That level of optimism is beyond even me !Mind you IF we beat Fulham in midweek
......
From: Nicholas Armit <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, 31 March 2018, 17:58
Subject: Re: [LU] Bolton
Dave,
Only three games off the playoffs. Chase on!
Nick
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
On Saturday, March 31, 2018, 5:50 AM, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
The fact that this is the first match report and even I have left it overnight
pretty much sums up the tired feeling around ER at the moment,we are all just
counting down the games till we can put the season to bed (don't let the 35K
'biggest crowd of the season' fool you)
I hesitate to start with the cliche -it was a Good Friday for us - but what
else can be said when we acheived our first win for what feels like months (I
know it was actually Brentford at the end of Feb)
We did deserve the 3 points but boy did we make hard work of it at times
against yet another awful team (if not quite as bad as Sheff Wed)
We were not over-impressed with the line up -( no Forshaw (out for the season ?
but that cannot be helped) with Pearce not getting a second chance, no place
for the much touted and promised (ok it was the Mi**or) Jack Clarke and both
Hernandez and Lassogga starting despite it being unclear to say the least that
they will be here next time. We also kept the on loan Pennington in the line up
but I don't think we had any choice.We put Berardi back to left back and Dallas
at right back. Heck did go two up front for once at home - better than Monk and
TC, and it paid dividends early on as we really got at them from the off.
Ekuban hassled the defender and played in Alioski in the first minutes and he
had a curler just wide, then on 4 minutes the dream start, a lovely cross by
PML and the ball fell to Ekuban who shot home from the corner of the 6 yd box -
a cool finish and a weight off the lads back, would this be the start of
something good from him ?
The very influential Alioski , having one of his best games for us (sorry Dave,
but I thought he was excellent yesterday) put in a great cross that Lassoga
could not quite reach and then missed a decent chance himself. They had little
to offer and we went in at half time 1 up and looking comfortable for the most
part,with a header from Jansson from an Alioski corner nearly doubling the lead
at the death. So much so that my mate who had money on us winning 2 0, added a
bet for us to win 3 0.
His confidence looked well placed when early in the second half twice Alioski
went rampaging down the right wing, his first ended in a lovely ball to
Hernandez whose shot was well saved, a minute later the same thing except
Alioski tried his own shot which the keeper again saved but Hernandez showed
real commitment beating the two defenders and slotting home 2 nil so we could
all relax and enjoy us romping home to an easy victory ? No chance this is
Leeds United .
Just after second half started we realised that Adam Le Fondre was playing -
'oh shit, he's bound to score' I said and lo and behold within 5 minutes of
saying that he had done so. A free kick by the lanky Ameobi was met by Le
Fondre who got ahead of his marker (O'Kane?) and glanced home,a good goal from
their point of view, poor defending from ours
This set back really rocked us and we almost fell apart as they created a few
chances and a draw started to look the most likely result. However Heck had one
ace up his sleeve the little maestro Saiz who he brought on to great acclaim
and he soon showed his worth pretty much running the game from then on, in fact
twice in the last quarter we should have got the third goal as ekuban twice had
it put on a plate and twice messed up - the goal he scored not leading , so
far, to the goal glut we were all hoping for.In fairness one was well saved but
a striker through on goal one on one is excpected to score and he didnt.
Pennington also had a very late chance to get the third whilst at the other end
Will Buckley again failed at ER (his loan spell was pretty poor) and he fluffed
a decent chance
So the game, like the season, petered out with little enthusiasm or noise from
the 'biggest crowd of the season'Just in case anyone is not aware - this crowd
owed more to the fact that ST holders could bring a friend for free than to any
brilliant support on our part. I have no idea whether this promotion worked
either in terms of getting non attending fans to buy STs or at least start
watching when they have to pay or if the loss of ticket revenue was covered by
extra beer, food and merchandise sales. , but, fair play to the club they did
try and sell more stuff by having a 'cupboard' in the Revie Stand selling hats
(and scarves?) so they did try and milk it
Not a great game and not sure we will have learned anything from it ? Maybe
that Ekuban will still not be prolific, maybe that Hernandez is certainly worth
another contract for a year, and maybe that the impressive Vieira can still
become the next Delph / Cook as he looked back to something like his best.
Bailey Peacock Farrell also looked solid again, he made a couple of good
catches from crosses, something we have missed for the last few keepers and
looked confident albeit he did not have much to do
So only 3 home games to go - what will Heck do with the rest of the season?
Will he blood Jack Clarke and will he give Pearce another chance ? or will the
season just meander on and we go back to square one over the summer?
Dave
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