So back to the Fortress again last night.
Pretty much mirrored the Bolton first half – Reading were a faster, and more slick bunch than Bolton (and than Leeds), but the howler between birthday boy Butland and Pearce that handed them their first goal, aside there wasn’t much indication of the likely events of the second half. It was fairly mundane stuff a bit more zip from Reading, faster into the tackle, but not causing us to be overly concerned. Our lot were shaky at first before seeming to settle into the game a little…and a bit of confidence began to come back. And then we broke out our Keystone Cops routine again. 0-1 down, from nowhere, and everything falls apart. Suddenly Reading are at everything…snapping tackles, whipping the ball about, leaving our lot chasing shadows. And when we do get the ball, we rarely find another man to pass to. (Except Lees who can pick out some bloke in the West stand unerringly – probably his dad) We made it to half time with no more damage done…but what on earth do the manager and coaches say to the players at half time – for the second game running we fold like a paper house in the rain and within minutes we’re 0-4 down. Nothing short of shambolic. I don’t see a leader on the pitch or the touch line who is bollocking – cajoling – organinsing (and this is my problem with forwards as captains – they’re not at the heart of it…). I thought we were playing some form of 3-5-2…others thought it more 5-3-2 (which would a be a shameful line up at home)…but it doesn’t matter if people don’t pick up runners, mark their man, track back, get in where it hurts…because as Reading showed, they will waltz through and bang the ball home. So 0-4 after 52 minutes…that was enough for many (the old guy behind me who can remember seeing John Charles and Duncan Edwards play, had enough and left muttering darkly about the M62)…for the first time in my Leeds supporting life I almost left as well. There really seemed no point. But I gave it a few minutes while we desperately tried not to concede any more goals…and Matt Smith came on. Won a few headers, we all pushed 10 yards up the pitch and suddenly the big lump scored, scrambling the ball in at the far post from Pearce header back across goal. Less than a minute later, Rudi picks the ball up, surges forward and plants a curving 30 yarder into the top corner…and for ten or fifteen minutes they gave us some hope…THE BASTARDS…Smith came close a couple of times, there was loads of pressure and some corners and some scrambles…but in the end it fizzled out. So another dawn another drubbing; another exodus of fans well before the final whistle; another clueless performance from the dead man on the bench and what is to be done…he won’t walk, we can’t afford to sack him, especially if we are days away from administration again…our best hope is an Italian caught up in tax evasion investigations…this summer will see Ross McC, Byram and possibly Mowatt leave… …when do the Season Ticket renewals go out again? Again hard to do points for players…the back 4/5/6 were woeful (I think we probably need to put Brown in front of the back 4 again) – once again Murphy was probably our most consistent player on the night…although Smith did well and caused problems when he came on, in his own unique way; Rudi got fired up for the last half hour. Ross McC mainly invisible throughout. Sad times. _______________________________________________ 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
