Leeds United v Ipswich Town: Whites warm up for the Cup
Yorkshire Evening Post 17/12/12
By Phil Hay
This result, according to Mick McCarthy, looked better on paper than it did in the flesh. Six thousands miles away in Japan, Chelsea can only have noted the scoreline – a routine win which honed Leeds United for Wednesday’s League Cup quarter-final.
Neil Warnock refused to see it that way. Ever the Championship manager, United’s defeat of Ipswich Town was not about Chelsea. This week, he claimed, is not about Chelsea. “That’s a bonus,” Warnock said. “I’m more concerned with Middlesbrough on Saturday. I’ll probably play the reserves on Wednesday and rest everyone else.”
There are some who will take Warnock’s word for that and others who believe in Santa Claus. For all that United’s manager has his priorities in order, he is not oblivious to the stakes involved in Wednesday’s last-eight tie. Chelsea were flying home today following their defeat in the final of FIFA’s World Club Cup and the next stop for their jet-lagged squad is Elland Road. “We’ll be competitive,” said Warnock by way of a caveat, “whatever team I put out.”
Leeds’ victory over Ipswich gave them the luxury of hosting the European champions without the sense that their progression on the League Cup front is to the detriment of their Championship position. The club barely moved in the table on Saturday – fourpoints adrift of the play-off positions before and after full-time – but that in itself underlined the value of the result. United remain among that pocket of teams whose task at present is to avoid behind left behind.
McCarthy’s analysis of Ipswich’s defeat was fair comment. They had enough of the game to make United sweat, particularly in the second half, but they cracked too easily and were timid in the moments when Warnock’s defence opened up.
A 68th-minute finish from Paul Green, the killer second goal, summed the afternoon up; beautifully-taken and a sharp contrast to weak and indecisive efforts at the other end of the field.
Green picked out the roof of Ipswich’s net after running onto a pass from Jerome Thomas, the scorer of Leeds’ first goal midway through the opening half. United’s half-time lead was merited and would have been twice as good but for a miscued header from Luciano Becchio in the 41st minute but there was no denying the balance of the second half.
The effects of Ipswich’s pressure were nonetheless meagre. Paddy Kenny, United’s goalkeeper, pulled off necessary saves from Lee Martin and Michael Chopra in the final 10 minutes but McCarthy’s players were clutching at straws by then, two goals down as time began to tick away. Disappointed though Ipswich’s manager seemed, there was no great sense of injustice at the end.
“At half-time we should have been more than one up,” Warnock insisted, “and we knew they’d have a period of pressure at some stage because of their confidence. They’d won five out of seven.
“In the 15 minutes or so when we had to hang in there, we were absolutely super. We were always going to come back into the game and the second goal gave us another lift.
“Thankfully Paddy saved me biting my nails for the last few minutes but we were very professional. The players really pleased me.”
Ipswich’s form went before them – three straight wins and, as Warnock noted, five in seven – but it counted for as little as United’s had done at Derby County seven days earlier.
Warnock’s defence kept a tight hold of DJ Campbell, Town’s dangerous striker, and forced his substitution around the hour. Chopra, Campbell’s replacement, caused more problems but only once the match was over. Leeds were not exempt from criticism and their midfield lost their grip of the game in the second half but a glut of steady performances among Warnock’s players saw the club through the worst of Ipswich’s persistence.
“We had the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half,” McCarthy said, “but we let them off the hook. And even at 2-0 we had our chances. It would have been a nervy end if we’d scored.
“The crowd were giving it out to the Leeds players, their bench was getting animated, we were playing well and we let them off the hook. They got their one chance and it’s a fabulous finish from Green. In the papers the result looks comfortable but it wasn’t at all.”
For the first half-hour, it seemed that United’s victory might be. Their dominance was effortless and a fitter and more dangerous Thomas opened the scoring with the easiest of finishes, a tap-in on the goalline after Tom Lees headed El-Hadji Diouf’s corner goalwards on 19 minutes.
“I love those goals,” Warnock said. “We’ve actually been working on that. “We’ve been winning a lot of headers in the box but there’s often nobody around the keeper and the keeper ends up catching it. It’s an opportunity for us and there’s four or five goals a season there.”
Thomas delighted a relatively small crowd with his movement and manipulation of the ball.
Fresh from signing an new 18-month contract, Diouf was typically influential too. It took until the latter stages of the first half for Ipswich to show an interest and even then they were indebted to Aaron Cresswell for a goalline clearance and to Becchio for wasting Sam Byram’s inviting cross with a careless header.
The Argentinian was denied in more conventional circumstances at the start of the second half as Stephen Henderson met his nodded finish with a strong palm but Green’s strike on 68 minutes was beyond the athleticism of any keeper, Henderson included.
Bradley Orr set United’s attack moving by miscontrolling a poor clearance from Alan Tate and a quick exchange of passes in which Diouf was central sent Thomas scurrying down the left wing. His precise cross met the run of Green and the midfielder cushioned the ball high into the net. Warnock echoed McCarthy in calling the goal “fabulous”.
Ipswich were invited to raise the white flag but instead chose to fight to the death. Byram dispossessed Martin as he sneaked in behind United’s defence and shaped to shoot and Kenny’s diving save kept out a rising shot from the winger.
Chopra should have scored in the closing minutes but drove Martin’s cut-back against Kenny’s legs. “Of all the players in the world you’d want it to fall to,” said a rueful McCarthy.
It was that sort of day. And for all Warnock’s protestations, he would welcome another like it in 48 hours’ time when Chelsea stake their dignity on a League Cup tie at Elland Road.
Little over 19,000 spectators turned out for Saturday’s match. Wednesday’s quarter-final will see an attendance in excess of 35,000. Priority or not, the game matters.
By Phil Hay
This result, according to Mick McCarthy, looked better on paper than it did in the flesh. Six thousands miles away in Japan, Chelsea can only have noted the scoreline – a routine win which honed Leeds United for Wednesday’s League Cup quarter-final.
Neil Warnock refused to see it that way. Ever the Championship manager, United’s defeat of Ipswich Town was not about Chelsea. This week, he claimed, is not about Chelsea. “That’s a bonus,” Warnock said. “I’m more concerned with Middlesbrough on Saturday. I’ll probably play the reserves on Wednesday and rest everyone else.”
There are some who will take Warnock’s word for that and others who believe in Santa Claus. For all that United’s manager has his priorities in order, he is not oblivious to the stakes involved in Wednesday’s last-eight tie. Chelsea were flying home today following their defeat in the final of FIFA’s World Club Cup and the next stop for their jet-lagged squad is Elland Road. “We’ll be competitive,” said Warnock by way of a caveat, “whatever team I put out.”
Leeds’ victory over Ipswich gave them the luxury of hosting the European champions without the sense that their progression on the League Cup front is to the detriment of their Championship position. The club barely moved in the table on Saturday – fourpoints adrift of the play-off positions before and after full-time – but that in itself underlined the value of the result. United remain among that pocket of teams whose task at present is to avoid behind left behind.
McCarthy’s analysis of Ipswich’s defeat was fair comment. They had enough of the game to make United sweat, particularly in the second half, but they cracked too easily and were timid in the moments when Warnock’s defence opened up.
A 68th-minute finish from Paul Green, the killer second goal, summed the afternoon up; beautifully-taken and a sharp contrast to weak and indecisive efforts at the other end of the field.
Green picked out the roof of Ipswich’s net after running onto a pass from Jerome Thomas, the scorer of Leeds’ first goal midway through the opening half. United’s half-time lead was merited and would have been twice as good but for a miscued header from Luciano Becchio in the 41st minute but there was no denying the balance of the second half.
The effects of Ipswich’s pressure were nonetheless meagre. Paddy Kenny, United’s goalkeeper, pulled off necessary saves from Lee Martin and Michael Chopra in the final 10 minutes but McCarthy’s players were clutching at straws by then, two goals down as time began to tick away. Disappointed though Ipswich’s manager seemed, there was no great sense of injustice at the end.
“At half-time we should have been more than one up,” Warnock insisted, “and we knew they’d have a period of pressure at some stage because of their confidence. They’d won five out of seven.
“In the 15 minutes or so when we had to hang in there, we were absolutely super. We were always going to come back into the game and the second goal gave us another lift.
“Thankfully Paddy saved me biting my nails for the last few minutes but we were very professional. The players really pleased me.”
Ipswich’s form went before them – three straight wins and, as Warnock noted, five in seven – but it counted for as little as United’s had done at Derby County seven days earlier.
Warnock’s defence kept a tight hold of DJ Campbell, Town’s dangerous striker, and forced his substitution around the hour. Chopra, Campbell’s replacement, caused more problems but only once the match was over. Leeds were not exempt from criticism and their midfield lost their grip of the game in the second half but a glut of steady performances among Warnock’s players saw the club through the worst of Ipswich’s persistence.
“We had the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half,” McCarthy said, “but we let them off the hook. And even at 2-0 we had our chances. It would have been a nervy end if we’d scored.
“The crowd were giving it out to the Leeds players, their bench was getting animated, we were playing well and we let them off the hook. They got their one chance and it’s a fabulous finish from Green. In the papers the result looks comfortable but it wasn’t at all.”
For the first half-hour, it seemed that United’s victory might be. Their dominance was effortless and a fitter and more dangerous Thomas opened the scoring with the easiest of finishes, a tap-in on the goalline after Tom Lees headed El-Hadji Diouf’s corner goalwards on 19 minutes.
“I love those goals,” Warnock said. “We’ve actually been working on that. “We’ve been winning a lot of headers in the box but there’s often nobody around the keeper and the keeper ends up catching it. It’s an opportunity for us and there’s four or five goals a season there.”
Thomas delighted a relatively small crowd with his movement and manipulation of the ball.
Fresh from signing an new 18-month contract, Diouf was typically influential too. It took until the latter stages of the first half for Ipswich to show an interest and even then they were indebted to Aaron Cresswell for a goalline clearance and to Becchio for wasting Sam Byram’s inviting cross with a careless header.
The Argentinian was denied in more conventional circumstances at the start of the second half as Stephen Henderson met his nodded finish with a strong palm but Green’s strike on 68 minutes was beyond the athleticism of any keeper, Henderson included.
Bradley Orr set United’s attack moving by miscontrolling a poor clearance from Alan Tate and a quick exchange of passes in which Diouf was central sent Thomas scurrying down the left wing. His precise cross met the run of Green and the midfielder cushioned the ball high into the net. Warnock echoed McCarthy in calling the goal “fabulous”.
Ipswich were invited to raise the white flag but instead chose to fight to the death. Byram dispossessed Martin as he sneaked in behind United’s defence and shaped to shoot and Kenny’s diving save kept out a rising shot from the winger.
Chopra should have scored in the closing minutes but drove Martin’s cut-back against Kenny’s legs. “Of all the players in the world you’d want it to fall to,” said a rueful McCarthy.
It was that sort of day. And for all Warnock’s protestations, he would welcome another like it in 48 hours’ time when Chelsea stake their dignity on a League Cup tie at Elland Road.
Little over 19,000 spectators turned out for Saturday’s match. Wednesday’s quarter-final will see an attendance in excess of 35,000. Priority or not, the game matters.