Leeds United
Leeds 2 - 1 Exeter - Fans view
By Batfastard
August 9 2009
Message Board regular and life long Leeds fan, Batfastard give his views on Leeds v Exeter as the League 1 season kicked off at Elland Road. Read his verdict on the match, the players and the catering as Leeds run out 2-1 winners. Please note, these are the views of a fan and not SportNetwork.
Well, he really doesn’t learn, does he, our chairman? Despite having been sued for £1.5m of our transfer kitty for libellous comments made in his program notes, once again he used his column today to shoot his mouth off. This time, however, his remarks were even more deeply hurtful than his ‘scheister’ comments about Melvyn Levi. Today – not only did he drag Fabian Delph’s
agent through the mud with possible legal implications – but he then went on to have a pop at the many brilliant outdoor mobile cheeseburger restaurants which surround Elland Road!!! These beautiful establishments add massively to the match-day experience, attracting fans from both sides as well as a wide range of local wildlife. Yet, Bates clearly has them in his sights. Not only did he defend the official stadium food bars claiming ‘the highest standard of hygiene and cleanliness’ but he then criticised the outdoor restaurants, claiming that he ‘couldn’t comment on the quality, standard and supervision [as] I don’t know what, IF ANY, procedures are followed’
IF ANY?????? Has the man got no taste buds???? The outside catering at the ground is a thousand – nay – a million times superior to the tripe served up inside the stadium (and I wish they DID serve tripe – it would be far better). I can personally assure Mr Bates that these people use the best possible procedures known to the food trade – the proof, as they say, is in the burger. Inside the ground, the pies are crusty, the burgers soft and crumbly, the bread buns unbuttered.
They are not a patch on their mobile competitors!
Anyway. Rant over. Sorry about that. On with the game.
And what an odd game it was. We started off looking at least one division above Exeter who we pressed back from the start creating a host of early chances. Beckford forced a good early save from the keeper and then had a shot deflected narrowly wide, with the keeper beaten. Becchio had a header turned over the bar and poor little Exeter looked like they were panicking. A scramble in the box fell to Beckford just 8 yards from goal, but (probably in his surprise at receiving such a good chance) he fluffed his shot and the ball trickled through to the keeper.
In the 13th minute, however, they finally cracked. Ben Parker made an aggressive surging run and cut through Exeter’s midfield in much the same way 
that Jonny Howson never does, and slid the ball through Exeter’s back-pedalling defence to place Beckford clean through, who calmly slotted the ball past the out-rushing keeper. 1-0 and no more than we deserved.
At this point it looked as if the floodgates would open. We looked a class and a half above our opponents and a comfortable victory looked odds on. A header against the bar from Beckford soon followed as did a series of corners and other near misses. Yet – just minutes later - we took our foot off the gas and decided that the job was already done.
Suddenly we stopped passing the ball so well. We stopped looking to go forward as much. Snodgrass, who had started very brightly, became increasingly less direct with his runs, often sprinting aimlessly into no-mans land, while the Exeter defenders just smirked at him. Bradley Johnson looked like a hologram – on no less than three occasions the ball seemed to pass straight through him as if he wasn’t really there. Ben Parker went off injured, which was a great shame as he made more surging runs forward during his half hour than Doyle and Howson managed between them in the entire game. (One, to be precise).
Actually, speaking of Howson, I got sla-gged off with my report on the Blackburn game for being too harsh on the lad, so it’s probably only right and proper that I redress the balance this time and say something positive about him.
He has nice hair.
Gradually as the half wore on, Exeter realised that we had lost interest in the game and began to start pressing forward. Suddenly we were the ones back pedalling and all too often their crosses had our central defenders in disarray. Just before the break the ball came to an Exeter forward just 6 yards out following a scramble and his blast towards goal was only stopped by a desperate (and brilliant) lunge by Kisnorbo.
It was definitely the Leeds fans who were more relieved to hear the half time whistle. A game which should have been wrapped up by the half hour mark was starting to slip away from us.
Into the second half and it was more of the same. Exeter had got over their big match nerves and realised they could take the game to us. More and more often they came forward and an equaliser looked a certainty.
But then it happened. Exeter’s forward Barry Corr tussled with Kisnorbo on the edge of our box conceding a free kick. Inexplicably he continued to argue with the referee for the entirety of the next five minutes after which the referee understandably got fed up with the situation and pulled out a red card.
It should have been a godsend for us. A match which looked to be slipping away suddenly twisted back in our favour – all we had to do was take advantage of our extra man and kill the game off.
For ten minutes or so we tried. We forged a couple more chances and even Bradley Johnson started to regain a physical presence and came into the game
more and more down the left. A good move put new full back Crowe clean through but he dollied his shot straight at the keeper, much as Bex had done in the first half. But again, we took our foot off the gas and allowed Exeter back into it. To their credit they kept plugging away at us and on 73 minutes got their just desserts when Russell struck a superb free kick into the top corner, leaving Higgs rooted to the spot.
Again to Exeter’s credit they could have shut up shop but even with ten men they kept on coming – at one point leaving Higgs flapping uncharacteristically at a dangerous looking cross.
But eventually the extra man told and – in my opinion – that extra man was Andy Robinson, who came on for Bradley Johnson. Robinson had an odd 20 minutes – but I do think he turned the game. Although he did nothing particularly noteworthy, his sheer energy running at Exeter’s tired back line and dragging them out of position finally put the nail in the coffin. Even though they snuffed out most of his runs, he made them sprint for every one of them; he made two or three of their midfielders surround him to get the ball off him and – whilst never going close to scoring himself – I do believe it was this surge of running which finally broke down our game opponents. On 87 minutes a bedraggled Exeter defence were ripped asunder by Snodgrass who fed Crowe down the right whose excellent cross was headed home majestically by an unmarked Beckford.
2-1 and a real get-out-of-jail-free card – though to be fair, in those last ten minutes we worked them to exhaustion and ground out the result. Overall there were many positives from the game – most importantly we showed that we really are a class and a half above teams like this when we want to play football…. what we failed to do was turn the screw when we were dominant. We should have been out of sight by the half hour mark and we will need to learn to kill teams off if we are going to progress this season. But it is early days and we have 3 points in the bag and the basis of a good side. Vital that we learn from the shortcomings though.
Higgs – 6 – had little to do, though he did flap at the odd cross
Crowe – 7 – looked solid and good coming forward. Seemed to read Snodgrass well and complemented his runs effectively. The lad shows promise imo.
Rui – 6 generally ok, but a few dodgy moments under pressure
Kisnorbo – 6 – similar to Rui – made one great saving block near the end of the first half but got into the odd mess. To be fair the centre halves were not well supported by the centre midfielders.
Parker -7 – set up the first goal with an excellent run – shame he went off – hope it isn’t serious – I would not want to see Sheehan back in the side
Hughes – 7 – on as a sub for Parker, filled in very well at left back
Snodgrass – 6 – some good runs – some wayward runs
Doyle – 6 – battled but didn’t achieve much – better first half than second – not sure of his fitness levels. Did show some signs that he could play a good role at this level, though
Howson – 4 – again a poor game. Mucked in at times (but not ALL times). The lad does not show any signs that he can take centre midfield by the scruff of the neck and dominate. We need that in the centre. Doyle and Kilkenny are now my preferred duo.
Johnson – 5 – anonymous first half, came into it more during the second
Robinson – 7 – on as a sub for Johnson. Strangely achieved nothing direct, but turned the game with his running and dragging tired defenders out of position and making them work for everything.
Beckford – 8 – MOM for his two goals – could have had a couple more. Took the goals well, but would have fancied Becchio or even Enoch to have converted those chances. DOn't get me wrong - I'm not trying to take anything away from Bex here.... but you would expect a centre forward to convert a one-on-one and score from a free header from 5 yards out. He did his job - fair play to him - but lets not go to the extreme of calling him a messiah for converting 2 relatively easy chances.
Becchio – 7 – industrious, though a little subdued today
Enoch – 7 – on for Becchio – looked very dangerous – could be a big season for the lad.
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09/08/2009 07:26
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Stop Messing about Fool!!
