The Scratching Shed

There’s something about wearing the all white strip of Leeds United that makes players insist on doing things the hard way. Top vs bottom yesterday was a perfect example. What should have been a stroll in the park for the runaway league leaders, almost turned into a disaster.

Credit where it’s due though. For a team that’s just lost ten in a row and look like they’re already relegated, Stockport were determined to make life as hard as possible for Leeds United. Had it not been for one of the most pathetic defences I’ve ever seen and a goalkeeper determined not to leave his line, Stockport could have become only the second team this season to beat Leeds United.

First things first – the pitch. I can’t describe how bad it was. Within minutes of kick-off it started to tear up and was somewhat reminiscent of Histon’s last year. Fair’s fair though, the game came close to being postponed due to the weather conditions lately and had it not been for the efforts of the Stockport fans and ground-staff, we wouldn’t have been playing at all. Besides, I played on enough bad pitches as a youngster, as I’m sure the pro’s did and we still managed to have a game.

Within the first two minutes Leeds had already turned Stockport’s defence inside out and Snodgrass fired us into the lead. Three defenders were around Snoddy as he advanced on goal, but none of them put a tackle in and Snodgrass was allowed to shoot from just outside the box. His shot deflected off the foot of one of the defenders, wrong-footing the keeper and giving Leeds a dream start. 0-1, and things were going as expected.

Stockport soon equalised though when one of their stand-out players, Carl Baker – who, incidentally is leaving them next week – went on an unchallenged run towards the Leeds goal. Eventually he was stopped by the Leeds defence, but only at the cost of a free-kick, from which County equalised. Baker took the free-kick himself, firing it low into the bottom corner, via another deflection from the Leeds wall. 1-1, and before anyone points any fingers, there was nothing Casper could have done about it.

Both keepers were kept busy as the teams exchanged blows. Bradley Johnson came closest for Leeds when his volleyed shot came back off the bar. Becchio also thought he’d scored just after the half hour mark, but the linesman decided he’d used his hand to control the ball. As half-time approached, Leeds enjoyed the better of the match but never pressured Stockport’s weak defence enough for me.

The second half started with both teams having chances, but it was Stockport who would take the lead just after the hour mark. A corner taken short from Stockport, was whipped towards the back post from the edge of the area where Leeds’ defence was once again missing and Mullins converted to give County a rare moment of celebration. After losing ten in a row, this wasn’t what the league leaders were expecting, nor were the home sides fans who were in total euphoria.

Simon Grayson made two changes shortly afterwards in search of more ideas upfront. The most important change was undoubtedly Max Gradel, who the Leeds fans had already called for. He replaced Robert Snodgrass and immediately started to torment Stockport’s fragile defence. Howson was also brought on for Doyle.

It took just five minutes for the equaliser and it was Patrick Kisnorbo with an unexpected assist. His cross found Jermaine Beckford who headed home brilliantly to restore parity. Who said Beckford was rubbish in the air? 2-2.

Gradel was busy running the Stockport defence ragged and Grayson made his final change replacing Lucciano Becchio with Tresor Kandol. The better chances were going Leeds’ way by now as Stockport looked happy to take a point.

Relying on such a poor defence was County’s downfall and ultimately cost them points as Max Gradel’s cross was poorly cleared, landing nicely for Leigh Bromby who struck beautifully on the half volley to send Leeds back infront with just two minutes remaining. 2-3. Queue a hysterical celebration from Bromby, who clearly hadn’t rehearsed anything in training.

County tried to chase the game and get themselves a point, but the World’s greatest time-waster, Casper Ankergren had other ideas. When the ball went out for a Leeds goal-kick in the dying moments, Casper did his usual routine of lining the ball up, walking back slowly, re-aligning the ball, walking back slowly again, knocking the mud off his boots on the post… etc… etc. Understandably annoyed by Casper’s antics, one of the Stockport fans behind his goal launched a snowball at him, for what had to be the funniest moment of the match.

Casper’s time-wasting proved to be irrelevant though as Jermaine Beckford wrapped things up in injury. Tresor Kandol played him in and although his shot was a little tame, it found it’s way under the County keeper to secure the win for Leeds. 2-4, job done. Beckford clearly enjoying himself again and everything rosy once more in the Leeds United camp.

"The referee's a..."

Whilst the goalscoring had finished, the totally inept referee who had been handing yellow’s out like they were Christmas cards decided to go one better by sending off a County player. His challenge on Gradel wasn’t the best admittedly, but they’d already lost the game and Gradel was fine so I simply can’t see what the sending off achieved. 

Clearly one of those ref’s that was adamant the fans came to watch him rather than the football, he managed a total of eight yellow cards (six for Leeds) and one red. An impressive haul by anyones standards. His final booking was one of those rare moments I agreed with though. Patrick Kisnorbo - who’d otherwise had a relatively good game - decided to shout at David Poole as he was leaving the pitch. A stupid thing to do as the player had already been sent off and seen his team go from in front to two behind and was probably feeling bad enough already. Kis received a yellow card for his antics, but it could easily have been red with the way the cards had been dished out.

This was a poor game by our standards. We weren’t great defensively and never pressured a weak Stockport defence enough. The conditions didn’t help as players slipped all over so Leeds were never able to really take control.

Stockport deserve credit mind. Considering they’re struggling as much as they are it was a spirited display from them, but Leeds have more talent at their disposal. Having the luxury of being able to bring on Max Gradel, who can change games in seconds, is something most teams don’t have. Thankfully, we got the job done and end the year with a victory.

Elsewhere, Charlton could only manage a draw, so Leeds will start the New Year eight points clear at the top of League One. Back across the Pennines next for Leeds, who will be playing a largely unheard of team from Salford in the FA Cup.

Couldn’t help but laugh at the weather-related stories coming from the official Leeds United site and official Stockport County site over the last few days. 

"Argh snow! No one leave their house!"

 With the two sides due to meet tomorrow, Stockport County’s fans helped to clear the pitch earlier in the week so the covers could be laid and hot-air blowers put in place. However, snow and ice were still present on the stands meaning the match could still be cancelled amid fear of potential injury to fans. With the health and safety brigade sharpening their pencils and ‘no win, no fee’ lawyers setting their sat-navs, Stockport issued another plea for fans to help them clear the stands this morning. 

Back in Leeds meanwhile Father Bates returned from a night of delivering lumps of coal to naughty boys and girls to issue a statement thanking Leeds United’s groundsmen for their hard-work in ensuring all matches could go ahead as planned and the training facilities were in good shape. 

They did a great job, as I’m sure you’ll all agree and I’m glad they’ve got the recognition they deserve. I am quite puzzled as to why there was any snow on the pitch in the first place, given the underground heating Elland Road has, but assume it costs more than Bates is willing to pay to flick that particular switch on (or it only works when the snows cleared? I prefer my original reason).

Brolin makes Leeds United return!

What did seem a little tactless however was the photograph the offical Leeds United site decided to run with which shows a snowman on the side of the pitch (left). While Stockport are busy begging fans to come in and clear their pitch and stands, our lads have time to build snowmen? Tut, tut! 

Of course, I’m only joking. I appreciate the lads work extremely hard and would like to thank them personally for their work not only over Christmas but throughout the entire season. I’ve seen some sorry excuses for football pitches on my travels around League One, but Leeds’ always looks in good condition. Also, thanks to all the Stockport fans who have worked hard to give tomorrow’s game the best possible chance of going ahead. I know County don’t have the same resources Leeds do and it’s good to see the fans pulling through to help the team.

Christmas can often be a tough time for clubs competiting on so many fronts and Leeds United have been handed an extremely tough run of six league games and two cup games throughout the festive period.

A series of shots firing back off the woodwork and excellent saves from Kettering Town’s goalkeeper, Lee Harper made progress for Leeds United hard. It took 200 minutes for Leeds to finally make the break through when Mike Grella came on as a sub in the replay to fire us into a 2-1 lead. From there on in, the floodgates opened and Leeds United eventually progressed to the third round with a 5-1 win (AET).

That result set up a third round tie at Old Trafford with Manchester United. Maybe the War of the Roses game has been a slight distraction for us, or maybe it’s the mounting injuries and need to rotate our squad week in, week out that has led to a minor dip in League form, but so far in December, we’ve seen our lead over Charlton Athletic cut to just two points; albeit, with a game in hand.

December started with an away visit to Oldham Athletic. Simon Grayson made several changes to his squad with plenty of loan players starting the tie, including Max Gradel and Sam Vokes upfront. A cold Boundary Park had more Leeds United fans inside than it did Oldham and the lads didn’t disappoint. Max Gradel ran his heart out throughout and his persistance earnt him two assists for Neil Kilkenny and the returning Lucciano Becchio as Oldham struggled to compete with Leeds United’s second team.

Next up was the West Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield Town. Whilst Huddersfield had the best attacking record in the league, Leeds had the best defensive record. Huddersfield occupied one of the play-off places not far behind Leeds so this was never going to be an easy fixture. Leeds did manage to take the lead twice though and despite not being at their best, I felt it was two points dropped leaving Elland Road that day. I’d accept Huddersfield were probably the better team, but after taking the lead twice, I felt we should have been able to hold on, although a draw was probably a fair reflection of the game.

A rare trip to Boundary Park was next as Leeds met Brentford for the first time in almost half a century. For myself and the other travelling Whites, it was a long return home after witnessing a poor game, played on a poor pitch hindered by a poor referee. Neither team deserved to win the game, but the dismal performance set a few alarm bells ringing amongst the Whites fans. Brentford is definitely a place we should be taking three points from but never really looked like doing so and the match ended 0-0.

Our fifth game in fifteen days brought us back to Elland Road for the JPT clash against Accrington Stanley. The first competitive meeting for the two sides should have been a straight forward victory for the Whites and on paper, looks like it was. The final score of 2-0 however doesn’t tell the full story. Leeds’ defence was extremely poor throughout, leading Simon Grayson to bring Patrick Kisnorbo on with twenty minutes to ensure progression. The five man back line seemed to sort things out a bit, but Leeds had definitely rode their luck with shots coming back off the inside of the post on two occasions.

The light at the end of the tunnel is finally shining for Leeds though. With Lucciano Becchio back to full fitness, Shane Higgs and Bradley Johnson training again and the extensive injury list finally shortening, Leeds should be a stronger side for this weekends visit of Southampton.

It’s been a tough run for the Whites that’s seen the team struggle with the chaotic schedule. Our early season form was built on the consistency of the line-up, but when Larry was forced into making wholesale changes, the teams looked weakened. That said, we’re still top of the League and however poor we may have been at times, we’ve not been defeated throughout a challenging month. Although our lead has been cut from six points to two on Charlton, we’re still eight clear of third and that’s all that really matters. As nice as it’d be to end as champions, I’d take second in a heartbeat.

After Southampton this weekend, the squad finally gets a chance to regroup with no midweek fixture next week. The next game will be the Boxing Day clash against Hartlepool before we head to Edgeley Park to take on Stockport County just two days later. The final game of 2009 gives us six days to prepare for our trip to Old Trafford, where you can only hope the Manchester United players are fatigued from too much partying.

A poor run maybe and I’ll be glad when it’s over, but we’re still picking up points, still top of the league and still with a decent gap over third place. Had we been offered this at the beginning of the season, I doubt many would have turned it down.

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