Chairman's choice at half time was "Mack the Knife" which is at least better than "Return of the Mack" but by the end of this disappointing showing the song that sums us up is "one wheel on my wagon". Another game and more new faces. Fortunately this ridiculous habit will have to stop now the transfer window is shut. WIth Sheehan in at LBack, Michalic and Heath both back at Chalf and Kenton to RBack we once again had a completely new back four. Individually each did good things at moments but the two goals showed the folly of this constant chop and change. Huntington, Parker and Richardson have all showed signs of improvement as they've settled into their places in the team - not that any of them is the finished article by any means, but this wholesale dropping seemed harsh to me. That said Lubo was always going to start - and he was the best defender on the pitch by a mile. I see that Angola have got through to the next round of the African Cup of Nations, all well and good, but for our purposes the sooner we can match Lubo and Rui up at the back the sooner our defence will look more solid. Kenton did put on a decent show at right back, fast and decisive in the challenge and willing to get forward. With him and Lubo on the right that side of the defence looked OK. The left was the problem. Heath did make one seriously good sliding tackle on the edge of the box which stopped their forward being through on goal but the fact remains he's a carthorse. Sheehan had some decent touches and looks comfortable on the ball but he and Heath got themselves in a real mess to let the winger in for the first goal - taking nothing away from the winger, he did his stuff really well and the finish was great - but Heath was too close to Sheehan and when Sheehan got beat too easily then Heath was nowhere near the right place to provide cover. The second goal was from a free kick on our left which Moore headed home without jumping in the 6 yard box. Marking? Unbeliveable. 20 minutes to go and we were clearly beaten. At 0-1 there's always the hope that we can sneak one. There was never any way we were going to score two yesterday. The first half was a fairly even contest. Tranmere looked dangerous at times and whistled a free kick onto the bar from 25 yards, with the keeper rooted to the spot. We did manage to get some pressure up at times - Elding looked decent for 30 minutes - he won some headers, made decent use of the ball pumped up to him and even had a reasonable turn and shot on the edge of the box, which the keeper saved comfortably. We hit the bar when Prutton swung a free kick from a long way out on the left hand touch line, onto the bar at the far post with the keeper scrambling back. Its one of those, when Ronaldo does it you think it outrageous skill, when Prutton does it you tend to think "bad cross", but I'd be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one if only because he stepped up sharpish to take it, looking like he'd spotted the keeper out of position. In the first half we had Howson and Hughes (when he was on the field and not receiving treatment for a nasty cut in his head which looked to be the result of an elbow when going up for a header. In fact Hughes was so incensed that he had to be restrained by some of his team mates while doing a kind of Tasmanian Devil impression which only calmed down when the trainer ran on and put a towel over Hughes' head which worked like putting a blanket over the budgie's cage at night. Hughes ran straight off the pitch.) This partnership seemed to gel about as well as any we've had all season - Howson had a really good first half, playing a real midfielder's game, long and short passing was good, always available, good tackling and tracking - Hughes did the "getting about em" kind of thing which dovetailed pretty well with Howson. Prutton was on the right, playing quite well with Kenton and Johnson was out left. While we never bossed the midfield, we did at least match Tranmere in the first half. This was not so in the second. Early on we took Elding off and put on Flo (55 minutes) - Elding had faded badly after 30 minutes so this was an entirely reasonable switch, at a point where it was 0-0. Then they scored the two within 10 minutes and we switched Kenton for Carole...moving Hughes to RBack, the remarkably bad Johnson from left to centre midfield and Carole on to the left. A little later Sheehan went off, injured I guess, and Hughes was switched to LBack while Huntington came onto to RBack. Moving the deckchairs on the Titanic is the only apt metaphore. In truth none of these changes made the blindest bit of difference. The only one I'd really argue with was taking Hughes out of CMidfield. Carole's introduction gave us some forward momentum, he at least tried to carry the ball to Tranmere. Flo contributed two touches in 35 minutes. They could have changed everything. They didn't. Such is the margin between success and failure. He jinked in well from the right and pulled a cute ball back to Johnson who leant back and thundered high and wide from 15 yards. The second was a really, really good chance created by Beckford picking the ball up on the left wing, running in towards the box at pace, beating a couple of defenders, slipping the ball inside into Flo's path where he had made a very good run across the back of the defence. However Flo's shot on goal was woeful. A low scuffed effort straight at the keeper. It was 87 minutes. It didn't affect the outcome but a forward of Flo's class should have scored. It says a lot that it took us 87 minutes to get a clear sight of goal. Beckford is so devoid of support these days that his game now revolves around chasing long punts over the top or trying to pick up the ball 40 yards from goal wide on the left and running in towards the penalty area...and just hoping. Again, he probably touched the ball 15 or 20 times all told. Macca has a lot of work to do here. The truth of the league is that Swansea apart, no-one is running away, all the other teams around us keep winning a few, losing a few, we need to get our sleeves rolled up and get in the fight. We're there or thereabouts. They need some fire in their bellies and a shed load of confidence, because our confidence has completely vanished, and we'll be in the mix at the end of the season, but this needs to happen soon. LUCAS - he never fills me with confidence that Caspar did. He seems "smaller" - I don't really know why, just less imposing I guess. One dreadful flap at a corner. KENTON - pretty decent job...pacy, strong, looking to get forward SHEEHAN - odd mix of good play and hopelessness HEATH - same as ever - if I were Huntington I would be disappointed to have been dropped for him MICHALIC - Solid and classy PRUTTON - quietly effective, never really takes a grip on the game though HUGHES - manic energy - 3 different positions - wayward passing HOWSON - excellent first half, anonymous second JOHNSON - this guy's a joker - he simply cannot pass to one of our players if they are more than 5 yards away from him BECKFORD - no service - a couple of half chances - set up Flo for the best chance of the game ELDING - good 30 minutes - get working on the training ground subs Flo - invisible except for the two incidents mentioned above - if these two had produced goals that would have been enough - it didn't, it wasn't Carole - best attacking hope for the last 25 minutes Huntington - brought on out of position, did OK referee - woeful and short - was it Dennis Wise? crowd - 24000 very quiet people - acres of empty seating in the E & W stands - still think the price hike a good idea Kenneth?
_______________________________________________ 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!!!!
