It is hard to know what to say and where to start about todays game. The atmosphere in the West Ridings and then Prince of Wales was very subdued and both pubs were empty - a sign of the general apathy around the place.A few minutes in I said how strange it was to see Charlton in blue shirts especially when there was no need for it - those around me did point out that it was Watford we were playing but it did illustrate my lack of enthusiasm. The game was plodding along - we had made a few changes with Green at right back, Norris replacing Brown and Tonge playing a bit more central - up front Varney was preferred to Becchio. Things were fairly even and clear cut chances were at a premium and then almost from nowhere they got a quick break - a hint of offside and Peltier stood with his hand in the air as they passed to another forward who looked even more offside but the flag stayed down and he went on to score (I have not seen it on TV so do not know if the lino got it right or not). Not much else happened till just before half time (though I do recall Varney being through on the keeper and hitting it straight at him) when Diouf gave the ball straight to one of them who Pearce took out - at first the ref pulled out a yellow card and I said 'lucky it is not red' but the yellow was obviously in the same pocket and just in the way as the ref then found the right card and sent Pearce off - no real complaints. So 0 1 down and down to 10 men at half time. Then Warnock -a manager I have criticised recently for his lack of subs - made the strange, and with hindsight totally wrong, decision to take off Diouf and White and bring on Brown and Hall. We paid dearly for this when Austin went down in pain and was taken off - it must have been serious since instead of going off down the tunnel he was taken down by the North East corner exit and into an ambulance. So 0 1 and down to 9 men. We huffed and puffed and gave it 100% - those fans that stayed tried their best to roar them on but a hiding was always on the cards and so it proved as the goals flew in. I cannot recall any of them apart from one straight from a free kick. We did have a quick glimpse of hope at 3 0 when Varney was pulled down in the box and Tonge put away the penalty - but any hope was short lived as they went down the other end straightaway and scored 1 4 The ref added 10 more minutes of pain and torture and they duly added a couple more goals. It really was one to forget - Hall who I was looking forward to seeing never got a sniff and the other loanee we were bringing in before the game never materialised. Young lad Dawson was on the bench but did not get on. So things go from bad to worse as the takeover remains 'imminent' I am almost glad that I am missing the Palace game (our next home game) for a prior engagement (a trip to Birmingham to see Steve Harley - booked before the fixtures came out)
It is easy with hindsight to say that Colin got it wrong by making his 2 remaining subs at half time (he had brought on Lees for Green to re-shuffle after the Pearce sending off) but surely when we were down to 10men it was a gamble not worth taking. If it was 11 v 11 and he used all his subs at half time then the worse that is likely to happen is an injury, and we would be down to 10men and as we all know, 10 can do ok against 11.But when we only had 10 men, an injury takes us down to 9 and 9 men can do nothing v 11 and so it proved. We are almost used to it - 0 5, 4 6. 3 7 etc in recent years but even so SIX goals conceded at home (even when down to nine men) is just not acceptable. Something needs to change,and it has to be dramatic change and it has to happen NOW Without something happening we will be facing a real relegation battle and be playing in front of 15,000 fans Still we do have Chelsea and a quarter final to look forward to 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
