Doing it for Redders. Leeds 1-0 Bolton TSS August 31, 2014 Match reviews 7 Comments The Hockaday Shambles of 2014 was consigned to Leeds United folklore as Neil Redfearn, the man for every crisis, once again took on the role of caretaker manager while Leeds, once again, go in search of a new manager. Redfearn could yet be named as successor to The Hock and did his reputation at Elland Road no damage here by overcoming Bolton Wanderers to record a confidence boosting win for The Whites. Key to the turnaround in fortunes was a midfield partnership Redfearn’s predecessor lacked the courage to field, but with Rudy Austin out injured and Luke Murphy suspended, Redfearn chose youth over experienced stand-ins like Norris and Tonge to give Whites fans exactly what they wanted to see. With Lewis Cook and Alex Mowatt, all those years playing alongside each other in the academy shone through, their understanding of each other’s game was immediate, the passing between the pair assured and encouraging. But they weren’t the only stars of the show, Bianchi and Sloth both played their part in a hugely improved Leeds United midfield, Antenucci looked strong at the front, Stephen Warnock continued his impressive start to the season (though was unfortunately taken off injured) and any defence which keeps a clean-sheet following the second-half storm we weathered deserves mention – even if said clean-sheet required several top saves from the highly impressive Silvestri. The only goal of the game was just-reward for Stephen Warnock’s start to this campaign and while many will argue it was a cross (and it almost certainly was), it was a cross hit towards the back-post in such a way that it was always going to be dangerous if Bolton’s defence didn’t deal with it. From there, Bolton took the game to us and Leeds were forced to play on the counter, but even at a stage where we were having to withstand heavy pressure and were fortunate to have a goalkeeper of Silvestri’s obvious class between the sticks, there was plenty to be encouraged about, particularly Lewis Cook whose incisive passing allowed us to break quickly and kept Bolton on their toes. In previous games, Leeds have been predictable and far too easy to pin back and while we’d still benefit from more pace and width surging forwards, we weren’t restricted to the same ‘crabbing’ movements we’ve come to expect from any midfield involving Austin and Murphy. Instead players looked to overlap and provide options, Cook was picking out runs with the casual assurance of someone 10 years his senior and there seemed to be a belief in this Leeds side that we’ve previously lacked which clearly benefited Alex Mowatt who was back at his best following a bit of a slump in the second half of last season. You’d struggle to pick out a bad performance really, everyone ‘put in a shift’ as The Hock liked to say, but Charlie Taylor deserves special mention for putting in a solid performance after taking over from the injured Stephen Warnock and while Zan Benedicic looks like he’ll take time to adjust to the pace of the English Championship, it was good to see he’s been let out of the cupboard Hockaday had him locked up in. Man of the match should probably go to Jermaine Beckford for spending more time saluting the Leeds United fans than he did trying to please Bolton’s. Or maybe Redders, for patrolling the touchline like a Mafia boss? Both made me smile and that’s been too rare an occurrence at Elland Road these last few years. On and on…