Yorkshire Evening Post 9/12/09
Grella double helps set up Red Devils clash
By Phil Hay
With his financial hat on, Ken Bates spelled out the value to Leeds United of the FA Cup game which lay at their fingertips before kick-off last night.
"Apart from honour," he wrote in his programme notes, "I estimate that there is circa £750,000 at stake." And much more besides. For a club like Leeds, a third-round tie at away to
Manchester United cannot be valued in monetary terms alone.
Grella double helps set up Red Devils clash
By Phil Hay
With his financial hat on, Ken Bates spelled out the value to Leeds United of the FA Cup game which lay at their fingertips before kick-off last night.
"Apart from honour," he wrote in his programme notes, "I estimate that there is circa £750,000 at stake." And much more besides. For a club like Leeds, a third-round tie at away to
Manchester United cannot be valued in monetary terms alone.That seductive reward was waved in front of United's players for 10 days between their two attempts to dispose of Kettering Town, a non-league side whose bravery knows no bounds. The invitation to Old Trafford was accepted with undue difficulty at Elland Road, but accepted nonetheless. Certain opportunities are too good to miss.
Leeds, as their chairman outlined, will profit handsomely from a third-round tie which promises to bring in the new year in style, but the draw carried more significance than a simple chance to flood their accounts.
For the next few weeks, United's players will condition themselves for a game they could never hope to replicate in League One. Similarly, the club's supporters can now anticipate without caution the renewal a rivalry which lacks a legitimate comparison. The scramble for tickets begins tomorrow, with no question that the away allocation of 8,500 for Old Trafford will disappear in a flash.
For the occasion that awaits them on the weekend of January 2, Simon Grayson's squad have extra-time goals from Mike Grella and Tresor Kandol to thank, two moments of saving grace which arrived in the space of 60 seconds on the most peculiar of evenings.
Kettering Town came to Elland Road to win – more in hope than in expectation, it can be assumed – but they should not have sailed as close to that result as they did last night.United's progression was probable when Luciano Becchio opened the scoring after 20 minutes and almost a formality with an hour gone.
How Anthony Elding, Leeds' former player, was able to push the game into an additional half-hour is a puzzle for Grayson to untangle.Elding scored in the 62nd minute to ensure parity after 90, a period in which Leeds' produced fully 30 attempts on goal and were invited many times to put paid to any thought of the upset which almost befell them at Rockingham Road. It took a flurry of four goals in the second period of extra-time to bring Old Trafford into view.
Grella scored the first of them, three minutes after entering the fray as a substitute, and Kandol did the same a minute later, a goal that Kettering were incapable of recovering from. As Grella and Jermaine Beckford later concluded what on paper began to resemble a rout, it dawned on Elland Road that late was better than never.
Giant-killing was not the issue for Leeds nor the possibility which had Grayson admitting to anxiety at the end of normal time.
Embarrassing though a defeat would have been, it was less of a worry than the thought of foregoing a third-round tie at Old Trafford, the key stake for his club. "I'm sat here through to the next round," he said. "That's what matters."
Beckford was included from the start, named in tandem with Becchio in a restoration of Leeds' most recognised strike partnership. Grayson's midfield remained unchanged and his defence showed two new full-backs in Andrew Hughes and Aidan White, changes which – deliberately or otherwise – addressed two areas consistently exposed by Huddersfield Town at the weekend.
Kettering's line-up was also as strong as it could be, returned to full capacity by their goalkeeper and inspirational manager Lee Harper who unashamedly rested several players during a recent league defeat against Salisbury City.
It took all of Kettering's resilience to see out the final minutes of the original second-round tie at Rockingham Road, and that trait was in evidence again for an hour of the replay, a spell which consistently suggested that Harper's strategy would not reap the intended reward. The first half from start to finish was brutally one-sided but not conclusive. An exuberant away crowd behind Harper's goal – spirited and bouncy in their section of the South Stand – willed Kettering to play their way out of the corner they were backed into, but Elding and Kithson Bain, Town's two strikers, became badly detached from an embattled midfield, and their attempts to alleviate United's dominance failed.
As the game entered the 20th minute, Robert Snodgrass tied Kettering's defence in knots on the left side of their box and chipped over a cross which Becchio headed precisely into the far corner of Harper's net, beating hands down a keeper whose performance against Leeds at Rockingham Road was rightly acclaimed. Last night's was every bit as good.
Two minutes after Becchio's goal, his one-hand parry saved brilliantly a low shot from Beckford, who lost John Dempster with the flick of a heel, and the bombardment worsened when Snodgrass picked up on a rebound inside Kettering's box and flashed it wide with all the power in his right leg. As Grayson had hoped, Kettering were hanging on grimly.
Their only respite came in the form of a chance for Elding in the 25th minute, at the end of Elland Road where he scored his one goal for Leeds.
It was the type of opportunity that Kettering's prospects were bound to rely on, but the striker scooped a shot over the crossbar from 10 yards out after reacting to a loose ball more quickly than Leigh Bromby. Neil Kilkenny then hit a post with a sweet shot from outside the box, and Beckford was denied again by Harper, exposed once more by Ankergren's quick clearance. A half-time scoreline showing one goal in United's favour was nothing less than an anomaly, especially after Harper prevented Jonathan Howson's volley from finding the top corner.
Kettering's manager had the misfortune of lining up in front of a near-full Kop which taunted him mercilessly in the second half, but his luck held in the 50th minute when Becchio met Kilkenny's cross with a header which struck the inside of a post, hit Harper's chest and rolled away from goal, a reprieve to eclipse all others.
So it continued as Beckford failed to beat him from eight yards and the lack of a second Leeds goal pricked Kettering's ears, prompting a short onslaught around the hour.
With 62 minutes played and United's shape disintegrating, Richie Partridge made their resistance pay when his cross towards the six-yard box found Elding unmarked and ready to plant a header past Ankergren.
His wild reaction was understandable, outdone only by the melee of celebration in front of Kettering's bench. One among that group – assistant boss John Deehan – was to be ruthlessly sacked after the final whistle, an astonishing development that defied belief. Harper reacted by threatening to resign in protest.
Try as they did, Leeds could not redress the scoreline before the end of normal time, denied by near-misses, Harper's immovable frame and an urgent clearance from Andre Boucaud who was in the right place to kick a header from Kandol off his goalline in the third minute of injury-time.
Five minutes into extra-time, Snodgrass hit the crossbar, adding to the tingle of disbelief in the ground.
Closure, however, was around the corner. First, Grella scored from point-blank range in the 108th minute after Bromby ran the ball through Kettering's defence, and Kandol put the visitors to the sword by heading home Snodgrass' cross 60 seconds later.
Their progression assured, Leeds scored again with Grella's curling shot and Beckford's finish from close range.
Confident by now, the crowd relaxed and broke into a well-rehearsed chant of "Are you watching Manchester?"
With interest, you would think.
Bradford Telegraph and Argus 8/12/09
Late goals spare Leeds blushes
Leeds United 5, Kettering 1 (after extra time)
Mike Grella struck twice and Tresor Kandol and Jermaine Beckford each grabbed a goal in the second half of extra time to book Leeds a plum third round FA Cup tie at their old foes Manchester United.
But the celebrations at the 5-1 win over Kettering in this second-round replay were more of relief than satisfaction because Leeds had been in danger of throwing away a match in which they should have scored four or five in the first half.
Leeds chairman Ken Bates estimates the match at Old Trafford will be worth £750,000 to the club but for the fans, it is a return to the level they feel their team should never have left.
But they will have to finish better than they did in the first 108 minutes here if they are to threaten Alex Ferguson’s side.
Simon Grayson gave Luciano Becchio his first start since picking up an injury on October 3 and the Argentine striker repaid him handsomely in the 20th minute, heading home Robert Snodgrass’s pin-point cross.
The game was being played mostly in the Kettering half but the hosts were given a warning when former United player Ant-hony Elding found himself in the clear but blasted high and wide.
Leeds saw a string of chances go begging as Jermaine Beckford squandered three good openings and had a shot brilliantly saved by keeper Lee Harper.
Neil Kilkenny curled one shot just wide of the post and then hammered a long-range effort against the same upright and Jonathan Howson produced another superb reaction save from Harper.
Kettering regrouped at half-time and worked their way back into the game and Leeds lost all their rhythm, hurried out of possession And as the visitors grew in confidence, they produced one superb move which saw Elding ghost in at the far post and head the equaliser.
Leeds huffed and puffed and sub Kandol had an effort cleared off the line in the final minute to send the game into extra time.
Snodgrass hit the woodwork for the third time but it was only after Mike Grella came on in the 106th minute that the game was decided.
Yorkshire Evening Post 7/12/09
Rivals produce derby to savour
By Phil Hay
Leeds United 2 Huddersfield Town 2
With sad inevitability, the Football League's latest manager of the month award bypassed Leeds United on Saturday.
Simon Grayson, the club's boss, professes not to care, but who can explain a prize which has yet to find its way to the manager of the squad with the finest record in League One?
There is, it seems, no pleasing some people.
The League One award for November was given instead to Huddersfield Town's Lee Clark – the perfect backdrop to the season's first West Yorkshire derby – and it was, by full-time on Saturday, the better of two evils for Grayson, a preferred loss to the defeat which his club flirted with in the embers of a splendid game at Elland Road.
Eleven months have passed since Leeds were beaten in a league fixture at their own stadium, and they will not come much closer to that fate than they did when Huddersfield's Anthony Pilkington shook their crossbar with the scoreline showing two goals apiece and referee Michael Jones preparing to call a halt to the most engaging contest Elland Road has staged this season.
Casper Ankergren, United's goalkeeper, chose to leave Pilkington's fierce free-kick and could only trust to luck when the ball struck the underside of his bar, bounced against his shoulder and deflected away from goal, as big a stroke of luck as Leeds are likely experience.
Was his heart in his mouth? "A bit," Ankergren said with a grin.
Fortunate they might have been to escape that particular incident in injury time, but defeat to Huddersfield would have been as harsh on Grayson as his personal loss to Clark.
Likewise, the visitors avoided a grave injustice by becoming the third team this season to avoid defeat in a league fixture at Elland Road, an achievement deservedly sealed by second-half goals from Lee Novak and Jordan Rhodes.
United's position in League One is almost without compare, but the division is not devoid of teams whose talent can, on its day, equate to that of Leeds. Norwich City were one, and Grayson encountered another on Saturday.
A wonderfully competitive game reiterated the value of the 14-point lead that Leeds have established over Huddersfield, a club who might otherwise have posed United a problem in the grand scheme of this season and should certainly qualify for the play-offs.
The priority for Grayson was to maintain that margin, and it was easy to understand why he seemed content with a result which held Huddersfield at bay.
That Leeds failed to record their 15th league victory was nevertheless unusual.
Twice they led Clark's side and twice they passed up their advantage, conceding in one half a quarter of the league goals they have given away all season.
Huddersfield are not the first team to come to Elland Road with an ambitious outlook, rare though that approach is among League One's clubs, but they succeeded in creating the most open of matches, more open that Grayson would have wished.
With those battle lines drawn, the game revolved around the question of which team would outscore the other.
Grayson acknowledged beforehand that Town's strength exists up front, and opportunities flowed freely at both ends of the field, but he realised too that Clark's defence is a certain weak point.
It has hampered Huddersfield this season and Leeds did not struggle to exploit it, scoring in both halves and taking advantage of another difficult afternoon for Alex Smithies.
Two years ago, the young goalkeeper made his first start for Huddersfield at Elland Road and conceded four goals, provoking chants of "4-0, it's your keeper's fault", from an unsympathetic Kop.
On that afternoon, the fault for that rout belonged demonstrably to others in Huddersfield's ranks, but Smithies' display on Saturday did not stand up to scrutiny.
The match was 90 seconds old when Neil Kilkenny slipped a pass out wide to Michael Doyle who thrashed a low shot at Smithies' feet.
The 19-year-old fumbled the ball initially, failed to collect it for a second time and dived desperately towards Robert Snodgrass as the winger clipped a shot under Smithies' body and into the net.
The start was inauspicious for Huddersfield, and Smithies' afternoon worsened in the 66th minute when he ran from his goalline to collect a bouncing ball and collided with Jermaine Beckford, leaving Max Gradel to drive a shot into a goal which was not quite unguarded but inadequately defended. As Gradel's shot rested in the back of the net, it seemed that Grayson had once again masterminded another valuable victory.
United's manager has a tendency for forthright substitutions, and though Huddersfield had equalised at the start of the second half, he felt confident enough to introduce Gradel and Luciano Becchio from the bench with half-an-hour remaining, a nod to Clark about his lack of interest in a point.
Gradel struck three minutes later, steering a shot past three defenders after Smithies and Beckford flattened each other inside the box, and the points at that stage were United's to lose. They held out until the 78th minute when Rhodes found his finishing touch, but their lead had seemed increasingly fragile in the face of Huddersfield's pressure. The gripping conclusion was in keeping with the tone set by the opening minutes of the game, when Snodgrass scored and Rhodes replied by striking a post from close range.
That frantic period met the wishes of a crowd of almost 37,000, another astonishing turnout which deserved the value for money provided.The first half ebbed and flowed, notable for the confidence and lack of caution shown by either team.
In injury-time, Snodgrass hit Smithies' right-hand post with an overhead kick and Rhodes was denied from close range by Ankergren whose legs stopped the ball dead.
It would have seemed inconceivable to Grayson or Clark at the interval that no further goals would follow.
Huddersfield's riposte came three minutes into the second half when, amid poor marking inside United's box, Nathan Clarke drove a shot into the ground and sent the ball spinning towards Lee Novak.
The striker reacted instinctively, flicking his head at the opportunity and diverting it into Ankergren's net.
Grayson allowed the match to settle again and watched Beckford fail to convert two good chances before calling on Gradel and Becchio to immediate effect. Yet Huddersfield refused to succumb to what is often an inevitable fate at Elland Road, and after Rhodes had side-footed an excellent chance wide, he rose between Leigh Bromby and Lubomir Michalik to head home a cross from Gary Roberts.
His goal with 12 minutes to play left enough time for another twist in the plot, and Pilkington almost provided it when his free-kick from 30 yards shook the frame of the goal in front of Huddersfield's supporters, the final act of a contest which few wanted to end.
Clark and Grayson were mutually complimentary afterwards, with the latter saying he could envisage the fixture taking place in the Championship next season.
On this evidence, England's second division would be glad of it.
Late goals spare Leeds blushes
Leeds United 5, Kettering 1 (after extra time)
Mike Grella struck twice and Tresor Kandol and Jermaine Beckford each grabbed a goal in the second half of extra time to book Leeds a plum third round FA Cup tie at their old foes Manchester United.
But the celebrations at the 5-1 win over Kettering in this second-round replay were more of relief than satisfaction because Leeds had been in danger of throwing away a match in which they should have scored four or five in the first half.
Leeds chairman Ken Bates estimates the match at Old Trafford will be worth £750,000 to the club but for the fans, it is a return to the level they feel their team should never have left.
But they will have to finish better than they did in the first 108 minutes here if they are to threaten Alex Ferguson’s side.
Simon Grayson gave Luciano Becchio his first start since picking up an injury on October 3 and the Argentine striker repaid him handsomely in the 20th minute, heading home Robert Snodgrass’s pin-point cross.
The game was being played mostly in the Kettering half but the hosts were given a warning when former United player Ant-hony Elding found himself in the clear but blasted high and wide.
Leeds saw a string of chances go begging as Jermaine Beckford squandered three good openings and had a shot brilliantly saved by keeper Lee Harper.
Neil Kilkenny curled one shot just wide of the post and then hammered a long-range effort against the same upright and Jonathan Howson produced another superb reaction save from Harper.
Kettering regrouped at half-time and worked their way back into the game and Leeds lost all their rhythm, hurried out of possession And as the visitors grew in confidence, they produced one superb move which saw Elding ghost in at the far post and head the equaliser.
Leeds huffed and puffed and sub Kandol had an effort cleared off the line in the final minute to send the game into extra time.
Snodgrass hit the woodwork for the third time but it was only after Mike Grella came on in the 106th minute that the game was decided.
Yorkshire Evening Post 7/12/09
Rivals produce derby to savour
By Phil Hay
Leeds United 2 Huddersfield Town 2
With sad inevitability, the Football League's latest manager of the month award bypassed Leeds United on Saturday.
Simon Grayson, the club's boss, professes not to care, but who can explain a prize which has yet to find its way to the manager of the squad with the finest record in League One?
There is, it seems, no pleasing some people.
The League One award for November was given instead to Huddersfield Town's Lee Clark – the perfect backdrop to the season's first West Yorkshire derby – and it was, by full-time on Saturday, the better of two evils for Grayson, a preferred loss to the defeat which his club flirted with in the embers of a splendid game at Elland Road.
Eleven months have passed since Leeds were beaten in a league fixture at their own stadium, and they will not come much closer to that fate than they did when Huddersfield's Anthony Pilkington shook their crossbar with the scoreline showing two goals apiece and referee Michael Jones preparing to call a halt to the most engaging contest Elland Road has staged this season.
Casper Ankergren, United's goalkeeper, chose to leave Pilkington's fierce free-kick and could only trust to luck when the ball struck the underside of his bar, bounced against his shoulder and deflected away from goal, as big a stroke of luck as Leeds are likely experience.
Was his heart in his mouth? "A bit," Ankergren said with a grin.
Fortunate they might have been to escape that particular incident in injury time, but defeat to Huddersfield would have been as harsh on Grayson as his personal loss to Clark.
Likewise, the visitors avoided a grave injustice by becoming the third team this season to avoid defeat in a league fixture at Elland Road, an achievement deservedly sealed by second-half goals from Lee Novak and Jordan Rhodes.
United's position in League One is almost without compare, but the division is not devoid of teams whose talent can, on its day, equate to that of Leeds. Norwich City were one, and Grayson encountered another on Saturday.
A wonderfully competitive game reiterated the value of the 14-point lead that Leeds have established over Huddersfield, a club who might otherwise have posed United a problem in the grand scheme of this season and should certainly qualify for the play-offs.
The priority for Grayson was to maintain that margin, and it was easy to understand why he seemed content with a result which held Huddersfield at bay.
That Leeds failed to record their 15th league victory was nevertheless unusual.
Twice they led Clark's side and twice they passed up their advantage, conceding in one half a quarter of the league goals they have given away all season.
Huddersfield are not the first team to come to Elland Road with an ambitious outlook, rare though that approach is among League One's clubs, but they succeeded in creating the most open of matches, more open that Grayson would have wished.
With those battle lines drawn, the game revolved around the question of which team would outscore the other.
Grayson acknowledged beforehand that Town's strength exists up front, and opportunities flowed freely at both ends of the field, but he realised too that Clark's defence is a certain weak point.
It has hampered Huddersfield this season and Leeds did not struggle to exploit it, scoring in both halves and taking advantage of another difficult afternoon for Alex Smithies.
Two years ago, the young goalkeeper made his first start for Huddersfield at Elland Road and conceded four goals, provoking chants of "4-0, it's your keeper's fault", from an unsympathetic Kop.
On that afternoon, the fault for that rout belonged demonstrably to others in Huddersfield's ranks, but Smithies' display on Saturday did not stand up to scrutiny.
The match was 90 seconds old when Neil Kilkenny slipped a pass out wide to Michael Doyle who thrashed a low shot at Smithies' feet.
The 19-year-old fumbled the ball initially, failed to collect it for a second time and dived desperately towards Robert Snodgrass as the winger clipped a shot under Smithies' body and into the net.
The start was inauspicious for Huddersfield, and Smithies' afternoon worsened in the 66th minute when he ran from his goalline to collect a bouncing ball and collided with Jermaine Beckford, leaving Max Gradel to drive a shot into a goal which was not quite unguarded but inadequately defended. As Gradel's shot rested in the back of the net, it seemed that Grayson had once again masterminded another valuable victory.
United's manager has a tendency for forthright substitutions, and though Huddersfield had equalised at the start of the second half, he felt confident enough to introduce Gradel and Luciano Becchio from the bench with half-an-hour remaining, a nod to Clark about his lack of interest in a point.
Gradel struck three minutes later, steering a shot past three defenders after Smithies and Beckford flattened each other inside the box, and the points at that stage were United's to lose. They held out until the 78th minute when Rhodes found his finishing touch, but their lead had seemed increasingly fragile in the face of Huddersfield's pressure. The gripping conclusion was in keeping with the tone set by the opening minutes of the game, when Snodgrass scored and Rhodes replied by striking a post from close range.
That frantic period met the wishes of a crowd of almost 37,000, another astonishing turnout which deserved the value for money provided.The first half ebbed and flowed, notable for the confidence and lack of caution shown by either team.
In injury-time, Snodgrass hit Smithies' right-hand post with an overhead kick and Rhodes was denied from close range by Ankergren whose legs stopped the ball dead.
It would have seemed inconceivable to Grayson or Clark at the interval that no further goals would follow.
Huddersfield's riposte came three minutes into the second half when, amid poor marking inside United's box, Nathan Clarke drove a shot into the ground and sent the ball spinning towards Lee Novak.
The striker reacted instinctively, flicking his head at the opportunity and diverting it into Ankergren's net.
Grayson allowed the match to settle again and watched Beckford fail to convert two good chances before calling on Gradel and Becchio to immediate effect. Yet Huddersfield refused to succumb to what is often an inevitable fate at Elland Road, and after Rhodes had side-footed an excellent chance wide, he rose between Leigh Bromby and Lubomir Michalik to head home a cross from Gary Roberts.
His goal with 12 minutes to play left enough time for another twist in the plot, and Pilkington almost provided it when his free-kick from 30 yards shook the frame of the goal in front of Huddersfield's supporters, the final act of a contest which few wanted to end.
Clark and Grayson were mutually complimentary afterwards, with the latter saying he could envisage the fixture taking place in the Championship next season.
On this evidence, England's second division would be glad of it.