Well that was a odd day out , I was Billy no mates ( no offence Rob ) as for various reasons none of my match going compadres attended Indeed it felt like being in the away end in that I was surrounded by Leeds fans but none I recognised- I know the vast majority of fans who sit near me. As the girl on the end of my row said to me as I walked past " at last a face I've seen before " So fans who , for whatever reason , don't normally get to see a game live at ER got a rare taste. Not sure what they will have made of this pretty forgettable match. We attacked, they repelled us, we attacked again , they kept us out, we attacked again, they kept us at arms length, we attacked again..... you get how it went , and this was the pattern as we totally failed to break them down until the hour mark. This lack of penetration ( oo-er missus) was a mixture of slack play and resolute defending by a team 67 (?) places below us. To be honest if they defend like that every week they will stay up. We created 2 chances of note prior to the goal - first a nice run by Joseph beating 2 players and firing a shot that rebounded off the post ( I thought Joseph had a decent game, trying that bit too hard to score and it not quite working, my mates in my WhatsApp group thought he was awful and one mate in particular has totally lost confidence in him and wants rid - game of opinions I suppose) Our other chance was created by some tenacious play by Byram who kept the ball in play and fed Solomon whose lovely shot clipped the bar. Not much to show for 60 minutes of domination. The goal was a touch of class, Solomon skinned the full back and found the unmarked Largie with a nice chip and he headed home. We still failed to put it to bed ,DJ missing our only other chance to kill it off when sent a bit too wide by Joseph which gave him too tight an angle to beat the keeper. They fashioned 2 chances all game ( both at 1 0) one Darlow came out and smothered well , the other saw Ampadu robbed on the edge of the box and the ball ricocheted to their attacker who hit it first time but Darlow was awake and saved the snap shot So a victory more comfortable than the score line suggested but by no means comprehensive.
Points of interest- Guilavogui started at right back ( with Schmidt ahead of him) - he's not a right back and is past it as a starter, keep him as someone to bring on with minutes to go to waste time and lock things down Schmidt looked decent, plenty of running and some good touches but it was v 4th division players. Did his cause no harm. Ramazani - a box of tricks, some work, some don't, but good to watch and I hope to see more of him, took his goal well. The big one - Darlow His every catch, every touch and his save were all over enthusiastically greeted with ( ironic) cheers and applause- more an indication of how the fans are fed up of Meslier rather than happy with Darlow. Did enough to let Farke say he's keeping his place rather than admit he's dropping Mes, but an interesting decision to make next week. Finally a welcome return for both Gruev and Firpo who got great receptions. So, unusually for us, in the hat for the next round with some fans wanting a team to whom we can lose without losing face , rather than a team we should beat - a cup run , good for the club, fans and team or an unwelcome distraction that could derail the league - who knows Hope the ' daytrippers ' enjoyed it but back to the real thing next Sunday and surrounded by faces I recognise 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/ Martin Brown, a Usual Suspect who gave us Spadge Tours and Team17 R.I.P.
