2 months ago
Keeping back the kitchen sink - Leeds United 2 Bradford City 1
Leeds United 2 Bradford City 1 - Johnston’s Paint Cup First Round 2008/2009
City proved more than a match for local rivals Leeds in this entertaining JPT clash at Elland Road.
Bradford did much of the early pressing, with Omar Daley’s blistering pace proving a real threat. In one attack he dribbled down the left, cut inside and released a powerful shot that went into the side netting.
But Leeds took the lead via Robinson’s highly controversial penalty. With the ball heading into the box, Paul McClaren was adjudged to have handled by the linesman – a very poor decision right in front of the sizeable City contingent. McClaren clearly chested the ball down quickly having collected the ball from some height, but no contact was made with his hand ( we had a view from only a couple of yards away, nearly at ground level).
But minutes later, City seemed to have levelled. A scramble inside the Leeds box resulted in Colbeck thrashing home from close range, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
With the half drawing to an end, Robinson smashed the City bar with a thunderous effort from 20 yards which was quickly knocked out by Heckingbottom. From the resultant corner, substitute Becchio was disappointingly allowed to head home directly from the cross, with Lee and Conlon seemingly to get in each others way when trying to mark the striker. It was poor defending from a set piece.
Thankfully though, City refused to lie down in the second half. Despite a couple of hairy moments where Leeds went close, including hitting the post from a Richardson effort, City more than held their own. Colbeck and Daley both had excellent games, and they forced a number of second half corners with their good wing play.
And real hope was in the air when a goal was pulled back by Barry Conlon. Daley brilliant weaved his way around the Leeds defence, and cut the ball back to Kyle Nix. His cross cum shot was diverted into the back of the net by Conlon to the jubilation of the Bradford faithful.
At this point, we had Leeds worried. All the play was with the away side, as we tried to force penalties.
But there was an air of disappointment in the air when it became apparent that McCall was not willing to bring on another striker to really force the issue. Tactics from the start were to play Barry Conlon in a lone striker role , with the midfield packed out with five. Surely with 20 minutes to go we could have brought on Boulding (M) or Thorne to add some real threat?
But Stuart only decided to bring on Lee Bullock with 5 minutes to go for Dean Furman (who had a promising full debut) and Micheal Boulding was given 60 seconds to make an impact. Why couldn’t we have really thrown the kitchen sink at Leeds in the final stages to make it interesting? Chances are we might have conceded if it didn’t work out, but at least we would have had more of a chance of levelling things up and forcing penalties which could have lead to a famous victory on enemy territory…
But don’t let those thoughts put a dampener on what was an excellent and very credible City performance. We more than matched the best squad in League One for the full 90 minutes, and really had them under the cosh at one stage. Despite us being 2-0 down at the break, we actually had the better of the play in the first half. And in the second, we made them nervous and really had a good go. It was a night to be proud of the team – and more encouraging signs for the rest of the season.
As we were kept inside the ground for 25 minutes after the final whistle had gone, there was plenty of time for reflection on our start to the season. If we continue playing the way we did in this match, there is no doubt that a top three finish will surely be ours.
The stats show that we have lost two games in a row – but that doesn’t tell the whole story. We battled gamely in both the defeats and have shown real signs that we have the spirit to not lie down in games, which is crucially important.
A trip to Vale Park on Saturday awaits for City – and three points there could really set us on our way to keeping up with the leading pack, with two very winnable home games to follow.
Our last trip to Port Vale resulted in us winning 1-0 with Steve Claridge getting the winner. This time we will be pitting our wits against a Port Vale side with ex City man Lee Sinnott in their managerial hotseat.
Lets hope we can perform on Saturday in the same courageous way we did tonight at Elland Road, and concentrate on get our promotion push back on track.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:52
Play like you did last night and you should soon be back in the higher levels of English football. We need some Yorkshire derbies in the Premiership. Speaking personally I’d drop the ‘we wuz robbed’ thing, we tried it at Elland Road for 40 years and it doesn’t help.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:03
Sitting with my L**ds cousins in the West Stand I really got a perspective of our side. The players who performed well, the decisions that went for aand against City, and the judgment of our team as a whole.
Sitting just behind Stuarts dugout you could see that he was looking relaxed from the offset. I would imagine that the result was of very little priority to him, but rather the performance. I think Stuart was using this game as an exercise to assess the new loanee Furman, and to assess what sort of a role Barry can play when we come up against league 2’s tougher opposition. In short, I can only think Stuart would have been mightily impressed with the performance of the busy Furman, and hopefully convinced that it is never wise to play BC upfront on his own, if at all. Yes he scored but really the ball never stuck with him and the only joy we got was through Colbeck and Daley.
The Leeds fans took an instant dislike to Daley, who clearly fancied himself tonight. He was brimming with confidence and has obviously tuned into the mindset amongst City fans at the moment that he’s our key man. Colbeck was full of fire and as long as he can temper this he will be a league 1 player (hopefully with us) in no time. He is now centreing the ball with aplomb, something we all said was the final piece in the Colbeck jigsaw.
The team is clearly playing with confidence. We have a midfielder in Mclaren who looks comfortable on the ball, demonstrating to the faithful that he is a natural footballer. Furman was exciting. The lad from Rangers really looks like he fancies himself as he moves confidently around the pitch, and well he might. I like the way he’s always looking for the ball and always looking to be a catalyst for the next move, something demonstrated to great effect with our goal.
My only reservation is the quality of Nix. For every goal/assist he creates his games are often littered with mis-placed passes and a knack of being caught in posession. Definately a squad player for me.
At the final whistle I endured a healthy round of ‘friendly banter’ but while the taunts came I basked in the warm glow of knowing we’d held our own against a good 1 side.
So next to Port Vale, and back to the bread and butter. Stuart will be asking for more of the same. Leeds have Crewe at home. I’d like to think their players will view the Railwaymen as a welcome break from the kind of performance we offered up…
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:09
At the end of the game Leeds did look worried but until the Bradford goal there was only one team in it. The game came from a schoolboy mistake by the Leeds defence and that changed the whole game. Until then the stats were showing Leeds with approximately 65% of the play and they were passing the ball around with ease and composure and could easily have scored 2 or 3 more.
So congratulations to Bradford for keeping trying and, when gifted a lifeline, making a game of it at the end. But overall the score line flattered you because, as we have done in our league games this year, we tried to throw it away with our poor defending.
September 3rd, 2008 at 14:42
I don’t know about taking an instant dislike to Daley, we all thought he was bloody amazing! City contributed a lot to an entertaining game and though we had slightly more quality it was only slight and you must surely be in line to come up if you keep playing like that.
We couldn’t understand why you should have had a goal disallowed for offside either, not when we had a player stood on the goal line.
However I thought we deserved our win, just, but it was a very creditable performance on your part.
September 3rd, 2008 at 15:02
Amazing how 2 Leeds fans can come up with such a differing view of the same game! Terry is spot on that the game was close and they probably just deserved to win. But what a cracker of a football match, worth every penny even though we lost the tie.
No point complaining about the penalty decision though as it was a definite handball. We looked straight towards the linesman hoping he’d missed it but he got it spot on, even the otherwise immaculate McLaren didn’t complain.