Great report Dave. I'm fine with missing away games these days but I really would have liked to have been there on Sunday.
I think it was Lees that was marking Cole for their goal. ----- Original Message ---- From: DAVID NATTAN <[email protected]> To: list leedslist <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, 22 August, 2011 12:03:23 Subject: [LU] West Ham - a great day out I am almost retired from away games but went to West Ham yesterday - and what a great day it was,makes me realise what I will be missing.You know it is a good away trip when you leave home at 7am and get back just before midnight !A couple of pre match pints near Liverpool Street and then tubes to the ground. A good few Leeds on the tube from Miles End who did a lot of anti Bates stuff (stand up / sit down / shoes off if you hate KB) and some pro Leeds songs - the West Ham fans just ignored them - would never have been like that in the 80s !The game kicked off in glorious sunshine and as expected Max and Howson were back, Max for Nunez and thankfully Howson for (the injured) Brown so we stayed 4 4 2. We were under pressure from the off and a succession of corners led to Lonnie tipping them over the bar - he claimed the last one was already over but the ref gave another corner - this one ended in the back of the net as Cole outmuscled Aidy White - why on earth their number one threat was left to White rather than Kis, O'D or Lees I am not sure. Bad start and we feared the worst. But with Clayton pulling the strings and Max giving them the runaround we took total control of the game. A number of near misses and half chances eventually led to us being awarded a penalty - as we now know Max pulled his shot well wide. Despite this set back the lads kept on going and were well on top in everything but the score. 3,000 Leeds fans made a lot of noise with a great repertoire of songs old and new. MOT, we are Leeds, we all love Leeds were joined by a few great renditions of Leeds United calypso, and mixed amongst it we anti Bates chants including "we are the morons"We also had a lot of banter with some WH fans to our left nicknaming one of them Bruno. We gave Carlton Cole a hard time , starting with 'you're just a shit Emile Heskey' and then even more of an insult 'just you're just a shit Tresor Kandol'. Even better when Cole was subbed and Carew came on he was met with 'you're just a shit Carlton Cole' which had Bruno and the WH fans openly laughing and clapping. Anyway back to the game - Max kept his head up after the penalty miss and Clayton and Howson continued to look good and control it against the much vaunted WH midfield. So at half time we felt we could get something out of the game.Then on the hour mark a great move involving Snoddy and a great back heel from Keogh led to Snoddy putting the ball across goal and McCormack obliged by hitting it home, a great goal. Can we go on and win it now we wondered but instead within minutes a run down our left , a cross and the ball ended up in the back of our net - we were not sure how but soon it became clear that Kis had followed in Lees footsteps and put it past the impressive Lonergan. That really rocked us - the fans became quiet and subdued and the players heads went down. There followed a huge amount of corners where WH tried to make their height advantage count. We hung on but only just, some clown behind me started to slag Longeran off for not coming out and catching the ball but give how deep most of the corners were and how big WH were , I am 100% sure he did the right thing, pulling off one top class save. With 10mins left and having somehow survived the barrage (something we would not have done last season - so hats off to Kis, O'D, Lees White and Longeran) we began again to take the game to West Ham with Nunez on for the hard working McCormack buzzing around with intent. Just as it looked as if all our efforts would count for nothing the ball dropped to Howson at the edge of the box and his well hit shot thundered against the woodwork and bounced back to Clayton, he capped off a great mom performance by getting over the ball and keeping it low and smacking it into the net - a good finish and one worthy of earning us the point we deserved. Could we hang on for the 3 added minutes ? We won a corner and after it was finished O'D and a WH player got involved and a few more players joined in the handbag melee. The ref booked the 2 protagonists and, I think because of the skirmish blew his whistle soon after.It was a well earned and well deserved point at a ground where most teams will be beaten this season. Bruno and his mates to our left applauded our efforts with thumbs up signs and a general appreciation of how good our support had been - great to see.Also a special mention to the ref - if this had been the prat from the Boro game it would have ended 8 v 8,but this one showed a great attitude and kept his cards in his pockets and let the game flow, talking to players who committed fouls but no more than that, and if it had not been for the spat at the end we would not have seen a card all game- a refreshing change. OK he may have made 2 poor decisions (I have not seen on TV yet) it looked like a penalty when Cole went down and equally when White was upended.So off we went to get a few beers in near West Ham and then a trip to a curry house in Whitechapel before leaving the capitalA great day out after a very good and entertaining game. It may be more luck than judgement on SGs part but, for me, given the players we have , he now has our best line up, with Howson and Clayton we can now have a 4 man midfield and so play 2 up fornt, at the back White and Lees do have some weaknesses at full back but Whites pace and Lees general ability compensate for that. Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it) _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER (There's it)
