FA Carling Premiership Game 32: Saturday 04 April 1998 Leeds United 2 - 1 Barnsley (Half-time: 1 - 1) Crowd: 37749 Referee: K W Burge (Tonypandy)
« West Ham United		Chelsea »

vs Barnsley - Nick Allen

As for the footy, well as times everybody struggled with the driving rain and the wet ground, so there were lots of mistakes, miskicks etc - it would have been the perfect game for Hopkin, cos he'd have looked just like any other player, might have done his confidence the world of good. We could have had 6 or 7 in the first half alone, Bruno started a one touch move that involved Kelly and a back heel from Jimmy, back to Bruno bursting into the box, and he rolled his shot across goal, past the keeper, but just wide; Harry latched onto a good through ball and hit it first time from just inside the box, forcing a good save from the keeper; the keeper made an almost identical save from Jimmy after a good move down the right. Twice Harry broke down the left and got crosses in to the far post, where Jimmy was unmarked, the first time the ball flashed by him at chest height - Joe Jordan might have thrown himself at it, but hey... - the second time it was handed to Jimmy on a plate, but he managed to slide the ball wide of an empty goal from 4 yards out. hmmm.

To be truthful their defence is awful, whichever way you look at the noble art of defending, they never got tight to their men, the allowed you acres in the penalty box, as shown on MOTD when discussing our first goal - 7 defenders in the box but nobody challenged either Wetherall or Jimmy - there was rarely any cover. But when they did decide to mark someone then they fouled him, constantly pulling, climbing, tripping - its easy to see how they've let in loads, and had men sent off. Going forward they aren't bad, but their defending is not premier league at all. I liked Bullock, their little midfielder, he showed some good touches, and got stuck in.

GOALS

1-0 ; Bruno's corner from the right, to the back post Wetherall heads back across goal, Jimmy jumps and nods home while falling backwards. Today's celebration, sitting on his arse looking a little sheepish.

1-1 ; Their first real attack, a hoofed cross from almost half way, to the back post, where Hristov is waiting, Molenaar having decided to give up marking the opposition for lent, good first time finish which Martyn could do nothing about.

2-1 ; Harte lashes in a corner from the left, defender Moses, heads it into the roof of the net far better than one of ours could have managed.

In the second half we just battered away with, decreasing intelligence, we missed Bruno after half time - he looked like he picked up a strain just before half time, and McPhail came on for the second half. To be honest young Steve didn't do much apart from passing square to Harte, and miss a good chance from six yards, when he tried to flick over the keeper, but missed the ball. Oh yeah and I nearly forgot Halle missed an absolute sitter too, through on goal 1-on-1 and sort of dribbled it into the keeper's feet. The only other thing of note was the linesman in front of the West Stand was bollocks, both Wilson, and GG got up and told him so, frequently.

POINTS

MARTYN -7- did the things he had to do (voted in the Premier league select XI)
KELLY -7- good game as skipper, played wing back, and covered a lot of ground.
HARTE -7- despite what most others think, I like this guy, his crossing and shooting is good, and his corners were vicious. And he defends well.
MOLENARR -6- When he's Dr Jeckyll he's very very good, and when he's Mr Hyde he's bloody awful. (I hope that he'll be the one dropped for Lucas on wed.)
HIDEN -8- superb, calm, covering challenges. Nothing flash, just good.
WETHERALL -7- The defence is better when he plays, should be captian too.
BOWYER -6- a little over enthusaistic at times, but he keeps it going in there.
BRUNO -7- the pick of the midfield until he went off
(McPHAIL -5- not really on the pace, but I couldn't believe that some mindless twats behind us have started grumbling about him already)
HALLE -3- Shite, shite, and once again, shite.
HARRY -8- flying, Barnsley couldn't handle him.
JIMMY -8- THAT miss apart, had a great game - he is really crying out for a partner right up there alongside him.

GG - full marks for constant bollocking of linesman.
crowd - 37749 - not bad at all.
pitch - pass the armbands.

We're flying again - Nigel Barber

Not such a bad game, really, given the less-than-ideal conditions. Nick's reported neatly encapsulated the action, so I'll just discuss a couple of things he overlooked:

- Molenaar's attempt to lob Watson from about nine miles out, which went wide (but I'm not sure by how much from my angle).

- A great demonstration of our team spirit: Jimmy broke at pace down the right flank with Bowyer steaming unmarked through the middle - a square ball would almost certainly have put him through on goal, but Jimmy greedily elected for the shot, which resulted only in a corner. Young Lee was obviously disappointed, but rather than exchanging fuck offs (or fack orfs in LB's case), Jimmy was totally contrite and gave Bowyer a placatory pat on the head as they embraced (I've got a stop here, I think I'm going to cry .....). I was impressed, anyway.

And as for yer scores on yer actual doors:

Martyn, 7: A generally fault-free display, although I must admit to feeling "Blind John panic" at the moment when the ball goes near him. It'll pass.

Kelly, 7: Still not 100% convincing in the wing back role, but solid nonetheless.

Wetherall, 7: Fine, apart from when he was tempted to try passing the ball more that say, oooh, five yards.

Molenaar, 7: Rock solid, with fine distribution. Sadly, his one mistake of the day was punished.

Hiden, 7: Steady and unspectacular with some finely timed tackling, just like a defender should be.

Harte, 7: Why is he attracting so much criticism? He is improving with every game he plays and his distribution is generally very good. What pathetically short memories we have: he's a class apart from Robertson. What's more, he is arguably the best corner taker we have.

Halle, 5: Ponderous and looked a bit lost. When he had his one-on-one with Watson, I told my mate he'd miss it without a second's hesitation.

Bowyer, 7: Great pace, tireless running and a fine eye for an opening. Watch and learn, Hopkin.

Ribeiro, 7: Played some quality balls, but seemed to lack a bit of drive, probably as the result of the injury which forced him off at half time.

McPhail, 6: Good, accurate passing, but needs to readjust to the pace and aggression of first-team football (as GG said, he needs to forget about youth football and concentrate on the man's game). Worryingly, he does seem to lack real pace.

Kewell, 8: How we missed young 'arold against the Spammers. Here is a young player who can not only run with the ball at pace, but has the footballing intelligence and awareness to pick out his team mates with fine balls. Watch and learn, Wallace.

Jimmy, 7: Great strength and pace, but, like the rest of the team, he had left his shooting boots at Stanstead. That open goal miss was positively Deano-esque.

So, all-in-all a competent display let down by some wayward finishing and a single defensive lapse. We'll certainly have to raise our game a couple of notches at least against Chelsea. Let's hope the guests of honour can give us a bit of inspiration.

1 team in Yorkshire - Dave Woolmer

Day started disconcertingly, bumping into Maggie at the train station - the baby didn't stop crying all day after seeing you Maggie....

Sat in the West Stand with me mum - irritating pissed Scottish bloke from Inverness yelled incoherently behind us for most the match - and here was me thinking Betty sat in the kop.

Nick Allen summarised the game pretty nicely. Only points I'd disagree on are...

Papers raved about Watson's keeping, but I thought all his saves were pretty simple. The trouble was we kept hitting shots that were easy to save and made him look good. Kewell and Jimmy kept hitting their hots just to the side of him at a comfortable height - just right for simple, yet dramatic, tips around the post.

It can't be stressed enough how crap Halle is. His pathetic effort when clean through 1 on 1 summed him up. He never looked as if he believed he would score, and his effort was woeful.

It's almost scary how utterly dependant we are on a 19 year old for all our attacking creativity. Our only other source was Bruno and Kelly.

Still like the look of McPhail, but he needs to learn that he can't slow the pace of the match down to what he wants (as he kept trying to do), when there are 21 other people rampaging around kicking anything going. Terrible miss from 6 yards, but at least he was putting himself in the position in the first place.

Bowyer is all-action man again, but he still desperately needs to learn how to control a ball with his first touch.

Molenaar to blame for the goal (again). Not that I've been saying we should pick Wethers ahead of him all along or anything..... Lucas for Molenaar.

No half-time shoot-out because "the groundsman has decided it would be too dangerous in the slippy conditions". Bollox. Cheap sods.

Final point, amidst all the criticism of refs there has been this season. I really feel the greater problem has been the atrocious performances of the linesmen (Sod this new-speak assistant ref rubbish). In many situations they can actually have a bigger bearing on the result than the ref through poor off-side decisions, yet they seem to be untterly inept on many occassions. There was one occassion, late on, where Jimmy was being mugged by their centre-back right in the view of the linesman - no decision. Jimmy tries to push his way towards the ball - waves for free-kick to them. Crap. Persistently wrong in eveery decision he gave.

Overall - fluky winner, but absolutely deserved victory. Excellent results elsewhere, and Derby play West Ham on Satdi, so if they draw with each other, we're well on the way.

It was wholly Moses' fault - Paul Wilson

Both these clubs have had biblical weeks, Leeds with their near-death experience on Monday and Barnsley with their plague of red cards a couple of days earlier, so it was no great surprise to see Moses provide the winning goal. Sadly for the visitors, defender Adrian plays for Barnsley, who barely deserved this latest injustice.

Leeds were just about worth the points, but no one in a white shirt appeared to have a clue where the net was. The home side had enough chances to wrap up the game before half-time, but after taking an early lead they were in danger of coming down to earth with another bump before Moses came to their rescue.

© Guardian Media Group plc