A bit of a mixed bag this one but at the end of it all we got through and we did it in front of the biggest crowd of the round over 17,000. As this crowd proved and were happy to sing a few times 'that Chelsea b@stard is out of our club' - the general feel in and around ER is such a change from last year. We played a bit of a mixed team Kenny, Lees and Pearce kept their places as did Green so the centre spine of the team was the same, around these were Drury, Thompson, Norris, Brown, White and up front Poleon and Smith. We started brightly and took the game to them Smith skying a shot that even stayed in play, Poleon had good turn and shot and we all looked forward to the breakthrough and maybe an easy night. Then things went wrong and in a fashion that we have been used to since McAllister - a straightforward run and cross into the box, the centre forward unmarked rose and headed home - same shit , different day. However this team and this crowd are made of sterner stuff these days and we rode the set back well and got back in control of the game and equalised from an unpredicted source as Micheal Brown (again the subject of ironic chants) picked up the ball 25yds out and hammered home a beauty, right into the corner. A few minutes later and Poleon was through one on one with a defender and with Smith alongside him. Poleon proved he is a goal scorer when instead of playing the easy ball he put it through the defender and hit it through the keeper and in. The less said about his goal scoring dance the better - it needs work shall we say. They nearly equalised when the forward went round Kenny and his shot was goal bound but 2 defenders had not given it up and were on the line , the first of these Pearce cleared it. The other move of note, showed that White will never be Paul Scholes (sorry RW) - he was through on goal in a similar fashion to the Poleon goal, he had Poleon to his left and Smith to his right. He had 3 options,the best would have been to go it alone and score, the second best option would have been to slide it through to Poleon who would have scored, he chose the 3rd and put it through to Smith. Now I cannot envisage Smith scoring many one on ones with his feet and he certainly was not going to score this one since the ball from White was abysmal and gave him no chance of getting to it - a real opportunity missed. Second half we failed to get going really and our two worst players on the night White and Thompson almost gave it away, a terrible misplaced pass from White led to their winger going past the ineffective Thompson (he is not a full back) and getting to the edge of the box when Thompson tripped him. If this had been a Sky live game no doubt we would have seen lots of replays and different angles to see if it was inside or outside the box - luckily for us the ref decided the original foul was outside although the lad fell inside the box - another let off. McDermott did not like what was going on at this point and brought on the big guns, McCormack and Murphy for White and Norris. Ross came on to chants of 'he's not for sale' and after a slow start the 2 of them began to take a strangle hold of the game and we looked to see it out, creating a few half chances and looking fairly comfortable. Then with 10mins to go we decided that we had done enough and just sat back and let them come at us. We nearly paid for it as a lovely flowing move by them ended with them hitting the post - our 3rd and final let off So another 2 1 victory and another win after going a goal down As I have said White and Thompson were poor, Brown and Drury both looked Ok Norris was average at best. None of these will be first teamers on a regular basis - Peltier, Warnock, Murphy, Austin,and McCormack will fill their spots. Lees and Pearce both did some good bits but both looked cumbersome with the ball at their feet and we will not have many clean sheets with them as our centre back pairing. Kenny was his normal self, good stops, poor kicks, never coming out for crosses. He will gain us a lot more points than he will cost us The most interesting pick was Smith and Poleon up front. Smith is huge and strong and unlike the likes of Crouch he does jump his full height, and unlike other tall forwards (Joe Jordan springs to mind) he does head the ball rather than just let it hit his head. Therefore he made some lovely headers, some at the goal, some intelligent flick ons and some clever lay offs (as per Saturday). On the floor he is slow and sluggish and I am not sure of his skill level. He may be the new John Pearson or the new Lee Chapman. He may well split opinion but on first impressions I like him and think he will do well for us if we can play to his strengths. Poleon - he can be the new Beckford - he is a striker not a winger. Like Beckford often did he scored one but could have had 3 or 4 and most of them he made for himself. He has that arrogance and selfishness that all good strikers have - he perhaps should have passed rather than shot for the goal but he was selfish. He did a couple of really arrogant flicks and went on one really mazy run with three or four step overs - arrogant but in a good way He is strong, works hard, is fast and knows where the goal is. If we can keep him level headed he really can be a top player and could go on to be a full England International - he really sets the crowd alight when he has the ball. His dance - almost a Millwall Andy Hughes robot - was funny but awful and again illustrated his arrogance but if you have got it flaunt it. I love an arrogant selfish striker which is why Beckford is my favourite Leeds player of recent times - will Poleon get the same amount of stick from the crowd that Beckford (unfairly got) I don't know , I hope not Best chants of the day 'Michael Brown scored a f*cking great goal at Elland Road' and 'where is Chesterfield?'
All in all another great day at ER - fair play to 3k Chesterfield fans who made the trip - and there is starting to be a real buzz about the place after years of pessimism, I had lads sat on either side of me who were not together but both said they had missed Saturdays game but were there tonight So crowds of 33 and 17 thousand - crowds that would have been 24 and 10 thousand last season ? Good time are here Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER
