Well, watching the first half you wouldn't have predicted how comfortably we won this in the end.
Same team and bench as Tuesday. The main talking point about the lineups being Huddersfield's 17 year old youth team goalie making his debut. Everyone I spoke to before the game said we had to try and get about thim and put him under pressure early on. And did we? No, not at all. We looked sluggish compared to Hudds, ho put us under pressuer all over the pitch, intercepting passes and forcing errors. They had plenty of chances, although their finishing was poor and Casper didn't have a difficult save to make. Their 'keeper hardly had any work to do at all though and we looked very poor. Then, with about 25 minutes gone Douglas got the ball some 30 yards out and hit a low, speculative shot. From the Kop it looked like it should have been saved, but either in bounced over the 'keeper's outstretched arm or it went through him and we were one up very much against the run of play. Echos of Scott Carson against Croatia: a goalkeeper making his competitive debut in a big game played in atrocious conditions getting beaten by a long shot he should have saved. The game started to get niggly, with the referee looking like he didn't have cmplete control of the game. Kishishev was booked for one sliding tackle and then in the half's dying minutes he made another worse one. He really should have got a second yellow, but amazingly he just got a talking to. Wise seemingly thought the same, replacing him with Howson at half time. Huddersfield kept pressing, but they are not the first team to try and play a high tempo game against us, and all the others have failed from a lack of fitness. Could they keep it up for 90 minutes? In a word, no. In the second half we were the better team by far and they didn't have a meaningful attempt on goal. Leeds, meanwhile, played a better passing game and created a lot more chances. The second game came from a Leeds break down the left from a corner. Kandol held the counter attack up and we thought the chance had gone before Prutton got free down the left and played a low ball into the near post. Their 'keeper should have come to claim it, but he waited for the ball to come to him, allowing Beckford to slide in and glance the ball home with an outstretched boot. "2-0 and it's the 'keeper's fault" sang the Kop. I felt sorry for the kid, but hey, that's football. The third goal came from Westlake (who played better the longer the game went on) breaking free of the offside trap down our left flank. He hit an excellent hard, low cross along the edge of the 6 yard box and Prutton hit the ball hard. It was well saved, but Beckford tapped in the rebound: 3-0. The fourth goal was also down to Westlake: Put through by an excellent back header from Kandol he hit a great dipping volley which the keeper saved well but he palmed it across the goal and Flo popped up at the back post to tap the ball home. Casper: 6 - Not really tested and some of his distribution was slow and / or inaccurate. Richardson: 7 - Steady enough deensively, distribution still poor at times but better than it was against Port Vale Hughes: 7 - Playing at left back he struggled when put under pressure but played his determined, big-hearted game. Heath: 7 - plenty of aerial balls for him to defend and not much on the floor, so he looked steady. Marques: 5 - Some dreadful half clearances and struggled to win balls in the air. Prutton: 8 - Looks the real deal. Westlake: 8 - Provided plenty of industry and moments of real quality on the left. Douglas: 7 - Still played too many of those silly passes with the outside of his boot, but played a lot betyter than he did on Tuesday. Kishishev: 6 - Looked off the pace (Howson): 6 - Neat passing and tenacious tackling. Tried a few times to dribble past three or four men when he should have passed. I suspect he fancied his chances of scoring against their didgy keeper! Beckford: 8 - two great poacher's goals and in the second half caued them a lot of problems with his pace. Kandol: 5 - Looked a shadow of the player we saw on Tuesday. Won a few headers but really had a poor game. Was repeatedly fouled and got no help from the referee,but no excuse for the booking he got for dissent at the end when he threw the ball away after being fouled again with being awarded a free kick Flo: 7 - Came on for 10 minutes, scored a goal Carole: - only on for 2 minutes. Crowd 32,501 - the largest crowd in this division since Wendies vs Blunts in 1979 _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist DELETE THE FOOTERS WHEN REPLYING YOU LAZY SODS!!!! DELETE THE FOOTERS WHEN REPLYING YOU LAZY SODS!!!!
