Well in my 40 years of watching Leeds I have seen some great matches and some wonderful performances and I have had some cracking days out that will live with me forever (or until the Alzheimers kicks in) - today was NOT one of them, and I doubt if I will remember todays game by this time next week. On the way to the game I was really looking forward to it, I knew we were expecting a big crowd (in the event over 31k turned up) and for once (almost) I actually thought we would win, and I hoped that we would win comfortably. Instead it was all very flat, the crowd were very quiet and the players never did anything to get them going. Last home game we got a point and I came home still buzzing, today we got a point and I was worried about falling asleep on the train home. As with any game you can point to bits and think 'if only' and certainly there were 2 'if only' moments in the first half - both fell to Smith, the first he did well to control the ball and did a great turn but his shot was right at the keeper, the second was another Smith shot, that was so poorly hit it was almost a back pass. That apart , the first half was poor and on a couple of occasions they had decent chances to take the lead. To be fair to Brian McD he had seen the same rubbish as the rest of us and he made 2 changes at half time. Unfortunately they did no work - Tonge who had looked decent in the first few games struggled to make an impact and Byram, once again, is not the same player who looked so good last season. We huffed and puffed and had most of the ball and mostly in their half but did very little with it. It just wasn't to be and yet another Yorkshire derby had us dragged down to the level of the opposition, an opposition today that were bottom of the league! I could not believe it when on the bus back to the station I found that we had moved up a place ! A strange league this one. So a really poor day BUT I have said all season that I would be happy with us spending the season in and around the play off spots, so I am delighted that we are ending the calendar year in 5th spot. More than that, the mood in and around ER is so much better than the last few seasons - I was sceptical about those fans who said they would be back once Bates had gone, but they have been pretty much true to their word. To get over 31k the week before Christmas for a Cat A game against opponents who brought less than a thousand would have been unthinkable in the last few years under Bates, and although 1,000 of these were freebies and another 1400 were kids under the fantastic new scheme it was a fantastic effort and shows, once again, the potential we have
So, a bad day at the office but a decent first half to the season , so I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and lets hope for more good things to come Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] John 'Grampa' Sykes Rest In Peace old lad 28th Oct 1938 - 12 Nov 2013 MARCHING ON TOGETHER
