Well after my sojourn to Old Tafford for the rugby last week, very weird singing "come on you reds" or even worse the Salford version of Anarchy in the Uk with the line" I wanna destroy Wigan and Leeds" , albiet I did do the Leeds salute at the Leeds line, It was back to my spiritual home of Elland Road where I have been visiing every fortnight for 45 of its 100year history. I gave the celebrations a miss, I prefer to remembr my idols and heroes as fit young men (oo er missus) running down the wing, crunching into tackles etc rather than as bald,, fat shuffling old fellows (no offence) and was more interested in the present and would it affect todays today's performance rather than wallowing in the past. General Haigh, as the only non Bielsa fan in our group calls him, did what Haigh always did and stuck with the same team and same plan (we did point out that Haigh did win the war but his retort about how long and how many lifes etc, kind of derailed the football talk. We started brightly enough with a rasping shot by Alioski bringing about a good save. Then we had 3 chances in 1 but no goal to show for it. A lovely ball over the top fell to Bamford in the box but instead of shooting he did a lovely back heel to Costa whose shot was blocked and came back to Dallas who played a neat one two with Klich and then fired a shot right at the keeper, good football but nothing to show for it. When the moans / excitement had died down a bit a lad near me made the observation "That is why Bamford will never be a top goal scorer , can you imagine Clarke, Chapman or Beckford passing in that position?" and it is true the real out and out scorers have always been greedy and a bit lazy generally. Bamford on the other hand was working so hard on and off the ball that my mate (correctly) surmised, he is only going to play half a game. We contined to domnate but create few real chances and converted none. We did look mainly secure at the back with the much maligned Berardi alongside the immaculate White, with some help from Kiko keeping out the Birmingham long throws and set pieces. Somewhat unbelievably we have the best defensive record in the Division. So half time came and all the old worries about domination with nothing to show started to affect the crowd, would this be another home game where we control the game but throw away the points? eddie came on at half time but did little of real note though he did win a free kick that was given literally inches outside the box, the referees spray touching the penatly area marking. We lost our way a bit in the second half and nerves were starting to show when Harrison, who had a good game, nipped in and stole the ball and then for the 3rd game in a row set up his teammate for the goal. This time it was Kalvin whose shot was pretty much at the keeper but had enough power to go through him and into the net. Maybe fitting that a Leeds lad got the goal in the 100th birthday game. They offered little in reply but we were looking a bit ragged and Bielsa went ful General Haigh and did his now usual move of bringing on Douglas and moving Alioski further foward to shore things up. This time thankfully it did just about work and alioski should have perhaps created a second goal instead of blasting high and wide from a yard out but from an impossible angle rather than pulling it back for Eddie.. Anyway in the end despite last minute wobbles and them missing a glorious chance when they put a free header over the bar it was another 3 points and another clean sheet. Beating a team who did the double over us last season 2 hard away games coming up but Pablo is almost back (30mins for under 23s on Friday) and Costa did look decent in short spells. Lack of goals still the big probelm but onwards and upwards for another 100 years ! Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
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