Leeds 2 Stockport 0 - The View from behind the Belly

Batfastard · Leeds 2 Stockport 0 - The View from behind the Belly

After a hectic morning bailing Batfitch’s exceptionally large mother out, after her car broke down in the middle of nowhere, whilst she was taking her slightly senile 75 year old sister out, it was a mad dash to ER to see if we could make it 8 on the trot (apologies to Paddy, by the way, who I promised to meet up with before the game – though with hair as ginger as his, I’m sure he’s well used to being stood up, so no harm done there)

The game started quite badly from our point of view. The unexpected loss of Beckford seemed to take a lot of the enthusiasm out of our play. We usually start with a vengeance in home games, but if anything it was Stockport taking the game to us in the early stages. We had one early chance when a through ball bounced agonisingly too far in front of Grella and the keeper smothered it. Other than that, Stockport had most of the possession.

Then on 7 minutes, it all changed. Bradley Johnson surged forward and played the ball to Grella just inside the area. The American held off 2 or 3 opponents before giving it back to Johnson, who (being shielded well by 2 more defenders) could do little more than dribble it back towards Grella. Just as they were about to collide, Grella unexpectedly unleashed a superb low right footed curler which deceived the keeper and nestled in the bottom corner. 1-0 and the American was visibly delighted with the goal – a big one for him in his blossoming career.

After that, we seemed to get our heads in gear a bit more and foraged forward more and more often. Snodgrass made some useful forays down the right, Johnson likewise down the left and Grella seemed to have boundless energy, chasing everything and making a proper nuisance of himself at every opportunity.

Their defence was looking more and more ragged and their keeper was being called upon more and more often as the half progressed. He was also keeping us entertained with a full repertoire of comedy goalkicks into touch. It was almost a shame that Caspar wasn’t at the other end – they could have had a proper competition between them.

As the half wore on though, the game became increasingly dominated by the increasingly sh-it referee, McDermid. This is the same guy who sent Bex and Kandol off away to Gillingham a couple of years ago – I seem to remember us asking for him never to be allowed to referee another Leeds match – but they obviously think we’ve forgotten.

On the half hour mark Snoddy went up for a header inside the box and was crushed by the centre half. This happened straight in front of me and looked an absolute nailed on penalty. The ref waved play on and, as the ball was hoofed upfield, Lubo committed an identical foul on the half way line which was immediately punished by a free kick. This, along with various other niggly, stupid decisions was getting the crowds’ backs up and also the players. None more so than Doyle, who was getting increasingly ragged with his challenges.

On 35 minutes though, the second goal came. A free kick into the box saw new boy Bromby challenge the keeper and the ball broke loose to Lubo 6 yards out. And – whilst everyone on Rows X through Z at the top of the South Stand ducked for cover – he amazed everyone by calmly slotting the ball home. Stockport complained bitterly about a foul on the keeper – but it certainly looked a fair challenge to me. And you all know how unbiased I am.

Meanwhile, Doyle got himself booked, then continued to make wild challenges, earning himself a further telling off and a threat of a red card and Grayson intelligently substituted him for Kilkenny just before the break.

So 2-0 at half time – not a brilliant performance, but a functional one and it was more of the same in the second half, with us trying to push for a third, whilst Stockport’s odd forays forwards were snuffed out by our defenders. At this stage, Higgs had not had a shot to save.

On the hour mark, McDermit’s bizarre refereeing took a dramatic turn for the surreal when he awarded us a penalty for ‘backball’ against a Stockport defender, who had quite clearly blocked a cross with his back and not his arm. Stockport again complained bitterly – but they needn’t have bothered. A penalty for Leeds is every bit as dangerous as a throw in on the half way line and Snodgrass duly fluffed the kick, allowing the keeper an easy save. Remind me – when was the last time we actually scored one???

Shortly afterwards Stockport forced the first real save out of Higgs as their forward burst clear of Bromby, who pulled up sharp with what looked like a hamstring pull. His shot was deftly flicked over the bar by Higgs. Sadly that was the end of the game for Bromby who had made an impressive debut. He looked competent at the back and passed the ball well, both long and short. He also has a Vinny Jones-esque long throw on him which came in handy on a number of attacks – it adds another option and dimension to our attacks which is always a good thing.

As he was being helped off the pitch, an excited Paul Huntingdon was warming up on the touchline just in front of me. And I have to say he looked positively crestfallen when Grayson elected to bring on attacking midfielder Robinson instead of him to replace the injured centre half. It’s hard to see how the manager could have sent out a bigger insult to poor Huntingdon – apart from maybe writing a lesbian sex story about his mother and grandmothers. And drawn pictures to go with it.

But anyway, he moved Crowe into the middle, switched Hughes to right back and dropped Johnson to left back to allow Robbo into left midfield. All this rather than just bring on the other centre half.

Shortly afterwards, the comedy officialdom reached its pinnacle. The stewards who surround the ground all wear bright orange jackets, which were very similar in colour to Stockport’s kit. In the 70th minute a throughball down the left to Robbo had the Stockport players appealing for offside…. yet the linesman (on the opposite side of the field) kept his flag down. Then he put it up. Then he waved the referee over. It was hearts in mouths time at first as we wondered if he’d seen something off the ball….. but, no. What had happened was, he had caught sight of one of the stewards and thought it was a defender, so he had adjudged Robbo onside, before realising his mistake. Incredibly, the referee singled out this one poor steward and actually sent him off, despite the fact that there were several hundred others around the place in exactly the same colours! In general, I think referees have a very hard job and I try not to use words like ‘incompetent,’ ‘unprofessional’ or ‘fu-cktard’ if I can avoid it at all – but on this occasion, I feel all three are fully justified.

Stockport continued to press forward though and I have to give credit to our defenders. It was a makeshift defence from start to finish, but they kept Higgs down to just the one save when Bromby pulled up injured and another right near the end, when Johnson made probably his only mistake of the game, heading a cross right into the path of an oncoming forward who lashed it towards goal, only for Higgs to get down well to his left to make the save. Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t class defending by any means – it was all desperate tackles and blocks and getting stuck in ….. it certainly wasn’t about reading the game and outsmarting the opposing forwards….. but it was effective, battling, down-to-earth stuff from a completely makeshift back four, who had never played together before. Good stuff really – certainly as good as we could have realistically hoped for from them.

So 2-0 and a slightly lack-lustre performance; but a competent, battling one which ground out the 3 points and kept a confidence-boosting clean sheet to boot. At the end of the day, Stockport have done well lately and we had players missing, new players and a complete swap around at the back half way through the second half, so I think we’ve every reason to be pleased about this one.

Player Ratings

Higgs – 8 – very competent on crosses, 2 good saves when needed. This is the most confident I’ve felt about a Leeds keeper since Robbo.
Crowe – 6.5 – battled well, though guilty of some poor distribution
Bromby – 7 – good, assured debut and the long throw is a bonus. Got stuck in – hope the injury isn’t too bad.
Lubo – 6.5. – chucked himself about like a good ‘un – little class or reading of the game, but a good ‘headless chicken’ performance nonetheless
Hughes – 6 – similar to Crowe, but offered slightly less coming forward.
Snodgrass – 6 – some good runs, some bad runs – average game
Howson – 8 – excellent battling game – best I’ve seen him this season
Doyle – 7 – similar to Howson, but a liability because of his temper. No team can afford to have to sub players because of their attitude. Unprofessional.
Johnson – 9 – my MOM – thought he had an excellent game going forward and also switching to left back. Was involved in most of our good stuff
Grella – 8.5 – just behind Johnson. Worked enthusiastically and tirelessly and deserved the goal – felt he drifted out of it a bit in the second half though
Becchio – 6 – industrious, but a lot less effective than usual. Quiet game by his standards.

Kilkenny – 6.5 – I thought he did well coming on – contributed quite a bit going forward, but it was a day for hard-battling rather than for quality passing. If Doyle could have kept his head in gear, I don’t think Kilkenny would have got on (and actually, I would have brought Prutton on instead, but that’s another matter)
Robbo – 7 – looked lively and caused problems
Enoch – 6 – looked big.

Stockport White

I thought Crowe had a decent game yesterday - probably his best for us so far.

Do you not think Doyle was unfairly punished? He was the only midfielder putting in tackles and the referee seemed determined to send someone off and if he'd made one more challenge he would have gone - correct decision made by Leeds to bring him off.

Referee - -3 By far the worst one I've ever seen.

Mark

Cheers BF

Intresting read as ever,good to hear Robbo did ok when came on,missed listening to 2nd half myself,so glad to hear how he fared......

warringtonwhite