Telegraph 6/8/11
Southampton 3 Leeds United 1: match report
Cowes Week began on Saturday and across the Solent the forecast for these two teams was similarly mixed. Goals from Dean Hammond, Adam Lallana and David Connolly for a vibrant Southampton made this match plain sailing for the newly-promoted team.
But for Leeds, there are choppy waters ahead. Porous in defence and just poor in attack, they appear far less well-equipped for the challenge of returning to the Premier League which their fans and boardroom demand. While the confidence their hosts have shown in recruiting sparingly over the summer while retaining their best players, Leeds’ failure to bring in much new blood and the loss of some key players is likely to cost them dear.
It would have been preferable to experience a happy occasion at a stadium which has already had its share of grief in its short history. But it was obvious even from watching on television that the momentum is very much with Southampton.
For the last seven or so seasons, Leeds and Southampton have been staging their own private competition to see who could suffer the most spectacular fall from grace and stage the most painstaking recovery. Relegation, administration, points deductions – two of the Premier League’s founder members were better known for intrigue off the pitch than achievement on it. Both went through a few managers before finding the men to deliver them from the ignominy of third-tier football and both have chairmen, in Ken Bates and Nicola Cortese, for whom the most sensible description in this litigious age is colourful.
With good quality off-field facilities and infrastructure, on top of their history, they consider themselves top-flight clubs in waiting. The trouble is, so does at least half the Championship, and Blackpool proved two seasons before that sometimes the unexpected can happen.
For Southampton, Norwich’s rise from League One to the promised land in consecutive seasons is an inspiration; for Leeds, it feels like a reproach. The momentum certainly felt as though as it was with the hosts. They had won nine of their last 10 games in 2010-11 to hold off Huddersfield’s amazing challenge for an automatic promotion place; Leeds, in what is becoming a pattern, had claimed three points just three times in the same length of run-in and so yielded the play-off spot which had been theirs for the taking.
Defending had been very much their Achilles’ heel – coincidentally the very part of the anatomy which centre-back Patrick Kisnorbo had damaged so severely that yesterday was his first start for 17 months. But his return did not have the desired impact. The away side had already looked fragile before Southampton captain Hammond was allowed to charge through the midfield and sweep a shot from 25 yards inside Andy Lonergan’s right-hand post.
Just 10 minutes later, the hosts doubled their lead. Andy O’Brien was turned a little too easily in the box by Lallana, who then found the opposite corner with a sweet, curling strike. It would have been three almost immediately, but for Lonergan’s smothering of another Lallana effort.
In the absence through injury of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, it was Lallana who took centre stage despite being positioned as a winger. Diligent in defence, inventive and penetrating in attack, another gem unearthed by the formidable Southampton youth set-up shone brightly. Compare and contrast his Leeds counterpart, Max Gradel, who was equally ineffective at both ends.
Leeds were toothless without injured strikers Luca Becchio and Davide Somma, but not without bite in other areas of the pitch. New signing Michael Brown will fit in with at least one part of the tradition at Elland Road with his uncompromising approach to patrolling the midfield and the only complaint home manager Nigel Adkins could have had was that it took until the 31st minute for referee Kevin Wright to show Brown a yellow card.
Leeds started the second half with more purpose but Connolly’s well-taken goal, after a slick one-two, killed their hopes.
Gradel’s stoppage-time penalty, which should never have been awarded, could be no consolation for an inauspicious start.
Southampton 3 Leeds United 1: match report
Cowes Week began on Saturday and across the Solent the forecast for these two teams was similarly mixed. Goals from Dean Hammond, Adam Lallana and David Connolly for a vibrant Southampton made this match plain sailing for the newly-promoted team.
But for Leeds, there are choppy waters ahead. Porous in defence and just poor in attack, they appear far less well-equipped for the challenge of returning to the Premier League which their fans and boardroom demand. While the confidence their hosts have shown in recruiting sparingly over the summer while retaining their best players, Leeds’ failure to bring in much new blood and the loss of some key players is likely to cost them dear.
It would have been preferable to experience a happy occasion at a stadium which has already had its share of grief in its short history. But it was obvious even from watching on television that the momentum is very much with Southampton.
For the last seven or so seasons, Leeds and Southampton have been staging their own private competition to see who could suffer the most spectacular fall from grace and stage the most painstaking recovery. Relegation, administration, points deductions – two of the Premier League’s founder members were better known for intrigue off the pitch than achievement on it. Both went through a few managers before finding the men to deliver them from the ignominy of third-tier football and both have chairmen, in Ken Bates and Nicola Cortese, for whom the most sensible description in this litigious age is colourful.
With good quality off-field facilities and infrastructure, on top of their history, they consider themselves top-flight clubs in waiting. The trouble is, so does at least half the Championship, and Blackpool proved two seasons before that sometimes the unexpected can happen.
For Southampton, Norwich’s rise from League One to the promised land in consecutive seasons is an inspiration; for Leeds, it feels like a reproach. The momentum certainly felt as though as it was with the hosts. They had won nine of their last 10 games in 2010-11 to hold off Huddersfield’s amazing challenge for an automatic promotion place; Leeds, in what is becoming a pattern, had claimed three points just three times in the same length of run-in and so yielded the play-off spot which had been theirs for the taking.
Defending had been very much their Achilles’ heel – coincidentally the very part of the anatomy which centre-back Patrick Kisnorbo had damaged so severely that yesterday was his first start for 17 months. But his return did not have the desired impact. The away side had already looked fragile before Southampton captain Hammond was allowed to charge through the midfield and sweep a shot from 25 yards inside Andy Lonergan’s right-hand post.
Just 10 minutes later, the hosts doubled their lead. Andy O’Brien was turned a little too easily in the box by Lallana, who then found the opposite corner with a sweet, curling strike. It would have been three almost immediately, but for Lonergan’s smothering of another Lallana effort.
In the absence through injury of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, it was Lallana who took centre stage despite being positioned as a winger. Diligent in defence, inventive and penetrating in attack, another gem unearthed by the formidable Southampton youth set-up shone brightly. Compare and contrast his Leeds counterpart, Max Gradel, who was equally ineffective at both ends.
Leeds were toothless without injured strikers Luca Becchio and Davide Somma, but not without bite in other areas of the pitch. New signing Michael Brown will fit in with at least one part of the tradition at Elland Road with his uncompromising approach to patrolling the midfield and the only complaint home manager Nigel Adkins could have had was that it took until the 31st minute for referee Kevin Wright to show Brown a yellow card.
Leeds started the second half with more purpose but Connolly’s well-taken goal, after a slick one-two, killed their hopes.
Gradel’s stoppage-time penalty, which should never have been awarded, could be no consolation for an inauspicious start.