Leeds United: Slow start is far from being a damp squib
YEP 5/11/13Leeds United manager brian McDermott is no stranger to starting life in the Championship slow lane. Leon Wobschall reports.
LEEDS UNITED’S seasonal opening to the 2013-14 campaign may not exactly be headline stuff, but in the context of Brian McDermott’s recent managerial history, it still represents progress of sorts.
You strongly suspect the Whites chief has been doing compare and contrast exercises in his mind back to the last time he had a full crack at a Championship season in 2011-12 when his Reading side were hardly showing many pyrotechnics either given their league position back on Bonfire Night 2011.
Those statistics were decidedly average, with the Royals finding themselves eighth from bottom with 18 points from 15 matches, whereas his current United side are positioned in ninth spot, just three points off the top six.
McDermott is far more likely to recollect what happened next as opposed to before two seasons ago while in situ at the Madejski Stadium, with his Royals side winning seven of their next nine matches to end 2011 in fifth place and provide themselves the perfect platform for a concerted title push in the new year.
It’s pushing it to nail your colours on United emulating that, but with a favourable run of fixtures coming up, particularly in the run-up to Christmas, the incentive is there for a handy haul of points between now and Yuletide.
Home victories over struggling duo Yeovil Town and Birmingham City have been sandwiched between a disappointing derby reverse at Huddersfield Town, with the challenge now for McDermott’s troops being to find similar consistency to that displayed by his Royals vintage of 2011-12 to firmly propel themselves into contention at the business end of the table.
Home matches against Middlesbrough, Wigan Athletic and Barnsley bring with it the promise of win bonuses if the necessary application and concentration is there.
United’s toughest pre-Christmas home encounter on paper, against Watford on December 7, is likely to take care of itself given what happened against Gianfranco Zola’s rampant Hornets last autumn – no team-talk will be required for that one.
On the road, trips to Charlton Athletic, Blackburn Rovers and Doncaster Rovers certainly aren’t bracketed as formidable ones to negotiate, with Leeds’ most arduous assignments between now and New Year’s Eve looking to be appointments at Blackpool and Nottingham Forest over the festive season.
McDermott said: “This is one of the best starts I have had as a manager, believe it or not.
“I just want to be in there at the end of December. If we are where we are then, we’ll be there or thereabouts.
“If we get some momentum going after December, you never know what can happen in this league. I can’t look too far ahead. All I can do is look to the next one at Charlton.
“Away from home, we need to be tough and difficult to beat and use a bit of nous.”
Fuelled by the hurt of the previous weekend’s reverse at Huddersfield, when United were architects of their own downfall to some degree after a perfect start, a solid if not spectacular response was engineered against visitors fully expected to return from whence they came – League One come May.
Justifiably, it was match-winner Ross McCormack and Rudy Austin who took the lion’s share of the personal plaudits for the 2-0 win over Yeovil, but it was another figure among the supporting cast who was also worthy of praise.
That man being Jason Pearce, with the former Portsmouth and Bournemouth stopper – who is enjoying a steady enough season in comparison to what was an underwhelming 2012-13 – showing his adaptability in an unorthodox left wing-back role after Stephen Warnock exited the fray due to a foot injury at the weekend.
His performance drew acclaim from not just his manager, but his team-mates, with McCormack praising the centre-half’s contribution.
McCormack said: “Jason (Pearce) did well. He was a good outlet for us out on the left. Paddy (Kenny) was kicking everything towards him and Pearcey was probably two feet taller than their full-back.
“The back five were tremendous. We restricted them to a couple of chances and that is testament to them.”
On the display of Pearce, McDermott added: “We played Jason as a wing back and he did a super job for us.
“Paddy Kenny also kept a clean sheet and managed the game for us really well.
“Dexter (Blackstock) came on and chased everything and looked a good combination with Ross.
“It was a tough game in the first half and I don’t think there was much football played. But this is the Championship. I have been involved in this league and know what is required, and we are trying to learn as a group what is required to win games.”
Offering his thoughts on his side’s return to winning ways, albeit not exactly in eye-catching fashion, McDermott said: “We spoke about clean sheets in the week and Huddersfield and what had happened at Huddersfield. You have to just think about what is required for the next game and we did that in the week and worked really, really hard and the players got their rewards. “I thought Rudy’s timing was terrific with some of the tackles we made. Alex Mowatt, Luke Murphy and the back three also.
“I felt we had to grind that game out and said so at half-time and said ‘Look there’s a little bit of tension around the place, get it out of the dressing room’ and the one thing that happened is that Ross scored after 48 minutes and all of a sudden, the tension went away because we got that first goal and we got the second and could possibly have got the third or fourth goals.”