Leeds Life: Win makes up for Bircham disgrace
I’m a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of my all-time favourite movies and so perhaps after QPR’s own near boardroom gun-fight earlier in the season, it was appropriate that yesterday’s match had all three aspects of the film’s title in abundance.
Oh, and let me say right now that Rangers irritated me more than any team has for a long time and this irritation will be reflected in this report and will no doubt irritate any reading Rangers fans (so save your breath of any abuse in the comments as they'll only be deleted) - I'm merely using this report to vent my irritation with your team, not with the Rangers fans, who quite frankly deserve better from their poor looking team than they got in yesterday's woeful performance by the hopelessly ineffective hoops.
So who or what has irritated me: after seeing the TV highlights this morning the answer is both Bircham and Furlong. Yes some may say I've lost my sense of usual objectivity today but I need to vent my anger here rather than kick the neighbour's fat cat.
The Good
Leeds dominated and controlled the game pretty much all the way up to Healy’s sending off. This was a both professional performance and a heartening reaction to the defeat at Wednesday on Tuesday. However, there is still a lack of composure in front of goal and in the build up play and plenty of room for improvement. This shouldn’t be surprising as the midfield is fairly new unit, only five games old or so, and so the link up play with the strikers is not all it can be just yet. There were though, I thought, good performances from Douglas, Crainey and Hulse.
Douglas did better on the right than he did on Tuesday, and at times he showed a good understanding with Healy. Douglas also showed a desire to make good runs to get into the box. I also thought Crainey did well at left back, showing both attacking adventure to help Lewis and defensive solidity when needed.
Hulse, meanwhile showed why he is the number one striker at Leeds with his general hold up play and leading the line to good effect even though he is not yet fully match fit and has striuggled with a virus all week, as he completed another 70 minutes.
The Bad
Well, I managed to get half my prediction right: I said “Rangers nil” and certainly that was all they deserved for what was probably close to the worst performance by an opponent we have had to see all season, and that includes Millwall. Rangers were industrious when leeds were down to 10-men, as they apparently had been earlier mid-week against Luton when they somehow managed to get all 3 points, but yesterday, they got what they deserved - null points.
Although Rangers had some half-chances, as I’ve argued here before, if teams don’t demonstrate one of football’s basic skills – an ability to shoot/head on target and score, then they deserve to lose, no matter how many chances they create.
If teams end up with a “nil”, as happened to Norwich and Wolves when they played us earlier this season, then that illustrates such teams have a skill problem especially when the stats show 20 attempts on goal. But, to suggest QPR were a similar threat to us, as Wolves or Norwich had been, would be as incorrect as suggesting that Aussies were unlucky to lose the Ashes. It may have been a close result at Loftus Road, like the Ashes, but apart from a late penalty scare, Leeds, like England, were deserving of the win.
Rangers were there for the beating in the first hour and on this evidence, it is surprising to see them so high in the table. Sooner or later they will be in the bottom five if this is how they are to perform each week. Holloway’s post match remarks indicate how unhappy he was with their dreadful showing. To be fair though, their worst play came after they lost their left back to injury on 30 minutes, and with no left-footer to replace him, Santos was moved from centre-half to left-back where Healy and Douglas combined to lead him a merry dance. Santos's name was perhaps fitting as he proceeded to defend like the Brazilians do, making Roque Junior look like Bobby Moore).
That is not to say all Leeds performances were good, and defensively, Gregan was off-colour yesterday, perhaps his worst showing so far, though I understand he was the second player to be suffering the virus (the other Richardson). However, given his other 8 appearances this year have been close to immaculate, then the standard he has set for himself only serves to unfairly highlight the three errors he made yesterday all the more.
Unfortunately, as a defender, such errors receive more emphasis than any poor control by the strikers. For example, Hulse’s miss in the first five minutes yesterday, was as bad as any of Gregan’s errors, as was his failure to equalise with a header against Wednesday in midweek, yet I’m sure many fans will be focus all their venom on Gregan’s mistakes. Such is life. [And yes I see some comments have focused on Gregan - sadly, that is no surprise.]
The Ugly
After Gallen’s Oscar performance last season in getting Derry sent off, (though Mr Anonymous seemed to disagree with my view on the matter in a comment yesterday in my match preview), Bircham was on hand this time with another “best supporting actor” Oscar after an admittedly rugged and robust reaction from Healy (a push in the back) followed Bircham’s own rugged, robust defending when Leeds were waiting to take a throw. How Bircham did not get his second yellow for his own action on Healy beats me.
Leeds had an attacking throw-in on the right with Kelly. Whilst he was waiting to take the throw, Healy was looking for position on the right of the penalty box and Bircham deliberately baulked him with a right arm elbow into his neck/upper chest area (as seen on TV) and Healy ended up on the floor.
Rather than staying down however, Healy picked himself up, and obviously irritated, he then tried again to get position, but at the same time made a strong pushing challenge on Bircham’s back who went down as if a sniper had shot him from the crowd, rolling around holding his foot as if it had been broken.
Now I accept Healy was stupid to react, but it was nothing more than a tap on the back of the leg (so why Bircham was holding the front of his foot I don't know), and a push. It was not the "ugly stamping" some reporters have claimed (Independent).
The acting-school lessons worked for Bircham and for the second season in a row, although Leeds players reacted hastily both times, QPR's players helped the ref get out his red card. Healy got a straight red and will miss 3 straight games.
Bircham escaped any punishment for his obvious physical obstruction and intent to hurt Healy in the first place and the little cheat was to receive the brunt of the Leeds fans disgust the rest of the game. After Gallen’s performance last season, it seemed Rangers were playing the same script over again after being dominated on their home patch. Bircham has no integrity or honesty and even the reports of one QPR fan today doubts Bircham's integrity in this incident based on his previous record. I quote: "In truth I don’t know how much contact was made, probably not a lot if we know Bircham..."
Players like Bircham are nothing more than low-life cheats and their existence in the game is a good reason why they should introduce video replays to enable a referee to make better decisions such is the prevalence of acting in the game these days. I’d rather have a 1 minute hold-up and a better decision than blatantly incorrect decisions being made such as Healy’s red card.
The match
The game started very scrappily with plenty of throw-ins and free-kicks, and was also marked for me by Sullivan’s poor distribution on three occasions causing some concerns for the defenders.
The first chance fell to Leeds on 5 minutes when Lewis crossed low and hard into the six yard box, and with the Rangers defence AWOL, Hulse's attempted to side-foot the ball into the empty net only missing the ball entirely, though Douglas was running in to the six yard box at the far post to surely score, his timing perfect, but somehow he managed to shoot right footed over the bar with the goal beckoning. It should have been 1-0 to Leeds.
Leeds showed more attacking intent than Rangers in the opening 10 minutes, but Furlong was the next to get a half-chance when the ball fell to him on the volley when the little Sturridge was allowed to win a header in the box. Furlong's early season poor form was perfectly illustrated as he miss-hit the volley into the ground and Sullivan simply had to wait for the ball to bounce into his arms.
After a Rangers free-kick, which saw Gregan booked for a foul on Sturridge, Leeds broke quickly with Healy, Lewis and Douglas involved, a move ending with Douglas shooting over the bar from 20 yards when perhaps more composure was needed in the situation.
More free-kicks and throw-ins followed, as the play was far from flowing, and no clear openings were being created by either side, though generally Leeds were enjoying more than their fair share of possession and were looking comfortable in defence with Sullivan well protected.
On the half-hour though, Gregan's first mistake of the day, trying to make a clearance with the ball coming over his shoulder and missing the ball entirely, allowed Sturridge in to shoot from the right corner of the box, Sullivan comfortably collecting the ball low down on the bounce at his near post. Then within a minute, Gregan’s poor chest control 35 yards out gave the ball away to Ainsworth, who ran down the right, but under a great recovery challenge from Gregan, Ainsworth couldn’t make a decent dangerous cross and the ball was easily cleared from inside the penalty box.
Immediately, Leeds were on the attack and Hulse’s headed flick put Healy clear on the right but he decided to shoot early from outside the penalty area, only to shoot high and wide. Again, like Douglas earlier, more composure and thought was needed to better develop the position rather than an attempt at the spectacular and this was poor play from Healy, as bad as Gregan’s mistakes were.
Five minutes later, Douglas and Healy were linking up well on the right to win a corner. Einarsson’s height caused some concerns for Rangers from the Lewis corner but he headed wide. Douglas and Healy were both exploiting the Rangers left flank, where Milanese had had to be substituted, and Santos, the lumbering giant of a centre-half, who was moved over to left-back was made to look uncomfortable there.
Just before the Leeds goal, Einarsson had a shot deflected wide from the edge of the box, after good work involving Douglas and Lewis on the right, and again from the resultant corner, Einarsson was on the end of the cross, but could only head the ball out when trying to head it back across goal.
Leeds then won a free-kick on the left corner of the penalty box 5 minutes before half-time. Kelly’s super little chip into the 6 yard box found Hulse, unmarked, in the centre of the goal, and he had the simple task of side-footing the ball home, first time, with his left foot, low into the right corner of the net to give Leeds the lead their overall control of the game deserved. However, it has to be said the defending at the free-kick was woeful.
Both Hulse and Einarsson had other headers wide of goal before half-time while Rangers took a free-kick from 30 yards out shooting over the bar. Einarsson was booked for the foul.
At the start of the second–half, Leeds started where they had finished the first–half, with Einarsson having a header from a left-sided corner cleared off the line near the right hand post though I am not sure if the ball would have gone in.
Einarsson was involved in a lot of Leeds’ most threatening moments and if only he could improve his general midfield play then perhaps he can keep hold of his starting place alongside Derry.
Rangers made their final changes on 60 minutes, bringing on Stefan Moore for Sturridge, who I thought was Rangers’ most dangerous attacker on the day, while Rowlands came on for Ainsworth on the right of midfield.
Just after the substitutions, Healy had a weak shot wide of goal and at the other end, Moore replied with a similar shot wide. The Rangers crowd did seem to be woken up by the changes but their noise was more than matched by the vociferous Leeds fans who were to sing from the first minute to the last in what was a fantastic display of support.
Then with 25 minutes left to play, came the Bircham/Healy incident with Healy unlucky to be sent off. I am sure the referee did not see the collision and merely saw Bircham rolling on the floor as if with a serious injury - cheating muppet.
With 20 minutes left, Hulse was replaced by Cresswell as Leeds needed his energy up front now we were down to 10 men.
Rangers were to enjoy a series of corners over the next 10 minutes, but Sullivan was not troubled. Furlong had another shot that the keeper saved without difficulty, but the best chance was to fall to Santos who was now playing up front. After his poor show at left-back he now showed he was no good at centre-forward, diving to head over at the far post when he got on the end of an excellent deep cross from the right that was impossible to defend against. It was though a difficult chance in terms of timing his dive forward to meet the ball. They needed Brian Deane!
With 7 minutes remaining, Rangers then won a free-kick on the edge of the penalty box, right on the line, after Gregan left his left leg out dangling for Furlong, arguably realising he would lose the ball to a covering defender, to leap over the leg like a salmon leaping out of water, as he moved into the box. It was a half-dive confirmed by TV replays this morning.
The free-kick was right on the penalty box line, inside the “D”. Some argue it should have been a penalty, but maybe from the ref's angle, he saw that Gregan had half his body outside the box and half inside when he made the challenge. This positioning perhaps saved us from the award of a penalty, which should have been given on the basis the ref gave the foul, as the left leg was inside the box when Furlong made his Olympicesque dive for glory. It was to be Furlong’s best skill of the afternoon.
In the slow motion replay, it is easy to see how Furlong’s action did not match with any alleged contact between him and Gregan such was the loopiness of his fall. As I say, we need video replays in football soon to stop this type of cheating.
Rangers, however, showed their lack of shooting ability with a shot into the wall and with a shot over the bar summing up their performance on the day.
Furlong had another streaky effort wide, and Sullivan had to collect at second attempt from a Shittu shot; the first real strike on goal from Rangers in the second-half, this coming a minute from time showing how they had struggled to break down the 10 men of Leeds.
Rangers sent their keeper forward in attack to perhaps show Furlong, et al, what to do, but this didn’t change anything and Rangers ended up with what they deserved as the ref blow for full time.
Leeds showed character, belief and MOTIVATION for all those who still cling to this ridiculous notion of amateur psychology that Blackwell didn’t motivate the team and was to blame for the defeat at Wednesday. However, I’m sure none of these fans will be saying, “didn’t Blackwell do well to motivate the team yesterday” such is their one-sighted blinkedness. If these fans believe Blackwell deserves flack when we lose, then it seems strange in their world-bubble that he doesn’t get the credit when we win.
It was a needed victory, and a deserved one, and the players this time put in a performance that showed they are capable of fighting out good results in this tough division. There was no obvious man of the match for Leeds as the team ethic came to the fore and it would be unfair to single out one player as being better than any other on the day.
Summary:
Rangers nil(losers): Royce; Bignot, Santos, Shittu, Milanese (Evatt 29m); Ainsworth (Rowlands 48m), Lomas, cheating-Bircham, Cook; diving-Furlong, Sturridge (S Moore 48m).
Subs not used: Nygaard, Langley
Leeds: Sullivan; Kelly, Butler, Gregan, Crainey; Douglas, Einarsson, Derry, Lewis; Healy, Hulse (Cresswell 70m).
Subs not used: Bennett, Kilgallon, Pugh, I Moore
Goal: Hulse 41m
Bookings:
QPR: Cook 45m, the lucky cheating Bircham 61m
Leeds: Gregan 20m, Einarsson 45m, Kelly 54m, Derry 87m
Wrongly Sent off:
Leeds: Healy 63m
Oh, and let me say right now that Rangers irritated me more than any team has for a long time and this irritation will be reflected in this report and will no doubt irritate any reading Rangers fans (so save your breath of any abuse in the comments as they'll only be deleted) - I'm merely using this report to vent my irritation with your team, not with the Rangers fans, who quite frankly deserve better from their poor looking team than they got in yesterday's woeful performance by the hopelessly ineffective hoops.
So who or what has irritated me: after seeing the TV highlights this morning the answer is both Bircham and Furlong. Yes some may say I've lost my sense of usual objectivity today but I need to vent my anger here rather than kick the neighbour's fat cat.
The Good
Leeds dominated and controlled the game pretty much all the way up to Healy’s sending off. This was a both professional performance and a heartening reaction to the defeat at Wednesday on Tuesday. However, there is still a lack of composure in front of goal and in the build up play and plenty of room for improvement. This shouldn’t be surprising as the midfield is fairly new unit, only five games old or so, and so the link up play with the strikers is not all it can be just yet. There were though, I thought, good performances from Douglas, Crainey and Hulse.
Douglas did better on the right than he did on Tuesday, and at times he showed a good understanding with Healy. Douglas also showed a desire to make good runs to get into the box. I also thought Crainey did well at left back, showing both attacking adventure to help Lewis and defensive solidity when needed.
Hulse, meanwhile showed why he is the number one striker at Leeds with his general hold up play and leading the line to good effect even though he is not yet fully match fit and has striuggled with a virus all week, as he completed another 70 minutes.
The Bad
Well, I managed to get half my prediction right: I said “Rangers nil” and certainly that was all they deserved for what was probably close to the worst performance by an opponent we have had to see all season, and that includes Millwall. Rangers were industrious when leeds were down to 10-men, as they apparently had been earlier mid-week against Luton when they somehow managed to get all 3 points, but yesterday, they got what they deserved - null points.
Although Rangers had some half-chances, as I’ve argued here before, if teams don’t demonstrate one of football’s basic skills – an ability to shoot/head on target and score, then they deserve to lose, no matter how many chances they create.
If teams end up with a “nil”, as happened to Norwich and Wolves when they played us earlier this season, then that illustrates such teams have a skill problem especially when the stats show 20 attempts on goal. But, to suggest QPR were a similar threat to us, as Wolves or Norwich had been, would be as incorrect as suggesting that Aussies were unlucky to lose the Ashes. It may have been a close result at Loftus Road, like the Ashes, but apart from a late penalty scare, Leeds, like England, were deserving of the win.
Rangers were there for the beating in the first hour and on this evidence, it is surprising to see them so high in the table. Sooner or later they will be in the bottom five if this is how they are to perform each week. Holloway’s post match remarks indicate how unhappy he was with their dreadful showing. To be fair though, their worst play came after they lost their left back to injury on 30 minutes, and with no left-footer to replace him, Santos was moved from centre-half to left-back where Healy and Douglas combined to lead him a merry dance. Santos's name was perhaps fitting as he proceeded to defend like the Brazilians do, making Roque Junior look like Bobby Moore).
That is not to say all Leeds performances were good, and defensively, Gregan was off-colour yesterday, perhaps his worst showing so far, though I understand he was the second player to be suffering the virus (the other Richardson). However, given his other 8 appearances this year have been close to immaculate, then the standard he has set for himself only serves to unfairly highlight the three errors he made yesterday all the more.
Unfortunately, as a defender, such errors receive more emphasis than any poor control by the strikers. For example, Hulse’s miss in the first five minutes yesterday, was as bad as any of Gregan’s errors, as was his failure to equalise with a header against Wednesday in midweek, yet I’m sure many fans will be focus all their venom on Gregan’s mistakes. Such is life. [And yes I see some comments have focused on Gregan - sadly, that is no surprise.]
The Ugly
After Gallen’s Oscar performance last season in getting Derry sent off, (though Mr Anonymous seemed to disagree with my view on the matter in a comment yesterday in my match preview), Bircham was on hand this time with another “best supporting actor” Oscar after an admittedly rugged and robust reaction from Healy (a push in the back) followed Bircham’s own rugged, robust defending when Leeds were waiting to take a throw. How Bircham did not get his second yellow for his own action on Healy beats me.
Leeds had an attacking throw-in on the right with Kelly. Whilst he was waiting to take the throw, Healy was looking for position on the right of the penalty box and Bircham deliberately baulked him with a right arm elbow into his neck/upper chest area (as seen on TV) and Healy ended up on the floor.
Rather than staying down however, Healy picked himself up, and obviously irritated, he then tried again to get position, but at the same time made a strong pushing challenge on Bircham’s back who went down as if a sniper had shot him from the crowd, rolling around holding his foot as if it had been broken.
Now I accept Healy was stupid to react, but it was nothing more than a tap on the back of the leg (so why Bircham was holding the front of his foot I don't know), and a push. It was not the "ugly stamping" some reporters have claimed (Independent).
The acting-school lessons worked for Bircham and for the second season in a row, although Leeds players reacted hastily both times, QPR's players helped the ref get out his red card. Healy got a straight red and will miss 3 straight games.
Bircham escaped any punishment for his obvious physical obstruction and intent to hurt Healy in the first place and the little cheat was to receive the brunt of the Leeds fans disgust the rest of the game. After Gallen’s performance last season, it seemed Rangers were playing the same script over again after being dominated on their home patch. Bircham has no integrity or honesty and even the reports of one QPR fan today doubts Bircham's integrity in this incident based on his previous record. I quote: "In truth I don’t know how much contact was made, probably not a lot if we know Bircham..."
Players like Bircham are nothing more than low-life cheats and their existence in the game is a good reason why they should introduce video replays to enable a referee to make better decisions such is the prevalence of acting in the game these days. I’d rather have a 1 minute hold-up and a better decision than blatantly incorrect decisions being made such as Healy’s red card.
The match
The game started very scrappily with plenty of throw-ins and free-kicks, and was also marked for me by Sullivan’s poor distribution on three occasions causing some concerns for the defenders.
The first chance fell to Leeds on 5 minutes when Lewis crossed low and hard into the six yard box, and with the Rangers defence AWOL, Hulse's attempted to side-foot the ball into the empty net only missing the ball entirely, though Douglas was running in to the six yard box at the far post to surely score, his timing perfect, but somehow he managed to shoot right footed over the bar with the goal beckoning. It should have been 1-0 to Leeds.
Leeds showed more attacking intent than Rangers in the opening 10 minutes, but Furlong was the next to get a half-chance when the ball fell to him on the volley when the little Sturridge was allowed to win a header in the box. Furlong's early season poor form was perfectly illustrated as he miss-hit the volley into the ground and Sullivan simply had to wait for the ball to bounce into his arms.
After a Rangers free-kick, which saw Gregan booked for a foul on Sturridge, Leeds broke quickly with Healy, Lewis and Douglas involved, a move ending with Douglas shooting over the bar from 20 yards when perhaps more composure was needed in the situation.
More free-kicks and throw-ins followed, as the play was far from flowing, and no clear openings were being created by either side, though generally Leeds were enjoying more than their fair share of possession and were looking comfortable in defence with Sullivan well protected.
On the half-hour though, Gregan's first mistake of the day, trying to make a clearance with the ball coming over his shoulder and missing the ball entirely, allowed Sturridge in to shoot from the right corner of the box, Sullivan comfortably collecting the ball low down on the bounce at his near post. Then within a minute, Gregan’s poor chest control 35 yards out gave the ball away to Ainsworth, who ran down the right, but under a great recovery challenge from Gregan, Ainsworth couldn’t make a decent dangerous cross and the ball was easily cleared from inside the penalty box.
Immediately, Leeds were on the attack and Hulse’s headed flick put Healy clear on the right but he decided to shoot early from outside the penalty area, only to shoot high and wide. Again, like Douglas earlier, more composure and thought was needed to better develop the position rather than an attempt at the spectacular and this was poor play from Healy, as bad as Gregan’s mistakes were.
Five minutes later, Douglas and Healy were linking up well on the right to win a corner. Einarsson’s height caused some concerns for Rangers from the Lewis corner but he headed wide. Douglas and Healy were both exploiting the Rangers left flank, where Milanese had had to be substituted, and Santos, the lumbering giant of a centre-half, who was moved over to left-back was made to look uncomfortable there.
Just before the Leeds goal, Einarsson had a shot deflected wide from the edge of the box, after good work involving Douglas and Lewis on the right, and again from the resultant corner, Einarsson was on the end of the cross, but could only head the ball out when trying to head it back across goal.
Leeds then won a free-kick on the left corner of the penalty box 5 minutes before half-time. Kelly’s super little chip into the 6 yard box found Hulse, unmarked, in the centre of the goal, and he had the simple task of side-footing the ball home, first time, with his left foot, low into the right corner of the net to give Leeds the lead their overall control of the game deserved. However, it has to be said the defending at the free-kick was woeful.
Both Hulse and Einarsson had other headers wide of goal before half-time while Rangers took a free-kick from 30 yards out shooting over the bar. Einarsson was booked for the foul.
At the start of the second–half, Leeds started where they had finished the first–half, with Einarsson having a header from a left-sided corner cleared off the line near the right hand post though I am not sure if the ball would have gone in.
Einarsson was involved in a lot of Leeds’ most threatening moments and if only he could improve his general midfield play then perhaps he can keep hold of his starting place alongside Derry.
Rangers made their final changes on 60 minutes, bringing on Stefan Moore for Sturridge, who I thought was Rangers’ most dangerous attacker on the day, while Rowlands came on for Ainsworth on the right of midfield.
Just after the substitutions, Healy had a weak shot wide of goal and at the other end, Moore replied with a similar shot wide. The Rangers crowd did seem to be woken up by the changes but their noise was more than matched by the vociferous Leeds fans who were to sing from the first minute to the last in what was a fantastic display of support.
Then with 25 minutes left to play, came the Bircham/Healy incident with Healy unlucky to be sent off. I am sure the referee did not see the collision and merely saw Bircham rolling on the floor as if with a serious injury - cheating muppet.
With 20 minutes left, Hulse was replaced by Cresswell as Leeds needed his energy up front now we were down to 10 men.
Rangers were to enjoy a series of corners over the next 10 minutes, but Sullivan was not troubled. Furlong had another shot that the keeper saved without difficulty, but the best chance was to fall to Santos who was now playing up front. After his poor show at left-back he now showed he was no good at centre-forward, diving to head over at the far post when he got on the end of an excellent deep cross from the right that was impossible to defend against. It was though a difficult chance in terms of timing his dive forward to meet the ball. They needed Brian Deane!
With 7 minutes remaining, Rangers then won a free-kick on the edge of the penalty box, right on the line, after Gregan left his left leg out dangling for Furlong, arguably realising he would lose the ball to a covering defender, to leap over the leg like a salmon leaping out of water, as he moved into the box. It was a half-dive confirmed by TV replays this morning.
The free-kick was right on the penalty box line, inside the “D”. Some argue it should have been a penalty, but maybe from the ref's angle, he saw that Gregan had half his body outside the box and half inside when he made the challenge. This positioning perhaps saved us from the award of a penalty, which should have been given on the basis the ref gave the foul, as the left leg was inside the box when Furlong made his Olympicesque dive for glory. It was to be Furlong’s best skill of the afternoon.
In the slow motion replay, it is easy to see how Furlong’s action did not match with any alleged contact between him and Gregan such was the loopiness of his fall. As I say, we need video replays in football soon to stop this type of cheating.
Rangers, however, showed their lack of shooting ability with a shot into the wall and with a shot over the bar summing up their performance on the day.
Furlong had another streaky effort wide, and Sullivan had to collect at second attempt from a Shittu shot; the first real strike on goal from Rangers in the second-half, this coming a minute from time showing how they had struggled to break down the 10 men of Leeds.
Rangers sent their keeper forward in attack to perhaps show Furlong, et al, what to do, but this didn’t change anything and Rangers ended up with what they deserved as the ref blow for full time.
Leeds showed character, belief and MOTIVATION for all those who still cling to this ridiculous notion of amateur psychology that Blackwell didn’t motivate the team and was to blame for the defeat at Wednesday. However, I’m sure none of these fans will be saying, “didn’t Blackwell do well to motivate the team yesterday” such is their one-sighted blinkedness. If these fans believe Blackwell deserves flack when we lose, then it seems strange in their world-bubble that he doesn’t get the credit when we win.
It was a needed victory, and a deserved one, and the players this time put in a performance that showed they are capable of fighting out good results in this tough division. There was no obvious man of the match for Leeds as the team ethic came to the fore and it would be unfair to single out one player as being better than any other on the day.
Summary:
Rangers nil(losers): Royce; Bignot, Santos, Shittu, Milanese (Evatt 29m); Ainsworth (Rowlands 48m), Lomas, cheating-Bircham, Cook; diving-Furlong, Sturridge (S Moore 48m).
Subs not used: Nygaard, Langley
Leeds: Sullivan; Kelly, Butler, Gregan, Crainey; Douglas, Einarsson, Derry, Lewis; Healy, Hulse (Cresswell 70m).
Subs not used: Bennett, Kilgallon, Pugh, I Moore
Goal: Hulse 41m
Bookings:
QPR: Cook 45m, the lucky cheating Bircham 61m
Leeds: Gregan 20m, Einarsson 45m, Kelly 54m, Derry 87m
Wrongly Sent off:
Leeds: Healy 63m
posted by Will Sellars at 7:15 PM
6 Comments:
FINE READ AGAIN AND YES BIRCHAM SHOULD HAVE GOT HIS SECOND YELLOW OF THE GAME.
WHY DID THE REF NOT CONSULT THE LINESMAN OR THE 4TH OFFICAL WHEN MAKING HIS DECISION.
The odd mistake or three aside, I felt Gregan was excellent. He appeared to be our ONLY central defender from where I was stood...er...I mean sat. You said Sully was well protected. Well it certainly wasn't by Butler.
good match report again. Tell me - I guess you have to make plenty of notes to be able to make such a detailed description - does that stop you enjoying the game?
Anyhow - keep up the good work.
Top notch recall of the game once more. great to read the passion you put into these reports. so glad I'm not the only one who seethes at the injustice dished out to LUFC. Anyone else pick up on the way match commentators, (this time on The Championship, ITV), always come out with a viewpoint that is condemming to Leeds United, yet when theres an incident that may have favoured LUFC they sit on the fence & say nowt?
But, but, but Bircham is a such good Canadian boy.
Thorough report. Couple of comments though. First, Healy was bang to rights. I was in block Y2, right above the incident, and if was obvious he was going off the moment it happened. Stupid lad. Second, you must have been watching a different Crainey. He was woeful, and everyone around me seemed to think so too. Maybe we're just cursed in the left back position - Harding has yet to find any form from what I've seen. Maybe we should call it Harte Syndrome. Finally, Gregan is the most annoying player we have. Just when I'm ready to write him off, he does something competent. But I noticed in the QPR match that he's basically lost outside the box. Maybe he's only too well aware of his grotesque lack of pace and that dents his confidence when he's more than ten yards from the penalty spot. Whatever, he got done a few times when he strayed wide and looks increasingly vulnerable to even vaguely pacey runners. (Thankfully, as a mate of mine pointed out recently, pacey attackers are bloody rare in this division - any who can get a decent head of steam up get poached into the Prem! I did think about mentioning Julian Joachim, but then...)
Post a Comment
<< Home