"OUTSTANDING" 5 STARS"STUPENDOUS " - 5 STARS"SPELLBINDING FROM START TO FINISH" - 5 STARS"IT HAD EVERYONE OUT OF THEIR SEATS "- 5 STARS"A MUST- SEE GAME" - 5 STARS That is what you would see plastered on buses etc if last nights game was a film ! From start to finish we were excellent in all departments and wow didn't the fans enjoy it - 90 mins of non stop singing, chanting and celebrating I agreed with Nic (?) beforehand that I would have a few pre match beers (check) get behind the team for 90mins (check) and clap them off at the end (check) but little did I think it would be so easy to do the second two. Pre match we were all worried and the general feeling was that we would lose to WBA but in itself, that would not be fatal but our lack of goals would both scupper automatic and the play offs- our main hope would be that Bamford instead of wasting chances as he had so far would find his scoring boots. We slagged off the usual suspects, Alioski, Harrison, the more recent addition Ayling, and then based on Tuesday, Tyler Roberts. With these 4 in the team we were going nowhere ! As per normal we timed it quite well to get to the ground and I was going up the steps to my seat as they kicked off - as I was doing the 'scuse me' dance down the row, there was a massive roar and I looked up just in time to see Pablo curl a belter into the net - great finish, and a great start. (big kudos to Harrison who laid the ball on for him ) They got a free kick in a great position as we were still celebrating but it hit the wall and that was the last time I was really worried about this game. The early goal really lifted the full house crowd and we got behind the team as only (these days) Elland Road can. We needed the second and I was deliberately not mentioning the 'we have not lost when we have scored first stat' in case I jinxed it. We had to wait till the half hour mark to get the second, half an hour in which we chased them down, harried them and took the ball off them. We also went back to the way we played earlier in the season when we made possession count. None of this Japp Stamm to me to you football along the back line, this was passing with purpose, precision and speed, exactly what Bielsaball is about. We had a few half chance / near misses as they could not live with us, their only danger a few set pieces that Kiko dealt with. Then came a brilliant 5 or 6 man move that ended with Roberts sliding the ball through to Bamford who took one, two three touches and then slotted home, the finish of a top player. The feeling then was 'game over' - just make sure we don't do anything silly and the points are ours. We continued the second half where we left off - on the front foot and came close a few times before we got the goal that did finsih it as a contest. Just after the hour mark and with Alioski on the floor Roberts impressive throughout carried the ball forward beat his man and played another lovely ball to Bamford whose shot took a wicked deflection and went in. West Brom were beaten and should have been down to 10 men when Barry committed a foul "thats a yellow" we all shouted, 'ha, he's off its his second' except the ref bottled it. Then came the icing on the cake - in the second minute of injury time, with ER still full- no-one leaving early last night, came another great move , which ended with Klich feeding it to Shackleton down the wing and his cross was met at very close range by Alioski who tapped home - how he had the energy to be there in the 92nd minute after the running he had already done, I don't know - he has his (many) critics but you cannot criticise his effort or his stamina So an amazing 4 0 victory and back to the top of the league and QPR game put to bed (we think that Bielsa also got booked but no real idea what for) This was us back to our early season best and with Bamford now scoring who knows what the season will bring. SO a big apology to Alioski, Harrison, and Ayling you were all great and showed why MB keeps on picking you all, and a massive apology to Roberts for daring to doubt him - he really was magnificent last night
As I said at the start, amazing, stupendous and spell-binding and I loved every minute of it Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ RIP Jimmy WAC-COE
