Wow - that was fantastic - left ER still singing and buzzing all the way back to the station.No doubt Rich will come and give his views which will include giving all the team (bar Townsend) a hard time for their performances - and to be fair he will be right , and no doubt I will agree with 99% of his comments because he will be right BUT we got 3 points and even better we got 3 points from being a goal down on 85 mins !If ever a game showed that football is not about possession or shots on target or fouls or corners or any of the other stats that Sky bombard us with in an attempt to make us like American football - it is about one thing and one thing only - sticking the ball in the net, and we did it one more time than they did - so job doneIn the pub pre game we all agreed that a defeat in a poor performance could see the end of SG - we were in less agreement as to whether that would be a good or bad thing - of the 6 of us 2, inc myself were still pro Grayson, 2 were anti and the other 2 abstained / were undecided.To anyone who says that SG has lost the dressing room / players, the fact that we turned a 0 1 into a 2 -1 in the last few minutes after 3 straight defeats including a hammering last time out , to me, proves them wrong. The players gave it their all and refused to be beaten - thinking , like us, that a defeat would see him sacked. As for the game , Connolly, Brown, Varynen,and Keogh all found themselves left out (and may never play for us again ?) and Zac Thompson came in with Townsend and the recalled Clayton and Bruce (albeit at right back)Of the rest Kisnorbo could probably count himself the luckiest to keep his place, and our and his start to the game showed just how lucky he was, as Burnley took the game to us and should have gone ahead. Then we got lucky and Kisnorbo was injured and had to go off - this meant moving Thompson back to right back where he looked decent and Bruce to his proper place in the centre. Even better it meant that Sam came on on the right wing and led to Townsend moving to the left - his true position. We started to look better and began to get a foothold in the game. We ave the ball to the very impressive Townsend - very similar in many ways to the departed Max Gradel, very direct, very quick and very greedy. This gave us a number of free kicks , which were mainly wasted an a couple of bookings. Townsend then went on another run and 'won' a free kick, going over the defenders leg - clever, if not 100% fair and above board, even better the ref went for his yellow again and off went the defender.Surely,even Leeds in our present predicament could beat 10 men ?Well for the remainder of the half we tried, but a Nunez long range effort , and a coupe of great crosses apart we had nothing to show for it. So onto the second half (after some daft bint in Ugg boots did the worse halt time score on the bounce competition) - we came out fired up and spent the next 20mins or so in the most one sided game I have seen for ages. We huffed and we puffed and we came close on occasion - a lovely run and pull back from Townsend deserved to have someone on the end of it. Thompson fired just wide, O'Dea had one tipped over etc. To be fair to Burnley they defended like they were determined not to concede and gave it their all - a great defensive perfomance whilst under the cosh, couple with lots of time wasting.Surely we would get the goal we deserved and the flood gates would open? Then in their first and only foray into our half, the lad turned and hit a great shot accross Lonergan - a good finish but 100% against the run of play.Was this the end of Grayson ?After a bit of a wobble in front of a stunned crowd, SG took his last gamble. off went Becchio and Nunez and on came Forsell and McCormack.We continued to control the game and pressed and pressed but they dfefended like their lives depended on it and the clock ticked on.Surely we could not lose thisThen we got a corner and a poor ball into the box was turned into the net by a Burnley player - a total fluke- undeserved from their point of view but maybe the bit of luck Grayson and we merited ?Just as the celebrations died down the board went up - 5 minutes to penalise them for all the time wasting (especailly the keeper), we kept on going and a run from Townsend followed by a shot, that the keeper, Rchubka-esque managed to spill and Ross showing the predatory instincts of earlier in the season was first to the ball and prodded it homeNot sure what happened after that as we went, literally beserk, what an end to a game, what a way to start the New Year, what a way to end the 3 match losing runWow - like I say, fantastic - undeserved in some ways, totally deserved in others - the last 10minutes makes the £516 renewal price seem like a snip !This is what football is all aboutDaveNow waiting for a dour, sensible, reasoned report from RIch in which Becchio and Pugh should never pull on a Leeds shirt again - and in fairness to RIch, whose reports I always look forward to, probably a more realistic one than mine (even he will have been impressed by Townsend, the pace and drectness we have been lacking - the new Max?) _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
