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It has been a superb Christmas for the whites as they yet again have won three on the bounce and also claiming maximum points over the festive period, after they won this match convincingly over their Yorkshire rivals Hull City.
Leeds brought in Crainey for Harding and Liam Miller came in for David Healy who was on the bench with strike partner Rob Hulse. Up front Creswell continued with Robbie Blake as Leeds playing to the kop again in the first half, played a 4-4-2 formation.
Hull started the brightest passing neatly without hurting the Leeds back four, but their play suggested why they are in such a lowly position. Without doubt this Hull team in my opinion were the poorest of opposition to play at Elland road this season. Nick Barmby started the game on the bench and was booed loudly by the highest crowd of the season, he came on to a chorus of boo’s and chants of “What a waste of money”.
Hull frustrated Leeds as we played are usual start slow routine again, as I said earlier they had chances but there efforts were not threatening, shots were either wide or straight at Sullivan. The closest they came was when Craig Fagan hit the bar with a stinging shot.
Leeds had one or two chances but the best fell to Robbie Blake who on the half hour mark was put through on goal, he faced a one on one situation with Hull keeper Boaz Myhill, but Blake shot straight at Myhill who made the save look easy. Minutes earlier Blake was to spurned again another easy chance much to annoyance of the home crowd.
Leeds took the lead just before half time when Robbie Blake found Jonathan Douglas who’s low shot easily found the back of the net.
With Leeds 1-0 up the game was just about over as Hull had ran out of ideas and there was no way back into the game for the Codheads. Also just before the break there was a melee in the Leeds box and from where I was sat in the south stand, Matthew Killgallon, who was laying on the ground on the edge of the six-yard box brushed away the ball with his left arm. Tom me it was a definite penalty to Hull, one or two codheads protested but luckily for Leeds none of the officials had witnessed the incident.
In typical Leeds United fashion the lads came out for the second half to play better football, why this is, is anyone’s guess, whether it is a tactical ploy by Kevin Blackwell to falsely deter our opponents tactical thinking?????, chuff knows…but it seems to be working.
Leeds were on another level to Hull, we could have had a man sent off and still won with two hands tied behind there backs!!!!. Blake and Cresswell toiled upfront but unfortunately failed to have that bit of extra spark to give us more goals, Cresswell again went close for Leeds on 53 minutes when his pearler of a “Curler” from the left hit the Hull post and out for a goal kick.
Douglas who was having a fine game for the whites, doubled Leeds lead on 57 minutes when the ball pin-balled around the area and up popped Douglas to grab a brace with an easy header.
Cresswell and Blake, who had missed two golden chances to score in the first half were replaced by Healy and Hulse. Leeds’s other substitution was to bring on Danny Pugh for the lacklustre Crainey, who, on the day was our poorest player.
Everyone in the team battled hard for the three points and even though the points at this stage of the season are more important than the performance, must have pleased manager Kevin Blackwell, who like me must have been chuffed by today’s performance, at times we sprayed the ball about superbly and played some wonderful possession football. I was impressed today with Gary Kelly who supported the right side with a lot of grit and determination, kept the ball well and even had time to do the odd flick her and there with David Healy when he came on.
Derry and Douglas controlled the midfield in the second half, with both players passing the ball around neatly. Lewis had a better second half getting in some good left foot crosses in. Millar did ok without being flashy and Killa was again the pick of the centre halves, Butler being ok but on a few occasion’s he mistimed his jumps in the air, missing the ball totally and was yellow carded for some reason or other???.
Nick Barmby came on for the last 8 minutes to help the Hull cause but the game was already over at that stage.
All in all most of the 26,387 crowd will have gone home well chuffed at seeing a Leeds team beat a “Derby” rival without really breaking sweat or getting into top gear…..that 5-0 thrashing of a team is just around the corner, and lets just hope that they can do it for the SKY cameras on Monday night at Plymouth to win back some of those stay away fans who have left the whites in droves.
MAMF of the match today is a toss up between Kelly, “Killa”, Douglas and “Dezza” and because of his two goal salvo I will give it to Jonathan Douglas.
17th January 2006 Leeds 3 Wigan 3
(Wigan win 2-4 on penalties)
Despite the loss this was a cracking match that saw the whites come back into the game on three occasions.
Wigan showed there premiership class by passing the ball around efficiently and swiftly. There play was tidy but don’t get me wrong it was not all Wigan as Leeds showed plenty of grit and determination to keep on clawing back the parity.
This was a great performance tonight by a side that welcomed back David Healy to the starting line up and we were awarded with a brace of goals from the Irishman. His first was a hook shot on the goal line after Rob Hulse’s header was only part saved by the Wigan keeper.
Wigan had gone in the lead on the 24th minute as Johansson tapped in a rebound off the post.
Leeds started off brightly with Liam Miller shooting into the side netting from an acute angle and 3 minutes later David Healy had a good chance to open the scoring but was unable to capitalise.
Wigan when in possession played a lot of football down there right hand flank and Gary Teale gave Stephen Crainey a torrid time as time and again when they attacked, Crainey was made to work hard and many fans even at the early stages of the game were crying our for Pugh to replace the hapless left back.
Five minutes after the break and the Latics increased there lead, Striker Jason Roberts on the edge of the Leeds box with his back to goal controlled the ball brilliantly and placed a good shot into the corner. Fans were critical of Jonathan Douglas who was marking Roberts on the 18-yard line but to be fair to him it was a great piece of skill by the striker.
Leeds were again level on 64 minutes when a ball into the box was handled by Matt Jackson as he challenged for the ball in the air with Rob Hulse, referee Graham Poll had and easy decision and immediately pointed to the spot. David Healy strolled up and slotted the ball home 2-2.
A small crowd of 15,243 really got their monies worth as the game went into extra time, extra time that Wigan would not have wanted as they only played there last game on Sunday. We were hoping that this would be to our advantage but to their credit the Wigan players never flagged and carried on playing neat football of a quality that justified their premiership status.
Wigan again took the lead in the 13th minute of extra time, Graham Kavanagh’s cross from the right wing was headed in by Jason Roberts for his second of the game.
The spirit in the Leeds camp was there for all to see as every player sweated every last drop of sweat and each player gave over 100% commitment to the cause and all the effort was rewarded with the goal of the season from the unlikely boot of…….Gary Kelly as he hit a stunning 30 yard unstoppable shot passed Filan to send the small crowd into delirium and onto penalties.
Wigan went on to win 4-2 on penalties, taken at the Kop end with Healy and Hulse missing our penalties. Some may say that Wigan deserved their victory for all their football nous deserved but with both Eddie Lewis and Liam Miller hitting the woodwork, Leeds will feel aggrieved at loosing this tie.
Kevin Blackwell will be pleased with the effort put in by his troops and rightly show as they showed spirit not seen at Elland road for a long while.
As for the MAMF of the match, maybe in some peoples minds it may go to goal scorer David Healy however I witnessed this evening a brilliant performance of centre half defending by Mattew Kilgallon who was colossal at the back and so it is he who gets my vote tonight.
21st January 2006 Leeds 3 Sheff Wed 0
Well we really showed them mouthy Wendy wan***s who is top dog in Yorkshire today by stuffing them 3-0 in a derby game that was at times very frustrating.
The highest crowd of the season 27,843 saw Leeds play towards the Wendy faithful in the south stand. They gave it large the entire match but at the end of the day we laughed last…and the longest.
Sheffield Wednesday were not as bad as Hull, but it is clear to see why they are at the wrong end of the division. They offered very little as an attacking force with only long shots from Chris Brunt and a few half chances that rarely threatened Neil Sullivan.
Wednesday apparently played 4-3-3 but watching them line up I assumed they played 4-4-2. However they played they tried to frustrate Leeds by shoving men behind the ball, from one Lewis left wing cross, Cresswell and Blake found themselves surrounded by 7 Wednesday defenders and their keeper. To me this is what let us down in the first half for when we attacked the midfield were slow to help out the forward line so many of our attacks petered out and came to nothing.
Leeds bossed the first half and though not pretty we bossed most of the play but it was more huff and puff football than quality free flowing possession football on show.
Leeds made changes with Derry coming back into midfield (wearing black tights), Gregan came in for the injured Kilgallon and Healy was dropped for Robbie Blake.
We went into the break all square and I for one expected it to remain 0-0 after 90 minutes but for some strange reason Leeds have a trump card of being able to turn from Jakyll into Hyde in the second half.
The comedy moment of the match was when Neil Sullivan on 62 minutes when a Wendy fella got his head on the ball only for Sulli to produce a fine finger tip save on the line….the Wendy fans celebrated wildly for all of 5 seconds or so, they soon realised that they had not taken the lead and we all pi**ed our selves laughing at the gobby loosers.
Leeds took off Robbie Blake just after the hour and brought on the more effective David Healy to try and break down their stubborn defence.
Eventually we did get the break through from another unlikely source on 69 minutes in captain Paul Butler who was having a fine game, the ball flew across the kop end box and Jonathan Douglas was able to pop the ball back across the box and Paul Butler got on the end of it for only his second goal of the season.
Once we went 1-0 up there was only going to be one winner of this game. We upped the gear a bit and went in for the kill.
It was the 81st minute and from a corner Richard Cresswell dived in from the around the penalty spot to power a header passed the Wendy keeper Nicky Weaver. I thought that Cresswell had a quiet game and he frustrates me as when he jumps up to head a high ball (ie goal kick) he rarely wins a header and for a tall lad he should win more in the air…but who cares as long as he is banging the goals in eh?.
The icing on the cake came as we were walking out of the west stand as Cresswell got his second and Leeds’ third goal.
Not the best performance by a long way, but as the season enters the final third I will settle for the points rather than the performance, we have cemented our position in the top six and hopefully we are there to stay……… I have been saying this for a long while but sometime soon someone is going to come to Elland Road and get a real spanking.
MAMF of the match is again a toughie but having been out for a while and to come back into the side and help keep a clean sheet and also play a blinder, today’s MAMF of the match goes to Sean Gregan.
Gary Kelly had also put in a good performance and with Shaun Derry having a below normal performance Gary Kelly has won a few points towards his player of the season tally.
4th February 2006 Leeds 2 QPR 0
At times it was a very frustrating game, Leeds huffed and puffed in a game in which they bossed from start to finish, but for all there effort Leeds only managed two goals one of which may turn out to be the goal of the season.
Again the three points were the aim and Leeds made hard work of breaking down a stubborn QPR who were full of effort but lacked the finesse needed to beat the mighty whites. Neil Sullivan hardly had a save to make but this was not always a one sided affair.
Leeds for all their industry were at times too pedestrian and lacked that cutting edge flair needed in the middle to kill off teams. However this team is full of spirit and endeavour and it is going to take an exceptional visiting team who are going to leave Elland Road with all three points.
David Healy was brought back into the team but the first half was poor as a spectacle. A lot of Leeds’ play was down the left with Eddie Lewis trying to get the crosses in. QPR were patched up with four players making their debuts, they had a goalkeeping crisis and Ian Holloway only just managed to draft in Sheffield United reserve goalkeeper Phil Barnes on a one week loan.
And it was Barnes who was partially at fault for our first goal. Eddie Lewis hit a free-kick from our right into the box and Richard Cresswell jumped to head the ball with only one QPR defender who might as well had not been there as the effort was poor, but not as feeble as Barnes’s attempt to punch the ball off of Cresswell’s head, Barnes failed and the ball looped over them and into an empty net, 1-0 Leeds.
Gary Kelly’s goal against Wigan was a superb solo effort and may end up as goal of the season, on the other hand Paul Butler’s 84 minute goal may beat Kelly’s effort as it involved good all round team play. Stephen Crainey in the middle fed Eddie Lewis who was out wide on the Leeds left, Lewis hit a superb curling cross towards the penalty spot where he found the in rushing Paul Butler who met it with a superb diving header to put the game beyond the Londoners.
Robbie Blake came on for David Healy on 71 minutes, Healy had a largely ineffective game as for some reason Leeds played at times what looked to me like a 4-5-1 formation with Healy again out wide and with Cresswell upfront as a lone striker????.
8 minutes later Hulse’y came on for Cresswell and almost instantly had a great effort from the right hand side of the box, his thunderous shot fizzed just wide of the post, which would have been a superb goal.
For at times this game was dull and we passed it around like a pub side but then we would turn it around and play some superb passing possession football. 2-0 did not flatter us as we fully deserved all three points and that is what the majority of the 21,807 crowd will have been pleased with as we still keep the pressure on the Blunts.
There were some good individual performances out there today, Lewis still frustrates me but you can not knock him for the quality of the balls that he can deliver, Cresswell battled but a lack of pace lets him down, Derry battled well and seemed to be the only midfielder who looked like being able to open QPR up, Millar was not showing any premiership class but yet he was still busy in the middle without being overly creative but todays MAMF of the match easily goes to Sean Gregan who was a rock at the back and when in possession was able to keep ownership of the ball and always found a Leeds player with his fine range of passing.
14th February 2006 Leeds 2 Watford 1
This was a nail biter of a match with Leeds coming from behind after Watford had two players sent off in the second half.
It was not to be the highest crowd of the season of which some expected, 22,007 turned up to witness a good game that was frustrating at times for the Leeds fans. There were to be no real surprises in the line up, Hulse who had stitches in his foot from the Derby game started up front with Robbie Blake. New signing Joel Griffiths is still yet waiting for his international clearance to come through before he can pull on the white shirt.
The Elland Road crowd were more vociferous than usual and so too were there Watford counterparts who filled the entire south east corner.
It was a must win game for us as Watford had pinched our third place spot at the weekend and we also needed the three points and Reading to win at the Blunts to keep up our chances of automatic promotion.
We had an early chance when Rob Hulse was brought down just outside of the area and from the ensuing free kick Robbie Blake’s effort went wide. Jonathan Douglas missed a golden chance to score with a header from Eddie Lewis’s cross but it just went wide and into the south stand hoardings.
Again Leeds played some high balls out to Eddie Lewis and being only small he rarely wins the ball and the same too can be said for the much taller Rob Hulse who is also frustrating in the air, his timing when jumping for the ball was/is cr*p to say the least. In my opinion Hulse had a poor game but to be fair he was not fully fit….which begs the question, why play him then and leave Healy on the bench??.
Midway through the first half Sean Gregan commited an excellent tackle on the edge of the box which was brilliant as the Watford player could have had a chance on goal, Gregan won the ball and carelessly he made the mistake of then giving the ball away cheaply to an opposing player….some guy behind me started berating Gregan somewhat angrily which f***ing annoyed me as fans are quick to jump on his back when he makes a mistake but the dickhead stayed quiet when he made the Bobby Moore style challenge which was well worth the applause.
Leeds toiled and Watford played some neat pacey football and for most of the first half it looked like Watford were the better side. But it was not all the visitors with Sean Gregan shaving the bar with a header.
Watford scored just before the break when Sean Gregan brought down Marlon King right on the edge of the area. Young midfielder Ashley Young took the free kick blasting it into the top right hand corner giving Neil Sullivan no chance of saving it.
Special mention must go to Stephen Crainey who had a better game in the white shirt, but for all their toil the Leeds midfield lacked that bit of class and panache that a promotion chasing team like us need. Millar and Douglas work hard but neither is real premiership class, Shaun Derry’s performance with a typical neat,probing and passing game. Eddie Lewis was just Eddie Lewis, the odd good cross but pace is missing to make him what I call a proper “Winger”.
Just after the break both teams had goals disallowed Blake for us and Henderson for them, both for off side offences.
Leeds break through came on 57 minutes when Ben Foster brought down Hulse in the box, and with him being the last man he had to go, Blake put away the spot kick with venom!!. Then four minutes later Watford were reduced to 9 men when centre forward Darius Henderson went up with Gregan and elbowed him, the referee consulted his linesman and soon he was off down the tunnel for a straight red.
Hulse and Douglas came off on 74 minutes in a double substitution which saw Healy and Cresswell come on and it was Cresswell who provided the winner on 81 minutes, his run down the wing and cross into the box found found Healy whose shot was parried into the path of the onrushing Robbie Blake who hammered the ball into the roof of the net from close range.
Watford to be fair for the closing part of the game took the game to us and even at 2-1 their pace was quite frightening but even though 5 minutes of extra time were required we managed to hang on for all three points.
MAMF of the match goes to Sean Gregan who battled hard all night, Robbie Blake had a good game and even though he got the goals it was a player at the other end of the pitch who to me deserves all of the plaudits.
