Yorkshire Evening Post 22/1/12
Whites handed points on a plate
By Phil Hay
This manic defeat of Ipswich Town finished with a promise from Simon Grayson not to “paper over the cracks”, which was just as well for him and his club.
At the end of a week when mutiny hung in the air around Elland Road, a moment of honest humility was the least expected of him. Grayso
n would have been alone in thinking that 20 minutes of comedy football mitigated all that had gone before.
Saturday’s game was bordering on farce, decided by laughable errors from three different goalkeepers and another from a defender whose lunacy exceeded everyone else’s. By full-time, Leeds were banking a 3-1 win and Paul Jewell, the Ipswich manager, looked like a man whose house had been burgled twice in one afternoon.
“We all make mistakes,” Jewell said, “but these mistakes were glaring.” And so they were, on both sides of the fence. United’s victory came in spite of Andy Lonergan shipping a tame shot from Andy Drury and gifting Town a lead which they defended until late in the second half.
But when Jewell’s team imploded, they did so spectacularly. Alex McCarthy, the keeper who served Leeds on loan earlier in the season, spread panic among Ipswich’s players in the 71st minute by handling outside the box and incurring a red card. Three minutes later, Ibrahima Sonko knocked a suicidal backpass to Robert Snodgrass three yards from goal and watched the net ripple.
Doubts
Not to be outdone, McCarthy’s placement – Arran Lee-Barrett – promptly misjudged a loose pass from Adam Clayton and gave Ross McCormack carte blanche to walk the ball over the line. The reaction of the crowd, while not embarrassed, was best described as dignified, and Luciano Becchio’s injury-time strike gave Leeds the distinction of winning the game without fashioning a single, self-produced chance.
All in all, it left Grayson with no choice but to tell it like it was. United’s out-going captain, Jonathan Howson, left last week with obvious doubts about Leeds’ ability to rise above the Championship, and little on show against Ipswich suggested he was wrong: not Fabian Delph or any of the players who are struggling on gamely.
Like Howson, the supporters who watched this win – the latest in a line of scrambled results and tactical failures – made it clear that large numbers of them are running out of patience. That much was evident in the hours after news of Howson’s move to Norwich became public knowledge, and Saturday’s match was almost a fitting conclusion to a bad week.
Their anger is not simply about Howson or the fact that he of all people has been sold. It is an issue of ambition and vision, both of which United’s support believe their club lack. That point was made by protests against chairman Ken Bates outside Elland Road before kick-off and again during the game itself. But nothing spoke more loudly than the laboured effort to prise three lucky points from a ludicrous Championship match.
The protesters who gathered around the Bremner Statue numbered several hundred but Bates was not there to see them, absent on holiday in South Africa. His programme column did his fighting for him, quoting United’s “player budget” at £11.2m or “23 per cent over budget” in the days after the club chose to cash in on Howson. The figure alone satisfied few of the questions thrown at the club in the previous 72 hours.
On the subject of where and how Leeds’ annual income is being spent, Delph gave an answer of sorts. Signed on a month’s loan from Aston Villa, the one-time United academy player started against Ipswich with expectation on his shoulders, and the pressure to weave his magic told. It remains to be seen whether this is, as Grayson’s hopes, is a deal to lift the mood of a club where morale is shot to bits.
It has been that way in Ipswich throughout this season and Jewell arrived at Elland Road looking every bit as embattled as Grayson. The mutual lack of assurance shared by both teams infected the first half, though not without offering up the occasional chance.
Town’s first two came in the space of a minute, with Tom Lees dispossessing Lee Martin as the midfielder ran onto a quick free-kick from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Zac Thompson appearing in the right place to clear Daryl Murphy’s header off the goalline.
At times Leeds were able to make their visitors feel as anxious, and Aaron Cresswell came close to heading into his own net when McCormack dinked the ball across the face of McCarthy’s goal. McCormack might also have scored himself but for Tommy Smith turning a Snodgrass pass behind.
It was tentative and fraught, as Elland Road so often is these days.
The game finally opened up after half-an-hour when Jason Scotland did what Ipswich had been threatening to do and slipped Martin in behind United’s defence. Lonergan, Grayson’s chosen captain, rushed out to meet the midfielder’s shot with a fine piece of goalkeeping and Emmanuel-Thomas smashed the rebound over an open goal.
However, Lonergan contrived to hand Ipswich the opening goal with a bad misjudgement four minutes later. Drury exchanged a short corner with Martin and produced a 20-yard shot which lacked the power to trouble United’s keeper. Unsighted or distracted, Lonergan allowed it to trundle by him and slink into the net.
That was that for the first half until Emmanuel-Thomas clipped the crossbar in injury-time with an audacious shot from well outside Lonergan’s box. Delph trode water in a deep midfield position and Mikael Forssell drifted around like a striker with as few games behind him as he has. McCarthy’s return to Elland Road, where he spent November and December on loan, was a stroll until his red card. Lonergan, on the other hand, was constantly in danger and his quick reaction at the start of the second half dug Darren O’Dea out of a hole after the centre-back allowed a bouncing ball to drop into the path of Scotland.
Not until the hour did Leeds reach the level of urgency sought by 22,000 people around them. Snodgrass was first to produce anything like a sniff of a goal when he dived to head Danny Pugh’s cross behind and McCarthy escaped with his clean sheet intact after dropping a routine cross to substitute Aidan White. Carlos Edwards stifled the danger with a timely tackle.
At the other end, Murphy swept a volley narrowly over and a Sonko shot deflected wide with holes gaping in Grayson’s defence. But Ipswich’s poise was lost when a random through-ball forced Sonko to nod a header back towards McCarthy who caught the ball outside his box. The keeper accepted his fate and was already walking towards the tunnel when referee Geoff Eltringham pulled out the red card.
Jewell looked for his players to steady themselves but instead they buckled. When White burst clear during United’s next attack and teed up McCormack for a deflected shot, Sonko inexplicably played the ball directly to Snodgrass inside the six-yard area. Lee-Barrett could not stop the winger sliding it into the net.
Yet again it seemed that United’s luck was in after two previous flirts with defeat against Crystal Palace and Burnley, and so it was. In the 82nd minute, Lee-Barrett’s rustiness caught up with him as he dithered over a poor pass from Clayton and allowed McCormack to force the ball through him.
Becchio finished the game off in injury-time with a cute finish under Lee-Barrett, ending the worst of all goalkeeping cameos.
Unbelievable it might have been but the turn of events fooled no-one, least of all the crowd who made their view of Bates clear. He should not be tricked into thinking the wounds of last week have been healed.
Whites handed points on a plate
By Phil Hay
This manic defeat of Ipswich Town finished with a promise from Simon Grayson not to “paper over the cracks”, which was just as well for him and his club.
At the end of a week when mutiny hung in the air around Elland Road, a moment of honest humility was the least expected of him. Grayso
n would have been alone in thinking that 20 minutes of comedy football mitigated all that had gone before.Saturday’s game was bordering on farce, decided by laughable errors from three different goalkeepers and another from a defender whose lunacy exceeded everyone else’s. By full-time, Leeds were banking a 3-1 win and Paul Jewell, the Ipswich manager, looked like a man whose house had been burgled twice in one afternoon.
“We all make mistakes,” Jewell said, “but these mistakes were glaring.” And so they were, on both sides of the fence. United’s victory came in spite of Andy Lonergan shipping a tame shot from Andy Drury and gifting Town a lead which they defended until late in the second half.
But when Jewell’s team imploded, they did so spectacularly. Alex McCarthy, the keeper who served Leeds on loan earlier in the season, spread panic among Ipswich’s players in the 71st minute by handling outside the box and incurring a red card. Three minutes later, Ibrahima Sonko knocked a suicidal backpass to Robert Snodgrass three yards from goal and watched the net ripple.
Doubts
Not to be outdone, McCarthy’s placement – Arran Lee-Barrett – promptly misjudged a loose pass from Adam Clayton and gave Ross McCormack carte blanche to walk the ball over the line. The reaction of the crowd, while not embarrassed, was best described as dignified, and Luciano Becchio’s injury-time strike gave Leeds the distinction of winning the game without fashioning a single, self-produced chance.
All in all, it left Grayson with no choice but to tell it like it was. United’s out-going captain, Jonathan Howson, left last week with obvious doubts about Leeds’ ability to rise above the Championship, and little on show against Ipswich suggested he was wrong: not Fabian Delph or any of the players who are struggling on gamely.
Like Howson, the supporters who watched this win – the latest in a line of scrambled results and tactical failures – made it clear that large numbers of them are running out of patience. That much was evident in the hours after news of Howson’s move to Norwich became public knowledge, and Saturday’s match was almost a fitting conclusion to a bad week.
Their anger is not simply about Howson or the fact that he of all people has been sold. It is an issue of ambition and vision, both of which United’s support believe their club lack. That point was made by protests against chairman Ken Bates outside Elland Road before kick-off and again during the game itself. But nothing spoke more loudly than the laboured effort to prise three lucky points from a ludicrous Championship match.
The protesters who gathered around the Bremner Statue numbered several hundred but Bates was not there to see them, absent on holiday in South Africa. His programme column did his fighting for him, quoting United’s “player budget” at £11.2m or “23 per cent over budget” in the days after the club chose to cash in on Howson. The figure alone satisfied few of the questions thrown at the club in the previous 72 hours.
On the subject of where and how Leeds’ annual income is being spent, Delph gave an answer of sorts. Signed on a month’s loan from Aston Villa, the one-time United academy player started against Ipswich with expectation on his shoulders, and the pressure to weave his magic told. It remains to be seen whether this is, as Grayson’s hopes, is a deal to lift the mood of a club where morale is shot to bits.
It has been that way in Ipswich throughout this season and Jewell arrived at Elland Road looking every bit as embattled as Grayson. The mutual lack of assurance shared by both teams infected the first half, though not without offering up the occasional chance.
Town’s first two came in the space of a minute, with Tom Lees dispossessing Lee Martin as the midfielder ran onto a quick free-kick from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Zac Thompson appearing in the right place to clear Daryl Murphy’s header off the goalline.
At times Leeds were able to make their visitors feel as anxious, and Aaron Cresswell came close to heading into his own net when McCormack dinked the ball across the face of McCarthy’s goal. McCormack might also have scored himself but for Tommy Smith turning a Snodgrass pass behind.
It was tentative and fraught, as Elland Road so often is these days.
The game finally opened up after half-an-hour when Jason Scotland did what Ipswich had been threatening to do and slipped Martin in behind United’s defence. Lonergan, Grayson’s chosen captain, rushed out to meet the midfielder’s shot with a fine piece of goalkeeping and Emmanuel-Thomas smashed the rebound over an open goal.
However, Lonergan contrived to hand Ipswich the opening goal with a bad misjudgement four minutes later. Drury exchanged a short corner with Martin and produced a 20-yard shot which lacked the power to trouble United’s keeper. Unsighted or distracted, Lonergan allowed it to trundle by him and slink into the net.
That was that for the first half until Emmanuel-Thomas clipped the crossbar in injury-time with an audacious shot from well outside Lonergan’s box. Delph trode water in a deep midfield position and Mikael Forssell drifted around like a striker with as few games behind him as he has. McCarthy’s return to Elland Road, where he spent November and December on loan, was a stroll until his red card. Lonergan, on the other hand, was constantly in danger and his quick reaction at the start of the second half dug Darren O’Dea out of a hole after the centre-back allowed a bouncing ball to drop into the path of Scotland.
Not until the hour did Leeds reach the level of urgency sought by 22,000 people around them. Snodgrass was first to produce anything like a sniff of a goal when he dived to head Danny Pugh’s cross behind and McCarthy escaped with his clean sheet intact after dropping a routine cross to substitute Aidan White. Carlos Edwards stifled the danger with a timely tackle.
At the other end, Murphy swept a volley narrowly over and a Sonko shot deflected wide with holes gaping in Grayson’s defence. But Ipswich’s poise was lost when a random through-ball forced Sonko to nod a header back towards McCarthy who caught the ball outside his box. The keeper accepted his fate and was already walking towards the tunnel when referee Geoff Eltringham pulled out the red card.
Jewell looked for his players to steady themselves but instead they buckled. When White burst clear during United’s next attack and teed up McCormack for a deflected shot, Sonko inexplicably played the ball directly to Snodgrass inside the six-yard area. Lee-Barrett could not stop the winger sliding it into the net.
Yet again it seemed that United’s luck was in after two previous flirts with defeat against Crystal Palace and Burnley, and so it was. In the 82nd minute, Lee-Barrett’s rustiness caught up with him as he dithered over a poor pass from Clayton and allowed McCormack to force the ball through him.
Becchio finished the game off in injury-time with a cute finish under Lee-Barrett, ending the worst of all goalkeeping cameos.
Unbelievable it might have been but the turn of events fooled no-one, least of all the crowd who made their view of Bates clear. He should not be tricked into thinking the wounds of last week have been healed.