Leeds Blog 7 Leeds United V Sheffield Wednesday
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Leeds United V Sheffield Wednesday
So here we are, the morning after the night of the biggest game of the season, for Sheffield Wednesday fans at least. To most Leeds fans this is just another fixture and not that of the "Massive" stature that certain people make this out to be. Yes it is a Yorkshire derby, but not as significant to Leeds as it would be to the likes of Sheffield Utd and Rotherham.
Due to the early kick off I was unable to have my fix of 3-4 hours in The White Hart with the lads, but we still had enough time to agree that this will be another cup final for the away team and Leeds will have to be on their toes to get a good result. With Sheffield not picking any points up until this fixture they would be desperate for anything, Leeds would have to come out of the blocks quick to put them under pressure with the hope of an early goal and then they may crumble! Did that happen? Not a chance! Leeds looked tired, lethargic and it was not the start we wanted and craved for, but neither did Wednesday look like they wanted their first points of the season. A contest in which there wasn't much quality on show and both teams cancelling each other out looked to be heading for a long first half until they scored! On 36 minutes they had a corner and from behind the goal we could see a gap at the back post, unfortunately for us so did Zayatte as he headed it into the goal. This put Leeds in a familiar position and now knew they had to work to get back in the game. All could have been different if Dom Poleon had been given a penalty earlier on in the half. Half time came and credit to the fans they clapped the lads off of the pitch and from where I was there was no booing, just frustration. Dom Poleon was the bright spark in the first half getting down the left and causing Sheffield lots of problems which does make me wonder why he was switched to the other side later on.
The second half got under way with Paul Green going off for Michael Tonge and how we needed a similar goal from him like we did at Hillsborough last season. Green did ok, to me he looks tired and wasn't the player getting up and down like he was against Brighton so Tonge was a good choice to come on. Leeds tried and tried again, but lacked that bit of quality up front when needed and Sheff Wed made their defensive duties look easy. Even Dom wasn't having any joy any more and seemed to be getting pushed off of the ball far too easy. Then on 57 minutes the quality that we have been missing came from a very quiet Ross McCormack, he took up the ball and ran at the Wednesday defence, put a cheeky ball past their defender and pounced at the other side with a neat finish under Kirkland, 1-1 and what a finish. From here we thought Leeds would go on and win and probably should have. Sheffield will probably say they should also have had a penalty when Pearce accidentally handled in the box, but to me it was ball to hand! With that little bit more quality in the wide areas I believe we would have won, the problem we have is our talented players are working the ball wide when they need to be in the box. Not even Smith or the return of Diouf could get the winner today. Ross got the MOTM today, but although he scored a great goal and got us a point I think Rodolph Austin stole it again. He won header after header, attacked when we attacked, defended when needed and when he made a mistake he always fought back to make amends. Another point on the board and we would take that over a loss all day long, now onto Ipswich.
I must reserve a special mention to the referee who in my opinion was appalling, how does the song go? "We always get s**t refs"!
MOT
Kenny 6/10
Peltier 6/10
Lees 6/10
Pearce 6/10
Warnock 6/10
Green 5/10
Murphy 7/10
Austin 8/10
McCormack 7/10
Varney 6/10
Poleon 7/10
Tonge 6/10
Smith 5/10
Diouf 5/10
21 August 2013
Spot on mate