Telegraph 16/8/11
Leeds United 4 Hull City 1: match report
Read a full match report of the Championship game between Leeds United and Hull City at Elland Road on Tuesday Aug 16, 2011.
By Chris Brereton at Elland Road
Few chalices in English football can turn out to be as poisonous as one involving Leeds United.
When the club’s fans are with you, they are really, really with you. When they are not? Well, just consider former manager Brian Clough, or, latterly, chairman Ken Bates.
Bates has a long reputation for agitating fans, and his current standing among the denizens of Elland Road will not bother him one iota following the recent demonstrations regarding his boardroom incumbency and the lack of funds available.
The seeds of a tough season have been sown by a summer transfer window that has seen a dearth of new attacking talent arrive, save for Andy Keogh’s loan signing from Wolves. However, Bates, who has a unique spin on the current gloom surrounding Elland Road, on Tuesday night called a section of the clubs’ fans “morons” in his programme notes.
“I’m unimpressed by the demonstrations of a few morons on Saturday,” he wrote. “The rebuilding of Leeds United is a bit like sex. In an age of instant gratification, Leeds are having a long drawn-out affair with plenty of foreplay and slow arousal.
“Some fans may not like me or agree with me but you’re stuck with me. I saved your club in 2005 and 2007 when nobody else would.”
Events on the field had quite a lot to live up to in the wake of Bates’s warm-up act and this encounter did not disappoint, beginning with a scintillating opening between these Yorkshire rivals.
An early Ross McCormack header gave Leeds the lead after they had dominated the opening passages, but Tom Lees’s ludicrous own goal moments later evened the encounter up. Lees stroked Matty Fryatt’s harmless looking cross past Andy Lonergan to give Hull a goal they had not deserved. The defender soon made amends before the interval as Hull goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi fumbled a Ramon Nunez cross into the defender’s path and he picked out the top corner with aplomb.
Leeds made it 3-1 at the start of the second half as Robert Snodgrass curled in a stunning 25-yard free-kick to further assuage Leeds fans. Why shout about Bates when the eminently more enjoyable opportunity was present to bait inhabitants of East Yorkshire instead? That baiting only got louder as Nunez added Leeds’ fourth with a clinical finish.
Leeds United 4 Hull City 1: match report
Read a full match report of the Championship game between Leeds United and Hull City at Elland Road on Tuesday Aug 16, 2011.
By Chris Brereton at Elland Road
Few chalices in English football can turn out to be as poisonous as one involving Leeds United.
When the club’s fans are with you, they are really, really with you. When they are not? Well, just consider former manager Brian Clough, or, latterly, chairman Ken Bates.
Bates has a long reputation for agitating fans, and his current standing among the denizens of Elland Road will not bother him one iota following the recent demonstrations regarding his boardroom incumbency and the lack of funds available.
The seeds of a tough season have been sown by a summer transfer window that has seen a dearth of new attacking talent arrive, save for Andy Keogh’s loan signing from Wolves. However, Bates, who has a unique spin on the current gloom surrounding Elland Road, on Tuesday night called a section of the clubs’ fans “morons” in his programme notes.
“I’m unimpressed by the demonstrations of a few morons on Saturday,” he wrote. “The rebuilding of Leeds United is a bit like sex. In an age of instant gratification, Leeds are having a long drawn-out affair with plenty of foreplay and slow arousal.
“Some fans may not like me or agree with me but you’re stuck with me. I saved your club in 2005 and 2007 when nobody else would.”
Events on the field had quite a lot to live up to in the wake of Bates’s warm-up act and this encounter did not disappoint, beginning with a scintillating opening between these Yorkshire rivals.
An early Ross McCormack header gave Leeds the lead after they had dominated the opening passages, but Tom Lees’s ludicrous own goal moments later evened the encounter up. Lees stroked Matty Fryatt’s harmless looking cross past Andy Lonergan to give Hull a goal they had not deserved. The defender soon made amends before the interval as Hull goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi fumbled a Ramon Nunez cross into the defender’s path and he picked out the top corner with aplomb.
Leeds made it 3-1 at the start of the second half as Robert Snodgrass curled in a stunning 25-yard free-kick to further assuage Leeds fans. Why shout about Bates when the eminently more enjoyable opportunity was present to bait inhabitants of East Yorkshire instead? That baiting only got louder as Nunez added Leeds’ fourth with a clinical finish.