Well I may have been looking forward to this pre match but after about 10minutes I was looking forward to the final whistle, so poor was the fare on offer. 2 poor teams, playing poorly does not make for a great spectacle especially in the rain. As expected we began with the same team as started against Leicester, the only change being Diouf for Varney, who did not even make the bench, giving credence to the Varney to Blackburn rumours. Against Leicester we started with passion and commitment and some flair creating chances galore early on - yesterday by half time our sum total was a shot by Austin that then keeper saved down to his right but which looked like it was going wide anyway, plus McCormack could only skim with the top of his head a too high cross. They were no better and also created little in a game littered with odd off sides - I say off because there were so many of them, mainly within a few yards of the halfway line and not appealed for by either team. The only bright point were a couple of nice triangles between Kebe, Byram and Diouf along our right touchline which came to nothing - not helped by the linesman who was 2 yards away but was the only one who did not see Byram 'taken out' when going for a one two. Diouf clearly has more class and skill than the rest of the team but I am not sure what actual use he is in the present line up. His lack of pace and lack of goal scoring threat makes him a luxury we do not need. The 20k crowd (up to you if that is good or not) greeted half time with muted applause and a few boos. These boos were really ramped up fairly early into the second half when a long range shot should have caused Kenny no worries but he somehow let it go through him and into the corner of the net - shocking mistake. This brought chants of 'we all love Leeds' from our new singers in the South Stand whereas the Kop responded with 'what the F is going on' for a few minutes before getting behind the team again. Things then improved slightly when Stewart who had got some real stick off the crowd a few minutes before for checking back and passing the ball to them ,when the chance was there for him to have a run at them, did just that and although he seemed to have run out of space and lost a bit of control in the box he was tripped and we got the nailed on but soft penatly Capt Ross hit it home and McD brought on Mowatt and Poleon - who were about to be brought on before the penalty This injection of youth and pace roused the crowd and Mowatts prompting passing and Poleons direct running did liven things up a bit but to say that the last half hour was entertaining would be stretching a bit At last the final whistle put us out of our misery and it was a point apiece - all either team desreved on a night that will soon be forgotten. The applause at the end was subdued and there were a few shouts of abuse but mainly fans were just apathetic - they are fed up to the back teeth with the take over nonsense and the lack of transfers despite all the big talk from Haig The five minutes or so between the goals showed that the fans are desperate to get behind the team and support them BUT that patience has worn out, 10 years of dross has made fans patience wafer thin
Anyway roll on Saturday and 3 points :-) 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
