The Scratching Shed

Won on the night, drew overall, but out on penalties. Despite a defiant comeback from a never say die Leeds United side who were unquestionaly the better team overall, it’s Carlisle that will play in this years JPT final at Wembley Stadium whilst Leeds United are dealt a bitter blow by the coin flip that is a penalty shoot-out.

I left Carlisle on Tuesday night feeling extremely bitter. The JPT for me was always a pointless competition I cared little about, but the opportunity to watch Leeds United play at Wembley once more was always tempting. My bitterness stemmed from quite possibly the worst referee I have ever seen. I usually try to ignore referee’s performances, because on the whole, the lower league ones are largely useless and both teams have to cope with their incompetence, but this referee was a special kind of moron.

Clearly, this ref had just got himself a new whistle and wanted to show it off to the 10,000 fans who he mistakenly believed had come to watch him. His whistle spent so much time in his mouth that the game hardly had a chance to flow early on, but he did seem to let up a little second half (presumably after a bollocking from someone) and the two teams were actually allowed to play football in small patches.

What was all the more irritating about this referee than the usual jobsworth was his inability to give a decision that actually mattered. If a player coughed near another one anywhere outside the penalty box then this was a definite free-kick in his mind. However, when a Leeds United player was fouled in the box for the most clear cut decision I saw all night, he gave nothing! The final blow for me though came at the very end when he decided to have the penalties taken infront of the Carlisle fans rather than at the opposite end which was split. The coin toss became a little more weighted in their direction at that point.

When the ref did stop to capture his breath, the game was actually a really good battle. The scoreline says it all really, but the comeback from Leeds United was magnificent. Both teams will be questioning some of the defending in the aftermath, most noticably Lubomir Michalik on our part who got himself two assists for Carlisle. Whenever it looked like it was over, Leeds United just didn’t give in and you could sense Mike Grella’s goal coming and just knew this was going down to the wire.

Carlisle for me didn’t deserve their place in the final, Leeds were the better team and but for some poor defending and a few dodgy decisions, we’d be playing in the most exciting JPT final the competition has ever seen infront of a capacity crowd at the national stadium. Without us, the final will hardly be thought of outside Carlisle, but we bow out of the competition with our heads held high and are now fully focused on what has been the number one priority all along. Promotion.

The ups

The fans – As always, the fans did Leeds United proud. We outsang the pitiful Carlisle fans throughout and even when our backs were to the wall facing a two goal mountain the songs just kept coming. MOT!

Never say die – The penalty shootout aside, this was a display from a spirited Leeds United who never gave up and carried on fighting no matter what the scoreline read and however stacked against us the odds were. This is the kind of display that will win Leeds United promotion, however bad the defence may be at times.

Attack, attack… attack, attack, attack! When the goals were needed and the referee kept his whistle out of his mouth for long enough and even without Jermaine Beckford (who would have probably got sent off with that ref) Leeds were good when on the front foot. Becchio should have done better with a couple of chances, but the build-up play from McSheffrey, Snoddy and Gradel was usually very good. Snoddy even managed to cross pretty well so long as the ball was moving. Corners on the other hand… Well, one step at a time…

The Downs

Luciano Becchio – Bitterly disappointed with Luci who bottled the penalty shoot-out, leaving our on-loan full-back to take the decisive penalty instead. Only one regular striker on the pitch in the absence of Beckford and he didn’t have the balls to step up and take a pen for Leeds. Whatever his reasons, he’s a striker and should always be taking them before the full-backs. Also could have done better infront of goal, but as a lone striker Grayson was asking a lot.

Max Gradel – Too much time with Jermaine Beckford has led to the youngster developing a serious attitude problem. The referee infuriated everyone, but shouting at him was never going to get you too far Max. There was one point where Kilkenny tried to calm him down only to receive a load of abuse too. His footballing display was good and he tried everything to give Leeds the edge, but his attitude overshadowed his performance. Lucky not to see a red card.

Lubomir Michalik – Dreadful. At times he made some good tackles and got the blocks in, but when taken into context with his mistakes, he was dreadful and cost us the game.

The tactics – Becchio as a lone striker? I know he’s found his shooting boots lately, but that was never a good idea. What on earth does Mike Grella have to do to get in the starting line-up at Leeds?

Leeds suffered their second defeat in a row at the hands of Carlisle United as the JPT brought an unwelcomed distraction to Elland Road. Whilst many are delighted to have knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup and would love a trip to Wembley in the JPT, the cup runs are clearly coming at a price to Leeds United and the slump in form can only be attributed to an Old Trafford hangover added to the continued uncertainty around the future of Jermaine Beckford with Everton amongst the latest rumours.

There’s an argument that could suggest this weeks cup games give us the chance to get our poor run out of the way before getting back to League One action next week, and if that’s the case then so be it, but this was a third consecutive poor display from the Whites who look jaded and seem to be lacking in ideas at times.

It’s like watching the Leeds United side pre-Simon Grayson with us failing miserably at defending set-plays, lacking organisation in defence and fight across the pitch and failing to put away the chances that fall for us. Whilst there was a noticable improvement on Saturday’s display and Leeds were perhaps a little unlucky to lose, this still wasn’t good enough from the league leaders.

The lack of fight is what worries me the most. Complacency has definitely crept in and despite the January transfer window being open, no one seems to be fighting for the right to wear the shirt as much as they should be. To be beaten at Elland Road is bad enough, but to be beaten by a side struggling like Carlisle are and for them to control the game in large parts like they did is quite frankly embarrassing. 

I aren’t going to go through the match blow by blow, because there are so few positives to take from it. To say I’m disheartened would be an understatement, but I rest assured in the belief that Simon Grayson can turn this round. Up next is another distraction as we head to White Hart Lane in the FA Cup. I hope Simon Grayson rests the first team for this one and fields the reserves because I honestly couldn’t care less about winning it. The league is all that matters.

After the Spurs distraction, we head to Swindon back in League One. The entire teams focus should be on this game and this game alone, Tottenham is quite simply irrelevant. This form can’t continue or Charlton and Norwich will make us pay. The team need to understand that the important thing is escaping League One and forget their moment in the spotlight.

Final score: Leeds United 1-2 Carlisle United

A more in-depth match report can be found here at Travels of a Leeds fan

When Hogan Ephraim’s shot deflected in after just eight minutes, it looked like it was going to be all too easy for Leeds United, but if the opening goal was lucky, the atrocious defending that went unpunished thereafter was miraculous.

Grayson rung the changes to his side. Richard Naylor returned to the team and partnered Lubomir Michalik at the back, with Crowe and Hughes playing at full-back. On-loan Liverpool goalkeeper, David Martin made his debut and there was also starts for Hogan Ephraim, Tresor Kandol and Mike Grella.

After Ephraim’s fortuitous opening goal, Leeds never applied any real pressure. The best chances we had for the remainder of the first half fell to Kandol, who had a shot blocked by the Accrington keeper’s legs and a hopeful shot from Robert Snodgrass that went wide.

Accrington meanwhile probably had as many chances as Leeds including a free-header from a corner that their striker really should have buried. The lack of man-marking from the set-piece was a sign of things to come as the shaky Leeds defence made the game harder than it should have been.

The second half brought with it another early goal when Ephraim crossed for Kilkenny who headed home. 2-0 to Leeds and things really should have been wrapped up.

Accrington never put their heads down though and kept fighting. Had it not been for a lucky save from David Martin which flicked on to the post and came back out in to the path of a White shirt, Accrington could have been back in it. More fortune for Leeds as the woodwork came to their rescue again and the Leeds defence continued to scare the life out of the 12,000 inside Elland Road.

Grayson changed the front two with Kandol and Grella making way for Vokes and Gradel. Neither of the departing strikers will have been happy with their shift as they did little to threaten Stanley’s keeper throughout. Gradel forced an impressive save from the Accrington keeper late on, but the substitutes didn’t have much more luck than the two they replaced and Accrington continued to look the more likely to score.

Such was the state of Leeds United at the back, Simon Grayson made the decision to bring on Patrick Kisnorbo in place of Robert Snodgrass, effectively changing the formation to 5-3-2. Probably not something he’d expected to have to do before the fixture, but Naylor and Lubo just weren’t keeping the visitors at bay.

Leeds managed to escape the fixture with a clean sheet, but if todays team was supposed to show the quality of this squads depth then we have problems. I know Doyle is often seen as the weak link in midfield, but the job he does in suring up the defence is invaluable. His absence today was noticable throughout. The partnership of Lubo and Naylor didn’t work and the full-backs didn’t inspire much confidence either.

Elsewhere, Grella and Kandol never really had a chance to shoot. The difference between the two sides was only Leeds taking their chances. There were very few clear cut chances for the Whites as we rarely looked in a hurry to attack, but the ones we did have were converted. Accrington meanwhile will have been disappointed with some of their finishing, most notably the free-headet in the first half. However, they’ll also be cursing their luck with the woodwork coming to our rescue twice.

Regardless of how many changes we made tonight, we have to improve before the weekend. Southampton are a strong side and with Rickie Lambert upfront, they’ll be sure to punish such sloppy defending. The main thing is that we’re through to the final where we’ll meet Carlisle United. Although I’d have preferred to play the Leeds suburb of Bradford, we’re still in the race for Wembley and that’s the main thing.

TSS man of the match
I’m going to give it to the Elland Road woodwork tonight as without it, we’d have probably been knocked out on penalties. Hogan Ephraim deserves a shout too though. Although he did little to help out defensively (like the rest of the team) he got himself a goal and an assist, so an obvious choice.

45 places seperate Leeds United and Grimsby Town in the footballing pyramid and for me, it wasn’t hard to see why tonight. It’s not that Grimsby didn’t play well or have their chances, but a pretty much full-strength Leeds United were a class apart.

Don’t get me wrong, Leeds United were by no means on top form. They were massively frustrating at times when totally bypassing the midfield and insisting on booting the ball long. They also had a tendancy to rush things far too often which probably led to a respectable scoreline for Grimsby.

In the oppositions half you’d often find the majority of Grimsby’s team behind the ball, with only the forward hanging about near the halfway line for counter-attacks. Leeds meanwhile had pretty much all our team in Grimsby’s half, which could have cost us had the afore mentioned forward managed to stay onside at any point.

Perhaps one of the most amusing moments of the game came when a Leeds United shot was blocked by a Grimsby defender. Not something worth mentioning usually, but to block the shot the player decided to take on the role of the goalkeeper and did so by diving infront of it. Looked suspiciously like handball from the Kop, but I’m told it actually came off his knee. Interesting way of keeping the ball out of the net either way.

As half-time drew closer it looked like we’d be heading in at 0-0. That was until Max Gradel drove a cross along the front of goal and in a panic to stop it reaching Beckford or Vokes, a Grimsby defender turned it in. 1-0. A deserved lead, but not one that came as easily as hoped.

After that, Leeds calmed down a little and started to pass the ball about. One such move where Leeds looked like Arsenal saw Leeds stetch the lead to 2-0. A quality passing move found Kilkenny in space who played a nice one-two with Beckford before striking sweetly from range into the bottom right hand corner.

Half-time and Leeds deservedly leading. Grimsby had one or two chances on the counter, but most of the time when they broke, they found themselves offside which must have been extremely frustrating for the travelling fans.

Second half and most of us were expecting one way traffic. It was no longer about the result, but the scoreline as some of us started to predict how many we’d eventually win by. It took less than ten minutes for Leeds to widen the margin too as Bradley Johnson found Beckford who somehow created space to shoot in a crowded box for his 12th of the season. Excellent work by the frontman to find space there.

Then the inevitable happened. Former players always seem to play a blinder against us and Peter Sweeney had probably been Grimsby’s best player so far. Grimsby had earnt themselves a corner, from which Casper came and punched clear. Whilst I was complaining about him not catching it, getting some distance on it, or at least directing it into touch, the ball fell towards Peter Sweeney who struck beautifully on the volley, which bounced off the bar and went in from outside the area. Unquestionably the goal of the game and perhaps the best I’ve seen this season.

3-1 was to be the final score. Robert Snodgrass was denied by a great save from his back-post header before being substituted and Andy Robinson seemed a little too eager to score with several long-rangers after he replaced Snoddy. Grimsby had a few more chances but I don’t think our lead was ever really threatened.

Fair play to Grimsby. For a team so much lower than us, they did have their chances and at times gave us a good game. However, this wasn’t the greatest of performances from Leeds. We rushed things a lot throughout the game and rarely passed the ball about as we can – resorting to booting the ball long instead. That said, it’s job done and we’ve progressed to the area semi-finals.

TSS man of the match
I think it has to be Neil Kilkenny tonight. He had a couple of dangerous looking shots before the goal which he thoroughly deserved. Don’t know if he did enough to warrant a first-team place, but he’s definitely made his presence known and will have the first-teamers thinking.