Leeds 1-1 Wycombe
By Batfastard
January 10 2010
Well after the excitement of last weekend and the deflation of the mid-week revelations about Beckford, it was always going to be back to earth with a bump. There was a chorus of boos as Beckford’s name was announced on the team list, but fortunately this attitude did not continue into the game.
January 10 2010
Well after the excitement of last weekend and the deflation of the mid-week revelations about Beckford, it was always going to be back to earth with a bump. There was a chorus of boos as Beckford’s name was announced on the team list, but fortunately this attitude did not continue into the game.
The game itself started brightly. We were ahead on 3 minutes as Howson hit a hopeful shot from outside the box which bounced over the keeper’s arms as he mistimed his dived. “1-0 – it’s your keeper fault” came the predictable but perfectly correct response.
Wycombe looked incredibly nervous at the back and, had we been more at the races, I feel we could have quite easily prized open the floodgates. But it was not to be. If their defence was nervous, this certainly didn’t translate further up the field as the midfield and forward line got stuck in with a vengeance. They are a team of precious little skill – but they did what they are good at. They played ‘nuisance football.’ Always crowding us out in the middle. Small niggly fouls to break up the play. Anything to stop us getting into our rhythm and – full credit to them - it worked. Up front they started to get the odd chance – a snap shot from the edge of the box crashed back off a post. Minutes later the woodwork was rattled again as a bizarre knee-high corner fizzed across the box, evading everyone before bouncing back off the back post. And a further chance well saved by Caspar a few minutes after that.
We also had our first half chances – there was a Snoddy free kick just over the bar; a header cleared off the line and a couple of other near misses against the still-nervous-looking Wycombe defence.
1-0 at half time, but you could sense the game was far from won. In the second half, both defences looked to tighten up and chances were very few and far between and the game was – quite frankly – incredibly flaming boring. We simply couldn’t get any flow into our passing and the Wycombe lads were relentless in their efforts to irritate us by smothering us at every opportunity. The only thing that really kept me entertained was the bloke behind me, who had 2 young lads with him (aged about 9), one of whom was his son and the other was obviously his son’s mate. While the son was impeccably behaved throughout, the little **** of a mate swore his head off constantly throughout the second half (I lost count of the number of f and c words while his mate’s dad sort of squirmed, obviously not feeling that he had the authority to tell the lad off. He tried asking him quietly at one point, which worked for a couple of minutes; but sadly the “Fffing blind barsteward muthaf-Effer” of a linesman, missed an obvious offside and they were back to square one. He tried again to quieten the lad down, but the kid was having none of it.
Pretty soon though, he really did have something to swear about as the Wycombe number 16 controlled the ball deftly in the middle of our half, ghosted between Naylor and Crowe and slammed an unstoppable shot past Caspar into the bottom corner. 1-1 and nothing more than they deserved.
Enter Gradel to excited screams of expectation; likewise White and
Grella…. but the expectation was never matched by anything on the pitch. Wycombe remained resolute and ground out their point in a dogged fashion. It was, I’m afraid, a dull, occasionally fractious affair played in extreme cold – or – as my delightful young friend behind me so eloquently summed it up – “a right ******g bag of s**** . F **** ***** the lot of em”
Many will put this result down to the Man United game last week – and maybe they’re right. The truth was, nobody played particularly badly – but nobody played particularly well either. We’ve had a few games like this, this season – Exeter, Carlisle and Orient spring immediately to mind – we do seem to struggle against the minnows. In any game, you need a couple of players to rise to the challenge – last week they ALL did…. this week none of them did.
On that basis, I won’t bother giving individual ratings – they can all have 6 out of 10. All average – no-one rubbish… but no one able to lift themselves above the rest and find a way to conquer Wycombe’s simple, but effective game plan. Bottom line – 1-1 was a fair result. Lets just hope we can find a bit more of our usual inspiration next time around
Wycombe looked incredibly nervous at the back and, had we been more at the races, I feel we could have quite easily prized open the floodgates. But it was not to be. If their defence was nervous, this certainly didn’t translate further up the field as the midfield and forward line got stuck in with a vengeance. They are a team of precious little skill – but they did what they are good at. They played ‘nuisance football.’ Always crowding us out in the middle. Small niggly fouls to break up the play. Anything to stop us getting into our rhythm and – full credit to them - it worked. Up front they started to get the odd chance – a snap shot from the edge of the box crashed back off a post. Minutes later the woodwork was rattled again as a bizarre knee-high corner fizzed across the box, evading everyone before bouncing back off the back post. And a further chance well saved by Caspar a few minutes after that.
We also had our first half chances – there was a Snoddy free kick just over the bar; a header cleared off the line and a couple of other near misses against the still-nervous-looking Wycombe defence.
1-0 at half time, but you could sense the game was far from won. In the second half, both defences looked to tighten up and chances were very few and far between and the game was – quite frankly – incredibly flaming boring. We simply couldn’t get any flow into our passing and the Wycombe lads were relentless in their efforts to irritate us by smothering us at every opportunity. The only thing that really kept me entertained was the bloke behind me, who had 2 young lads with him (aged about 9), one of whom was his son and the other was obviously his son’s mate. While the son was impeccably behaved throughout, the little **** of a mate swore his head off constantly throughout the second half (I lost count of the number of f and c words while his mate’s dad sort of squirmed, obviously not feeling that he had the authority to tell the lad off. He tried asking him quietly at one point, which worked for a couple of minutes; but sadly the “Fffing blind barsteward muthaf-Effer” of a linesman, missed an obvious offside and they were back to square one. He tried again to quieten the lad down, but the kid was having none of it.
Pretty soon though, he really did have something to swear about as the Wycombe number 16 controlled the ball deftly in the middle of our half, ghosted between Naylor and Crowe and slammed an unstoppable shot past Caspar into the bottom corner. 1-1 and nothing more than they deserved.
Enter Gradel to excited screams of expectation; likewise White and
Grella…. but the expectation was never matched by anything on the pitch. Wycombe remained resolute and ground out their point in a dogged fashion. It was, I’m afraid, a dull, occasionally fractious affair played in extreme cold – or – as my delightful young friend behind me so eloquently summed it up – “a right ******g bag of s**** . F **** ***** the lot of em” Many will put this result down to the Man United game last week – and maybe they’re right. The truth was, nobody played particularly badly – but nobody played particularly well either. We’ve had a few games like this, this season – Exeter, Carlisle and Orient spring immediately to mind – we do seem to struggle against the minnows. In any game, you need a couple of players to rise to the challenge – last week they ALL did…. this week none of them did.
On that basis, I won’t bother giving individual ratings – they can all have 6 out of 10. All average – no-one rubbish… but no one able to lift themselves above the rest and find a way to conquer Wycombe’s simple, but effective game plan. Bottom line – 1-1 was a fair result. Lets just hope we can find a bit more of our usual inspiration next time around
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