Yorkshire Evening Post 29/11/10
Reading v Leeds United: Whites pleased to keep it clean at last
By Phil Hay
Unbeaten results are more aesthetically pleasing than a spate of games without a clean sheet and Leeds United did not delight in simultaneously counting both.
One half of a glaring contradiction was bound to give eventually and the mischievous smile on the face of Ian Miller as he boarded the bus home from Reading belied his awareness of the club's most unflattering attribute.
"A clean sheet," teased United's coach. "Who'd have thought?"
After 10 games and two months, not every member of the squad who survived the journey from hell to reach Berkshire as planned. Only because of their maligned defence was an eight-hour drive from Wetherby worthwhile.
Leeds found England's motorway network impassable on Friday afternoon, an unintentional metaphor for their attitude against Reading.
Their manager, Simon Grayson, has been invariably grateful to his creative players for making this season the progressive project it is, but his debt was owed elsewhere on Saturday at the end of a game which, injury-time aside, proffered no more than a point.
Grayson sensed an improbable heist when, with 92 minutes played, Jonathan Howson felt his tired legs dragging him onto a pass from Ross McCormack and in behind Reading's defence.
"You'd expect him to score from that position," said Grayson after Howson's shot met the right palm of Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici, but it went too far to talk of an opportunity missed. Grayson was more inclined to accept that his players had not examined Federici enough. Seven days earlier, United's draw with Norwich City had their manager complaining mildly about his side's failure to "kill the game".
At the Madejski Stadium, he chose to count his blessings and quietly bank a useful point. Grayson had his defence to thank for seeing Leeds through the moments when Reading managed to bare their teeth.
The interest in Saturday's match was such that a capacity crowd paid to be present, just as upwards of 26,000 attended Leeds' appearance in Norwich.
Carrow Road provided value for money in a way that the Madejski Stadium could not and a goalless scoreline was inevitable until fatigue and substitutions lifted the game's congested cloak in the closing 10 minutes.
United clung on to a draw in a strangely chaotic finale, rescued by the reactions of Kasper Schmeichel whenever their defence grew ragged.
Howson might have won the game in its final seconds but Grayson was not anticipating that.
"We threw the kitchen sink at them," said Brian McDermott, the Reading manager. "Only one team was going to win the game."
The strength of his statement was supported by the fact that Howson's shot was the third of three directed at Federici, the telling statistic on an afternoon when Leeds manufactured too little to dispute the final result.
Grayson would fret about that were productivity a problem among his players but goals come naturally to United's squad.
The issue before Saturday was the inevitability that they would come at either end of the field regardless of his tactics or the players involved, but the sound of a penny dropping was evident at Carrow Road and unmistakable in Reading.
His team's defending was as deliberate as it could be and desperate when it needed to be, rarely at the cost of sound judgement.
Schmeichel's saves were as few as Federici's by full-time, though the onslaught towards him suggested otherwise. To give the scoreline context, Grayson need only ask himself what the damage would have been a month ago.
Schmeichel was beaten only once, eight minutes before the interval, but found Max Gradel guarding his goalline against Shane Long's deflected volley. The near-miss was one of two incidents worth noting in an aimless first half which almost passed without comment; both involved Gradel, as unpredictable a character as ever he was.
The winger's timely clearance in the 37th minute prevented a goal that Reading had barely earned but Gradel himself deserved more than the caution he incurred by tangling with Andy Griffin four minutes later.
Gradel was knocked over by Griffin as he jumped to head the ball and he kicked out at the right-back with both feet while the pair lay on the ground. Referee Fred Graham was looking elsewhere but his nearest linesman had as good a view of Gradel's offence as Graham could have asked for. The yellow card that resulted was unduly lenient, and Griffin's booking inexplicable.
Grayson might argue that justice prevailed after seeing Ian Ashbee and Jay Bothroyd walk away unpunished from recent assaults on his striker, Luciano Becchio. But half-time was needed to stem the trickle of bad blood. Gradel's attempts to influence the game more professionally reached only dead ends.
The unreliable service from him and Robert Snodgrass rendered Becchio redundant and prone to substitution with 13 minutes to play.
Reading's centre-backs, Alex Pearce and Zurab Khizanishvili, escaped without a bruise.
But the start of the second half found McDermott's team in a clearer frame of mind. Within three minutes, Schmeichel dived to his left to meet an Ian Harte free-kick on the one occasion when United's former defender and set-piece specialist was given the freedom to attack the Leeds goal. The ball flew at such speed that many in the stadium assumed Schmeichel was beaten.
McDermott revised Reading's line-up on the hour by employing two of his substitutes, Jay Tabb and Jimmy Kebe, and Kebe's presence almost broke United's back, cutting loose a player whose pace and skill twisted the blood of George McCartney.
It was from the right wing where Reading were liable to crack Grayson's defence.
Kebe's cut-back created one chance for Noel Hunt which Schmeichel parried with both hands, and Michail Antonio – another of McDermott's replacements – shook a post from an angle which gave him no prospect of beating Schmeichel.
Grayson had introduced McCormack and Billy Paynter by then, a display of aggression with the game asking to be won, but his side were devoid of their usual inspiration when Reading's defence showed signs of caving in. McCormack put them under sudden strain when, with Graham preparing to blow his whistle, he exploited the space in front of Federici by threading a pass over the halfway line and into Howson's path.
The midfielder broke forward as quickly as his legs would allow but Griffin cut him off at the edge of the box, forcing Howson to attack Federici hopefully from long range.
For once, Howson's midas touch was lost in the layer of rust over United's attack. The glint of gold came instead from their defence.
Reading v Leeds United: Whites pleased to keep it clean at last
By Phil Hay
Unbeaten results are more aesthetically pleasing than a spate of games without a clean sheet and Leeds United did not delight in simultaneously counting both.
One half of a glaring contradiction was bound to give eventually and the mischievous smile on the face of Ian Miller as he boarded the bus home from Reading belied his awareness of the club's most unflattering attribute.
"A clean sheet," teased United's coach. "Who'd have thought?"
After 10 games and two months, not every member of the squad who survived the journey from hell to reach Berkshire as planned. Only because of their maligned defence was an eight-hour drive from Wetherby worthwhile.
Leeds found England's motorway network impassable on Friday afternoon, an unintentional metaphor for their attitude against Reading.
Their manager, Simon Grayson, has been invariably grateful to his creative players for making this season the progressive project it is, but his debt was owed elsewhere on Saturday at the end of a game which, injury-time aside, proffered no more than a point.
Grayson sensed an improbable heist when, with 92 minutes played, Jonathan Howson felt his tired legs dragging him onto a pass from Ross McCormack and in behind Reading's defence.
"You'd expect him to score from that position," said Grayson after Howson's shot met the right palm of Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici, but it went too far to talk of an opportunity missed. Grayson was more inclined to accept that his players had not examined Federici enough. Seven days earlier, United's draw with Norwich City had their manager complaining mildly about his side's failure to "kill the game".
At the Madejski Stadium, he chose to count his blessings and quietly bank a useful point. Grayson had his defence to thank for seeing Leeds through the moments when Reading managed to bare their teeth.
The interest in Saturday's match was such that a capacity crowd paid to be present, just as upwards of 26,000 attended Leeds' appearance in Norwich.
Carrow Road provided value for money in a way that the Madejski Stadium could not and a goalless scoreline was inevitable until fatigue and substitutions lifted the game's congested cloak in the closing 10 minutes.
United clung on to a draw in a strangely chaotic finale, rescued by the reactions of Kasper Schmeichel whenever their defence grew ragged.
Howson might have won the game in its final seconds but Grayson was not anticipating that.
"We threw the kitchen sink at them," said Brian McDermott, the Reading manager. "Only one team was going to win the game."
The strength of his statement was supported by the fact that Howson's shot was the third of three directed at Federici, the telling statistic on an afternoon when Leeds manufactured too little to dispute the final result.
Grayson would fret about that were productivity a problem among his players but goals come naturally to United's squad.
The issue before Saturday was the inevitability that they would come at either end of the field regardless of his tactics or the players involved, but the sound of a penny dropping was evident at Carrow Road and unmistakable in Reading.
His team's defending was as deliberate as it could be and desperate when it needed to be, rarely at the cost of sound judgement.
Schmeichel's saves were as few as Federici's by full-time, though the onslaught towards him suggested otherwise. To give the scoreline context, Grayson need only ask himself what the damage would have been a month ago.
Schmeichel was beaten only once, eight minutes before the interval, but found Max Gradel guarding his goalline against Shane Long's deflected volley. The near-miss was one of two incidents worth noting in an aimless first half which almost passed without comment; both involved Gradel, as unpredictable a character as ever he was.
The winger's timely clearance in the 37th minute prevented a goal that Reading had barely earned but Gradel himself deserved more than the caution he incurred by tangling with Andy Griffin four minutes later.
Gradel was knocked over by Griffin as he jumped to head the ball and he kicked out at the right-back with both feet while the pair lay on the ground. Referee Fred Graham was looking elsewhere but his nearest linesman had as good a view of Gradel's offence as Graham could have asked for. The yellow card that resulted was unduly lenient, and Griffin's booking inexplicable.
Grayson might argue that justice prevailed after seeing Ian Ashbee and Jay Bothroyd walk away unpunished from recent assaults on his striker, Luciano Becchio. But half-time was needed to stem the trickle of bad blood. Gradel's attempts to influence the game more professionally reached only dead ends.
The unreliable service from him and Robert Snodgrass rendered Becchio redundant and prone to substitution with 13 minutes to play.
Reading's centre-backs, Alex Pearce and Zurab Khizanishvili, escaped without a bruise.
But the start of the second half found McDermott's team in a clearer frame of mind. Within three minutes, Schmeichel dived to his left to meet an Ian Harte free-kick on the one occasion when United's former defender and set-piece specialist was given the freedom to attack the Leeds goal. The ball flew at such speed that many in the stadium assumed Schmeichel was beaten.
McDermott revised Reading's line-up on the hour by employing two of his substitutes, Jay Tabb and Jimmy Kebe, and Kebe's presence almost broke United's back, cutting loose a player whose pace and skill twisted the blood of George McCartney.
It was from the right wing where Reading were liable to crack Grayson's defence.
Kebe's cut-back created one chance for Noel Hunt which Schmeichel parried with both hands, and Michail Antonio – another of McDermott's replacements – shook a post from an angle which gave him no prospect of beating Schmeichel.
Grayson had introduced McCormack and Billy Paynter by then, a display of aggression with the game asking to be won, but his side were devoid of their usual inspiration when Reading's defence showed signs of caving in. McCormack put them under sudden strain when, with Graham preparing to blow his whistle, he exploited the space in front of Federici by threading a pass over the halfway line and into Howson's path.
The midfielder broke forward as quickly as his legs would allow but Griffin cut him off at the edge of the box, forcing Howson to attack Federici hopefully from long range.
For once, Howson's midas touch was lost in the layer of rust over United's attack. The glint of gold came instead from their defence.