The Scratching Shed

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.

Leeds and Accrington Stanley will tonight battle it out for a place in the Northern Area JPT final at Elland Road. Leeds come into the game on the back of two draws against Huddersfield Town and Brentford, whilst Accrington are in fine form having won their last four consecutive games.

A win for the Whites tonight could setup an area final against the Leeds suburb of Bradford. Leeds and Bradford last met in this competiton last season, when Leeds knocked the Bantams out with a 2-1 win at Elland Road. That day, Andy Robinson fired Leeds into the lead early on from the penalty spot and Becchio added a second just before half-time. Bradford did pull one back late in the second half, but it was Leeds who progressed.

Whilst Leeds have a glorious history of dominance over our neighbours, we’ve never met Accrington Stanley before in a competitive match, so they’ll be an unkown challenge as they visit Elland Road for the first time tonight.

A couple of current players share a link between the two teams. Young Scottish goalkeeper, Alan Martin was on-loan to Accrington before Shane Higgs’ injury forced Leeds to recall him and another youngster, Tom Lees is also getting some first team experience on loan to Accrington. However, I’m under the impression that there’s some kind of mutual agreement between the two sides meaning Tom Lees will not play at Elland Road tonight.

Accrington Stanley are managed by John Coleman who has been in charge at the club for 10 years. He has a pretty impressive record overall having guided Accrington to three promotions (all as champions) during his 465 games in charge. He also holds the record for the clubs longest serving manager and so far this season, his team sit comfortably in mid-table in League Two, still with an outside chance of reaching the play-offs.

Robert Snodgrass will return to the team tonight after picking up a one-match ban for five bookings so far this term. Simon Grayson has also suggested that Sam Vokes will return to the squad after being left out for the draw away to Brentford. Grayson said that the reason Vokes was missing was because he had already selected five loanees which is the maximum allowed under FA rules.

I’d be disappointed if we failed to progress tonight. Success in the JPT would mean a trip to Wembley, which would be good for the fans and just as good for the clubs finances. The possibility of a derby match against Bradford City too is hard to ignore, and after two draws in the League, we need to get back to winning ways.

Had to laugh reading the following from The Times & Star;

Sky Sports should be renamed Leeds United TV after the satellite broadcaster screened the Yorkshire club for the 3,479th time this season on Tuesday night.

I doubt Uncle Ken would be too happy with that rebranding. I sense a lawsuit coming on. We already have a LUTV which you’re more than welcome to subscribe to for a small monthly fee – £20p/m to you.

You can accept that the Elland Road team are easily the lower divisions’ best supported outfit but still observe when the pursuit of ratings turns into overkill.

That point was reached when viewers were treated to Leeds v Grimsby in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy northern quarter-final four days ago.

You know you loved it. The quality of Kilkenny’s and Beckford’s goals were enough to justify the air-space. Not to mention the beautifully struck consolation goal from Mr. Sweeney.

Both their FA Cup ties have also been snaffled by the broadcasters, not to mention their Carling Cup meeting with Liverpool and the odd league fixture, too.

OK, none of the FA Cup games were really very interesting, but Leeds v Liverpool is an obvious choice for TV coverage. Especially since we sold the stadium out with ease and there were still tens of thousands of people around the country eager to tune in. What other tie had such excitement?

Remember: money tips into the Elland Road account whenever Ken Bates’ troops appear live on our screens, in case you thought this was just an aimless Cumbrian bleat.

You get the feeling that Sky and their rivals would sooner send the cameras round to watch Simon Grayson’s players brushing their teeth rather than devote anything more than token time to the other 47 teams in the lower tiers.

Quite right too. None of the other teams are interesting enough to hold our attention – although, in fairness, I could be a little biased.

That leaves just one little question. Who the hell are ‘The Times & Star?’ Well, they’re a “three-edition broadsheet newspaper, based in Workington. (…) covering the communities within the Allerdale district of West Cumbria.” Basically, they’re Carlisle United’s local rag.

So, everyone from The FA, Sky Sports and ITV take note- the next time Leeds United and Liverpool are drawn against each other, don’t give the people what they actually want. Show them Carlisle v Portsmouth instead (as was the draw) and let’s make their 400 sheep farmer fans happy.

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.

Struggling League Two side Grimsby Town are our visitors tonight for the area quarter-finals of the Football League Trophy. Leeds are unsuprisingly favourites for the tie after our dominant start to the season and Simon Grayson has admitted the lure of playing at Wembley means the players shouldn’t need much motivation for this clash.

The distance between these two teams and the contrasting fortunes so far this season has left us 2/9 favourites for the tie, whilst Grimsby aren’t given much of a chance at 11/1.

Aside from a 2-0 win to Leeds in the 1998 FA Cup, the last time Leeds and Grimsby competed against each other was in the 1980′s in the Old Division Two. Throughout the 80′s Leeds and Grimsby met ten times, with Leeds winning four, Grimsby winning two and the rest ending in draws.

So far in this seasons Football League Trophy, Leeds have played just once beating Darlington 2-1. The game saw Simon Grayson make several changes to his usual line-up handing starts to Lubomir Michalik, Aidy White, David Prutton, Andy Robinson, Neil Kilkenny, Tresor Kandol and Mike Grella. There are rules in place to ensure teams play some of their usual line-up, but I’d expect a similar amount of changes tonight.

Although Leeds won their first FLT game of the season 2-1 against Darlington, Simon Grayson was publically critical of his sides display. Leeds started brightly enough and were 2-0 up before the half hour mark, but the foot came off the gas thereafter allowing Darlington to get back into the game. Simon told his fringe players that they should be making the best of these opportunities to impress and that failure to do so will see them given less chances.

Grimsby Town’s first game of this seasons Football League Trophy saw them beat our fellow League One rivals, Hartlepool 2-0. However, they’ve also lost 4-0 to Tranmere Rovers in the League Cup so I wouldn’t read too much into that.

It gets worse for Grimsby too. They haven’t won in their last five games and currently find themselves one place off the bottom of League Two. The only team with a worse record is the one we met in the last round of this competition, Darlington, who have managed just five points from fifteen games.

A familiar face returns to Elland Road tonight and is definitely one to watch. Peter Sweeney had little luck at Elland Road but has fit straight into Grimsby’s first team. In the ‘interview with a Grimsby Town fan’ I did, Rob told us how Peter was getting on in Grimsby;

He’s a good player, probably our most skillful player, the biggest problem is his mouth. He gets booked at least every other game for dissent. He’s suspended on Saturday against Bath for 5 bookings, probably all for dissent!

I also asked Rob for a prediction and he said a draw meaning it would go to penalties.

Personally, I’d be disappointed with anything less than a comfortable victory. I’m hoping to see Sam Vokes, Max Gradel and Aidy White given an entire match. As I said earlier, I think there’ll be mass changes to the usual line-up although with this weekends game postponed Simon doesn’t have to worry too much about resting anyone. Either way, (without wanting to sound arrogant) we should be too strong for Grimsby.

In the second interview with an opposition fan, TSS welcomes Rob from thefishy.co.uk as we look ahead to the Football League Trophy game tomorrow night.

TSS - Hi Rob, thanks for taking the time to talk to TSS. Looking at the League Two table, you’ve not made a great start to the season, do you think you can turn it round or is relegation inevitable?

Rob – Inevitable, no way! There’s a lot of poor teams in League Two and there’s plenty of points to pick up. We managed it last season. No doubt we will strengthen the side in January and I’m sure we’ll start to improve soon from having a new manager.

TSS – Since we’ve competed in the Football League Trophy, I’ve heard fans from a lot of clubs write it off as a pointless competition. What are your feelings on the cup?

Rob – I think it’s a brilliant competition.  Dozens of teams have played at Wembley now in the final. The final is different every year (unlike, yawn, Man Utd v Chelsea, or Man Utd v Liverpool over and over again). Last year’s final was a cracker between Luton and Scunny. Real fans attend the final too, not your suits and corpoprate types, and glory hunters from places hundreds of miles away from where the teams play. I’d watch the JPT final ahead of the FA Cup final without a moment’s hesitation.

TSS – What’s happening with the management situation? I see you’ve parted ways with Mike Newell and Neil Woods is currently running the show. Are you expecting him to be a permanent replacement, or do you have someone else lined up?

Rob - Nobody knows, including the Chairman I suspect. Neil Woods is a good Youth Team manager and has been doing that for ten years. He quite rightly is not sure whether he wants the big job. The chairman seems to be giving him every chance though by giving him a nice long spell as caretaker.

TSS – Peter Sweeney is one player that stands out in your squad as you signed him from us last season. He never really got much of a chance at Elland Road, how is he getting on at Blundell Park?

Rob – He’s a good player, probably our most skillful player, the biggest problem is his mouth. He gets booked at least every other game for dissent. He’s suspended on Saturday against Bath for 5 bookings, probably all for dissent!

TSS – Who else should we be keeping an eye on, on Tuesday?

Rob – Barry Conlon can be a real handful up front. Akpro may play alongside him, he looks a bit like Drogba and is Ivorian as well, but there the resemblance ends LOL.

TSS – Everyone seems to have an opinion on Leeds United. What are you feelings towards us?

Rob - I like to see the “big” clubs get knocked off their perches from time to time. Nobody has a god-given right to be in the top divisions. Obviously Leeds also have the added spice of being one of the big Yorkshire teams, so Grimsby fans will have a particular rivarly with them, as we do with Sheff Wed and Barnsley. It’s a shame we’re down in the lowest division as most of our biggest rivals are playing higher up now, so no doubt our supporters will make the most of the occasion to express their dislike of Leeds! We had some right battles in the 80′s!

TSS – The last time you beat Leeds United was in the Old Division Two in 1986, although the clubs have met very few times since. Do you think you can cause an upset in the Football League Trophy?

Rob – We got to the final two years ago and won loads of games against League One sides away from home. Winning over 90 minutes is going to be hard but I think we can get a draw, and win on penalties.

TSS – Finally, what’s your prediction for the game on Tuesday and who do you think will lift the Football League Trophy this season?

Rob – I predict a draw which means it will go to pens (may the best side win!). I think a League Two side will win this year. The beauty of this competition is it could be any of the teams still in it.

Best of luck to Grimsby Town for the rest of the season and thanks again to Rob for taking the time to answer the questions.