows that he is not a Bates fan)http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2011/08/face-off-ken-bates-v-peter-ridsdale/Not a bad read Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org
MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it)
