Winning run comes to an end at Blackburn
To Ell And Back 1/12/13
by Tim Whelan
After all the excitement of winning three games on the trot and getting into the top six, we came back down to earth yesterday with a disappointing defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
We did of course have the backing of a superb following of 6,800 fans, and we all started the day in an optimistic mood. Even though Blackburn had given us the whole of the Darwen end there were still huge numbers of empty seats in the remaining home areas of the stadium, particularly in the stand to our left, so I dread to think what kind of morgue the place is on most Saturdays. We didn’t hear much of the ‘wall of noise’ Gary Bowyer had asked for, though a couple of dozen Blackburn fans in the corner to our right did keep trying to get things going amongst the home support.
Brian McDermott made just one change to last week’s starting line-up with Luke Varney replacing Dexter Blackstock. This meant that instead of recalling Steven Warnock at left back he kept faith with Danny Pugh, who was to be involved in several of the key incidents of the game.
There was lively start to the game, but without much goalmouth action at either end, though Blackburn had one early chance when Kenny turned a shot from Dunn turned round the post. I thought it was going just wide anyway, but obviously Kenny couldn’t take any chances.
At the other end our best chance of the whole game came on half an hour, when Varney rose to meet a long ball from Lees and knocked it down to McCormack, whose superb flick put Pugh clean through against Kean. It was a great move that deserved a goal, but Pugh put his shot too close to the Blackburn keeper, who was able to keep it out with his legs.
Up to that point Leeds had enjoyed more of the possession, but Blackburn started to take control as we moved towards half time. Kenny did well to block a fierce shot from Taylor and then while he was still on the floor he had to react quickly to kick the ball away before Jason Roberts could get to the rebound.
And as we moved into first half stoppage time the home side broke downfield after Austin gave the ball away in their half, the move ending with Pugh needlessly conceding a corner as a cross drifted beyond the far post. Somebody should have shouted for him to leave it, but it proved to be costly as Blackburn scored from the corner, with Spur getting in front of a defender to hammer the ball into the far corner.
We began the second half looking determined to get back into the game, but too many moves were breaking down due to some poor passing. After 58 minutes Brian McDermott made a couple of changes, with Byram replacing Peltier and Smith coming on for Varney, so we now had eleven men on the field that some of us would have selected to start with.
But it was the home side who had the next opportunity, as King chested the ball down and hit a fierce volley from outside the box, but thankfully he hit it straight at Kenny and our noble custodian was able to beat it away.
As time began to run out we kept pressing for an equaliser, and had a couple of decent shouts for a penalty. The Blackburn defenders were keeping close to Smith to cope with his threat in the air, and at one point he seemed to be pulled down as he tried to get on the end of a cross, but the referee wasn’t having it. And there was an even better shout when Pugh went down after tangling with a defender, which seemed a clear penalty from behind the goal, but evidently not from the view the official would have had.
But the nearest we got to actually scoring was a fierce shot from Austin which was curving away from goal and just about made the side netting. With nine minutes left Poleon came on for the ineffectual Murphy to inject some much needed pace into our attack, but although we forced a number or corners right at the end Blackburn were able to survive the four minutes of injury time to claim the three points.
All very disappointing, though you could say that the Blackburn side had responded to their manager’s call to raise their game in response to our great support, as they put in a determined performance. I was left wondering why they had begun the day in 14th place, but maybe the truth is that in this division there are a lot of teams who are much of a muchness once you get below the top three and it’s going to be very tight in the middle of the table.
But it’s the kind of fixture where we need to pick up points if we’re going to finish is the top six, and on the day we were lacking that little bit of quality we needed to make sure we got a result. Is McDermott going to get the funds he needs in January to guide us into the play-offs?
by Tim Whelan
After all the excitement of winning three games on the trot and getting into the top six, we came back down to earth yesterday with a disappointing defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
We did of course have the backing of a superb following of 6,800 fans, and we all started the day in an optimistic mood. Even though Blackburn had given us the whole of the Darwen end there were still huge numbers of empty seats in the remaining home areas of the stadium, particularly in the stand to our left, so I dread to think what kind of morgue the place is on most Saturdays. We didn’t hear much of the ‘wall of noise’ Gary Bowyer had asked for, though a couple of dozen Blackburn fans in the corner to our right did keep trying to get things going amongst the home support.
Brian McDermott made just one change to last week’s starting line-up with Luke Varney replacing Dexter Blackstock. This meant that instead of recalling Steven Warnock at left back he kept faith with Danny Pugh, who was to be involved in several of the key incidents of the game.
There was lively start to the game, but without much goalmouth action at either end, though Blackburn had one early chance when Kenny turned a shot from Dunn turned round the post. I thought it was going just wide anyway, but obviously Kenny couldn’t take any chances.
At the other end our best chance of the whole game came on half an hour, when Varney rose to meet a long ball from Lees and knocked it down to McCormack, whose superb flick put Pugh clean through against Kean. It was a great move that deserved a goal, but Pugh put his shot too close to the Blackburn keeper, who was able to keep it out with his legs.
Up to that point Leeds had enjoyed more of the possession, but Blackburn started to take control as we moved towards half time. Kenny did well to block a fierce shot from Taylor and then while he was still on the floor he had to react quickly to kick the ball away before Jason Roberts could get to the rebound.
And as we moved into first half stoppage time the home side broke downfield after Austin gave the ball away in their half, the move ending with Pugh needlessly conceding a corner as a cross drifted beyond the far post. Somebody should have shouted for him to leave it, but it proved to be costly as Blackburn scored from the corner, with Spur getting in front of a defender to hammer the ball into the far corner.
We began the second half looking determined to get back into the game, but too many moves were breaking down due to some poor passing. After 58 minutes Brian McDermott made a couple of changes, with Byram replacing Peltier and Smith coming on for Varney, so we now had eleven men on the field that some of us would have selected to start with.
But it was the home side who had the next opportunity, as King chested the ball down and hit a fierce volley from outside the box, but thankfully he hit it straight at Kenny and our noble custodian was able to beat it away.
As time began to run out we kept pressing for an equaliser, and had a couple of decent shouts for a penalty. The Blackburn defenders were keeping close to Smith to cope with his threat in the air, and at one point he seemed to be pulled down as he tried to get on the end of a cross, but the referee wasn’t having it. And there was an even better shout when Pugh went down after tangling with a defender, which seemed a clear penalty from behind the goal, but evidently not from the view the official would have had.
But the nearest we got to actually scoring was a fierce shot from Austin which was curving away from goal and just about made the side netting. With nine minutes left Poleon came on for the ineffectual Murphy to inject some much needed pace into our attack, but although we forced a number or corners right at the end Blackburn were able to survive the four minutes of injury time to claim the three points.
All very disappointing, though you could say that the Blackburn side had responded to their manager’s call to raise their game in response to our great support, as they put in a determined performance. I was left wondering why they had begun the day in 14th place, but maybe the truth is that in this division there are a lot of teams who are much of a muchness once you get below the top three and it’s going to be very tight in the middle of the table.
But it’s the kind of fixture where we need to pick up points if we’re going to finish is the top six, and on the day we were lacking that little bit of quality we needed to make sure we got a result. Is McDermott going to get the funds he needs in January to guide us into the play-offs?