Well as some of you know it was a mixed day for me. First the good bit - I have won 2 flights to Crete via Monarch airways sponsorship of the Paint it White promotion, It was a shock to see my name appear on the scoreboard (about 4th of the 12) and I was very scepitcal about whether it would be worth it , but on the face of it , it looks like something decent for nowt. Also on the train home after a few beers , I met up with ex BOTL (bird on the list) Niggy and had a good catch up with her.
The bad bit, surprise surprise the game and result. Habibou and Diuof came in for Morison and McCormack and Rody replaced Norris in midfield. We started brightly and after 15mins or so we were saying how pleased we were to see a Leeds team who were up for a derby game. Varney had a good header that hit the underside of the bar and dropped just the wrong side of the line before being cleared. He later missed a good chance in the area when he blasted miles over. Diuof also had a good shot well saved. The ref made things hard for us (ooer missus) when he booked Habibou for a deliberate but pretty innocuous trip and then Varney for something similar but having put the bar that low he let off Hudds for 2 similar fouls and only booked one of theirs who went right through the back of a Leeds player (I forget who) two footed. Could easily have been a red. After our bright start normal service was resumed and we let them get back into the game, in fact they missed the best chance of the half when the forward totally unmarked by the penalty spot somehow managed to head over. The first half then petered out a bit with neither side doing much. The 'paint it white' promotion had mixed results, more than normal had white shirts on but it was by no means a 'sea of white'. The Revie Stand (or Monarch North Stand as the white cards called it) did a better job of holding up cards as we joined in with MOT pre game. Nothing much happened at the start of the second half until the ball fell to Austin who hit it with the same amount of power as Yeboah used to - unfortunatly the ball hit the bar and unlike Yeboah v scousers, it came back off the bar and hit the keeper in the back and went wide, Then a terrible header from Byram - he headed it back accross the box , school boy stuff - and after a couple of missed clearances the Hudds player hit it is Warnock then changed things and subbed the largely ineffective and to be honest pretty average, Habibou and brought on Hall (where is the sense in taking off the target man and bringing on a winger to put crosses in ?) and also White for the very wasteful Green. We got an almost instant response when a ball into the box led to Varney getting away with blocking the defender and White was on hand to head home. So 1 -1 and 30 minutes to save our season. Instead we plodded along and the game just seemed to drift., the highlight was the response of the Leeds crowd to Beckford warming up. Then strangely the Leeds fans chanted his name as he came on. Now I was a big Beckford fan and sang his name when he was running up and down the line, but a bit of half hearted polite applause was enough for me when he came on - he was playing for the oppositon ffs - do not chant his name. He responded with a thumbs up. So 1 1 not a great result for either team in the scheme of things but we seemed happy enough with the draw whereas Hudds seemed to want to win, and sure enough they did when they carved us open and fired home. The scorer got booked for his shirt off, corner flag kicking celebration, but it showed what it meant to them. We just continued to stroll round and wait for the end There are rumours as I type this that Warnock has gone , and to be honest I hope they are true. The season is over, get rid and get the new man in asap. My mates and others sat near me, season ticket holders one and all, were happy enough with the new prices, let's hope they are low enough to bring others back and kick start our future Just need to make sure my Crete holiday does not clash with a home fixture now Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER
