It's Saturday, it's three o'clock so it must be football... nah, it was another dopey kickoff time as the Lads headed a couple of hours south to take on Leeds, who'd recently decided they'd to like to win the league, and did themselves no harm in that aim by coming from behind to win a proper battle. Isidor's brilliant breakaway goal on the half hour gave us something to defend, but Leeds eventually gave up on their final ball or shot being atrocious and got two late ones. From a substitute centre half. I didn't have a very high opinion of Leeds before tonight and it's even lower now.
While half the media were intimating that our "luck"would run out, the other half were singing the praises of Le Fee (translation - "one able to produce pieces of magic") and rightly touting him as the division's best player. Others claimed Elland Road hadn't had a proper Leeds atmosphere this season - up to us to help generate it, then. A thorough search, a sniff by the dog, then along the lively/unlovely cage/tunnel that took us safely from the buses to... the home fans walking past our turnstiles, and we were into the Disneyland queueing system.
In came the same team news as Saturday:
Patterson
Hume O'Nien Ballard Cirkin
Neil (c) Bellingham
Roberts Rigg Le Fee
Isidor
... and a strong bench of Moore, Mepham, Mayenda, Hjelde, Poveda, Samed, Aleksic, Seelt, Mundle, and Browne.
In the stripes - as worn in the FA Cup final - we attacked the end to the left of the massed ranks of the Wearside Light Infantry in the south end of the west stand. There was some rather dubious saluting by the home fans as they kicked off, but it was us who went on the attack.
For ten minutes or so it was mostly us as we took the game to the Yorkshire Puddings, and after only a couple of minutes Big Dan carried it out of defence and fed Enzo, who hit it to Jobe but the shot was blocked. Isidor was onto our next ball out, but the home defence got in his way.
They gradually got into the game and spent a lot of time in our half, winning a load of corners - all of which we dealt with, but I'd rather it was us doing the attacking. Jobe headed one away and Issy carried it way up field before being stopped, then there was a booming Hume tackle that left their man in tears on 18. A few minutes later Luke had a moment of madness with some hairy passing at the back, but we got away with it. Their was a nasty one on Le Fee in our half, and a lot of pulling and holding by Leeds that was ignored, but we got our moment just after the half hour. Big Dan carried it out of danger then hit Issy, who somehow worked a shooting chance and fired it across Meslier from a narrow angle, off the far post and back across just inside the near one.
Pandemonium. Marvelous. What a finish, and we properly had Leeds rattled. Their fans showed their basic intelligence by keeping the ball when it was our goal kick - wasting their time, not ours.
Patto had one low shot to take comfortably, and we dealt with all the Leeds corners and free kicks into the box relatively comfortably - although it has to be said that their shooting was on a par with Danny Graham on a bad day. In the four added minutes, one of those Enzo backheel flicks sent Bellingham away down the left, but he was crudely chopped down for a yellow. From the delivery Issy had a header saved but, after Luke had basically sat on the keeper, was then nutted by Rodon as he closed in to moan at the lad who'd shoved Luke away - and was booked. Strange.
A goal to the good at the break, and despite the possession being well in the home side's favour, we were worth the lead as we'd defended patiently and hit them on the break few times.
We were first out by quite a while - no changes - and Cap'n Dan set things away. We built a break down the right, and when Roberts lifted it into Hume's path in the box, the volley was saved. A positive start.
Patto was smartly down onto a low cross/shot from our right, then had to collect a free kick as Leeds continued to put in iffy crosses. Roberts cut inside and hit a decent shot which was saved, and then things changed with twenty to go. On came two home subs, including Struijk - a defender, so Reg gave it five mins then swapped Rigg and Isidor for Mayenda and Samed.
I'm not sure what he thought would happen playing a defensive midfielder up top with Mayenda, but I'm pretty sure it didn't. A few minutes later in went a free kick and their defensive sub did what their forwards had steadfastly refused to do for 77 minutes and made himself nuisance in our box to head it into the roof of the net. If we thought it had been going to be a long last 30, the last 13 suddenly stretched even further.
Cirkin and Patto added to our already unimpressive yellow card count, Poveda replaced Roberts on 85, and he was fouled twice in the space of a minute as five added ones were announced. Mayenda and Samed combined well high up the field on the right, but when closed down, Samed chose not to take it to the corner flag and see what happened, but played it back into space. Leeds picked it up, broke, and won a corner. We half cleared it, but the return was so badly sliced it found a Leeds man at the back to hit it by back in - and there was Struijk again. 1-2 right on 95, and very hard to take.
A tale of two substitutions, really. Theirs worked, ours didn't and without really wanting to get at Samed, I'm not sure at this stage what Reg thinks he's going to do for us. I'm fairly sure Browne is much better at parking a bus, which is what we tried to do. Alternatively, surely Mundle had enough in his legs for fifteen minutes, and he'd have given the home defence a lot more trouble with his pace and directness. Why have him on the bench if you're scared to bring him on? Unfortunately, he wasn't given the chance, we lost, and collected six yellows in the process - which might hurt us in the next few weeks. Unless they all get wiped at the end of February, as is rumoured (in my dreams).
Man of the Match? Despite us being much better in the first half, Rigg had his best moments after the break, Hume's tackling was thunderously terrific, and O'Nien was like a dog chasing a rat - all over the defence and mostly effective. Le Fee had his moments but wasn't as in-song as in his previous games. Isidor's goal and general first half showing puts him in contention as well, but I'll give it to Luke and wait for the alternative opinions.
Play offs seem the most likely outcome, but there's still a lot of points to play for - as long as we don't add to the eighteen we've apparently dropped from winning positions.
