Well the Tuesday night jinx has struck again and despite hopes that Colin had, at least, sorted out the defence we conceded 3 goals at home for the second game in succession. A look at the (albeit early) table shows that after the game with Forest this coming Saturday we will have played 5 of the top 6 teams. To date we have taken one point from the four games against the top teams, and six from the other two games - Wolves (12th place) and rock bottom pointless (in every sense of the word) Peterborough. Not a great start. Having said that we have been unlucky with injuries - Ross and Drury missing out last night along with Green and Norris - and there is a general feeling that we are only a couple of good players away from being a decent team. I know I am biased and very much watch game with rose tinted (beer and prescription drug addled) glasses, but I thought we deserved at least a point last night and were the better team for big patches of the game , being let down once again by very poor defending. We began brightly cheered on by a very sparse crowd - 19,000- and then Diouf who was involved in most of the good things we did last night, went on a run and was tripped as he went into the box. |The ref seemed to ignore it but the lino waved his flag furiously and after a conflab between the two of them a penalty was given. Becchio stepped up and confidently hit it home. We continued to dominate (the ref stopping the game for an alleged injury to one of theirs who made a miracle recovery and came straight back on) Then we failed to clear the ball in our area and as it bounced around 2 of our players (one was White) both went for it at the same time and it broke clear to the unmarked striker who smacked it home. Then 10minutes later a straightforward cross into the box was misjudged by Pearce ,leaving the forward with a free header that he tucked away. 2 soft goals - both reminiscent of what went on under both McAllister and Grayson - so different managers, different players but same old mistakes. The 2 goals rocked us and the half ended with us making no real chances. After a slow start to the second half Becchio went down and was subbed. Somewhat surprisingly Poleon came on rather than Gray and to be fair he does look to have something about him and is one for the future.The fact that he is in the squad now shows how light we are. We then had our best spell of the game with Poleon causing them problems. We were on top and an equaliser looked on the cards - a great move down our right which looked very promising was brought to a sudden halt as the ref blew because one of theirs was lying on the floor on the half way line near the dug outs. Now I don't want to see another Foe or Muamba etc but surely if the player was in real difficulty someone on the bench would have seen it and run on to treat him ? The break took all the momentum out of us and the fans with the game being restarted with us kicking the ball out of touch for them. The dying player - well, surprise once he got to the touchline he made a miraculous recovery and came straight back on. Gamesmanship at its worst - have we learnt nothing from the Olympics ? We were still moaning about the injustice of it when they had a flowing move which caught us napping and the ball fell to their striker unmarked in the 6 yard box for a tap in. So instead of us possibly getting back on level terms it was 1 3 and game over. Well not quite . Gray came on for the latest fans scapegoat , Varney, and we pressed for the goals we needed. At least we showed spirit and it was rewarded when a cross was well met by Gray who headed home - a good finish but it was too little too late. Another home midweek defeat and worryingly an injury to the other half of our preferred strike force - we will be in trouble if Becchio does join Ross on the sick list. The players gave it their all which is all you can ask for, but we are lacking real quality. Tonge was annonymous. Bryam has quality as does Poleon but they are being asked to do too much too soon. Put Max, Snoddy and Beckford in that team and we would be at the top challenging but they have all gone and not be properly replaced with people of equal quality. There was an anti Bates protest with a hundred or so Bates haters waving placards about in the South Stand but i appeared to be a bit of a damp squib. The announcement of the sub 20k crowd (with a decent turn out from Hull) did get the whole crowd (or at least a majority of them) chanting Bates Out and 'get out of our club' for a short time. The early season optimism of the Wolves game and the hoped for take over has now gone and been replaced with the antipathy so prevalent last season My last word - big up to the Scandies- (as the kids say) - there was a group of 20-25 Norwegians or the like on my train home, presumably on their way to Manchester airport - great dedication and commitment - they like the rest of us deserve more in the way of investment in the team Roll on Satrurday and Forest -a game we really need to win since I can only see a hammering at the hands of Everton next Tuesday , so a defeat on Saturday could mean 4 defeats on the bounce ! Dave _______________________________________________ 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
