FA Carling Premiership Game 3: Saturday 29 August 1998 Wimbledon 1 - 1 Leeds United (Half-time: 0 - 0) Crowd: 16437 Referee: S Dunn (Bristol)
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Wimbledon Report - John Tomlinson

That said, we should have won, but at this stage I suppose the encouraging performance is almost as important as the points.

Martyn - 8 - Some great saves but seemed to have communication problems now and again with his defence. He doesn't shout enough.

Hiden - 6 - He's not a right back, to be the fair. Looked good coming forward but not in defence.

Harte - 7 - Good performance from him. He must have worked really hard over the summer. The odd error but some good passing, good clearances, good tackles.

Molenaar - 8 - Coped well and looked pretty solid.

Radebe - 8 - By his standards, not a great game. Excellent tackles but a few creaky moments.

Harry - 5 - Very poor game. He seems to believe his own hype - thinks he's a superstar. Did nothing and didn't seem to care.

Haaland - 4 - I think he's been at the whale pies - he looked unfit and uninterested. If he wants to play for Norway again he should start playing at Leeds.

Bowyer - 9 - Excellent, ran hard, tackled, did everything right and justly scored a great goal. My MOTM.

Hopkin - 8 - Excellent, ran hard etc. Really good performance, even though he's not a right winger - him and Bowyer could form a really tight midfield partnership.

Clyde - 5 - The game passed him by, it's too early to criticise but he didn't go and get the ball in the way Jimmy does, he waited for it to be given to him and then did nothing with it.

Jimmy - 9 - Excellent. Really looked class - deserved a goal. Great mazy run for a third of the pitch only to be caught out by a great last man tackle. Great speed. He's not my MOTM only because he should have scored and Bowyer did score.

Wimbledon - 5 - Did well to get a point, hats off for that. Defended with the entire team, so we did well to make as many chances as we did.

Ref - 8 - Some dodgy decisions, but then I've got dodgy eyesight so I'll not judge too harshly. He kept the game flowing, didn't book too many players.

Crowd - Excellent, always is at Selhurst because the away fans outnumber the home fans. Again, I was miles out with my crowd prediction, I'm obviously not cut out for this.

Half Time Entertainment - None.

Wimbledon - Andy King

Jo, my non-football supporting/understanding other half attended her first game this weekend, within 10 minutes she observed that Ian Harte wasn't particularly good (or words to that effect), pumping hopefull high balls into the box, when everyones on ethe edge of the area in space is not a good play she feels ! She's on her way to being converted though, she looks better in my away shirt than I do (which isn't that difficult), and coming out of the ground afterwards she was saying things like, "We should've won..", "We need to sell that number 20", "Who we playing next week.." etc.

Scores

Martyn 7 - little to do, 'cept pick the ball out of the net, screamer of a shot from Hughes that Nigel could do nothing about
Hiden 6 - Seemed to lack the confidence to go forward and or link with Hopkin, but defended well.
Molenaar 7 - Far better game than against Blackburn, seemed to be in the right place at the right time more for this game. (Jos' motm, although as she's a rugby union fan it could be his physique :-))
Radebe 8 - Class perfromance again, although he was beaten for the goal.
Harte 6 - Defensively better than against Bburn, but his forward play was woeful.
Hopkin 5 - Very quiet game, supposed to be on the right, but drifted into the centre of midfield far too often. So many times there was acres of space on the right, with no one in it.
Haaland 7 - Solid midfield grinder
Bowyer 8 - my motm, battled hard, always plays with committment, but again this week he had the skill to go with it.
Kewell 6 - Very quiet again, one or two neat touches and runs but nothing too special
Hasselbaink 7 - Plenty of opportunity, needs a few days finishing practice
Wijnhard 6 - Until Clyde fully settles into the premiership style, I don't think we can expect fireworks, although he seems to be forging a powerful partnership with Jimmy, and quickly getting the hang of the physical side of the game, put himself about far more this week.

Our Crowd 9 - Vocal, fairly noisy, although a fair few grumbles during the last 10 minutes.
Their Crowd 1 - Gone to the coast for the weekend I think.

The Ref 1 - Biased, crap, inconsistent, even knocekd Alfie over.

Wimbledon and the god-like genius of Michael Nyman - Jan Miloszewski

Martyn - 7 - not a lot to do. no chance with the goal.
Harte - 7 - looking better with every game. wonders will never cease.
Hiden - 7 - more than adequate cover for Kelly but still not as good coming forward.
Radebe - 8 - our best player yet again. received an award.
Molenaar - 7 - better than usual defensively but missed a couple of chances from corners which Wetherall would have buried. had a furious argument with Hopkin in the second half which almost came to blows.
Kewell - 4 - even worse than against Blackburn. let's have Sharpe please.
Bowyer - 8 - was everywhere. scored.
Hopkin - 7 - surprisingly competent and very committed. playing for his place obviously. shouted a lot and seems to still think he's captain.
Haaland - 4 - largely anonymous.
Wijnhard - 7 - still not the finished article but looks promising.
Hasselbaink - 6 - should have had a hat trick. very busy but left his scoring boots at home.

Satdi Ruminations - Dave Woolmer

Got to the pub hideously late, and grotesquely hung-over. Sorry for extreme lack of socialisation, but I was struggling to stand, let alone speak....

Sat in Main Stand next to dickhead from hell (sorry for offensive language list kiddies).

General observations....

Wimbledon fans - make matches at LOTG sound like deafening cacophonies of noise in comparison. Not a whimper all match, except for when they equalised, when they sang "you're not singing any more" without a hint of irony. Sitting amongst them, they all seemed like more money than sense prats.

Leeds fans - great most of the time, but why does all that great pro-Leeds singing have to be ruined by "Shoot the Chelsea scum" - it does make us sound like 80's throwbacks (is this a good thing? discuss....).

Individual performances

Nige - actually worried me. The very little he had to do, he did pretty edgily, and seemed nervous of oncoming strikers at crosses (memories of last day of last season??....)

Hiden & Harte - Hiden was the better, but both seemed too reticent to really commit forward. This started a domino effect which went thus.... Harte & Hiden stay back, thus midfielders have to all the work to create crossing positions, thus when the cross is delivered no-one is actually there in sufficient numbers in the box to threaten. The fact that Alfie moved at just under 1/2 mph didn't help of course.

When we actually showed a willingness to push bodies forward we looked pretty menacing, but that was too rarely against a god-awful Wimbledon team.

Big Bob & Lucas - match that suited Molenaar. One or two more slips than usual by Lucas, but he still stands out head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch as a class act.

Haaland - crap. Didn't run, didn't do a lot really.

Bowyer & Hoppy - both put the effort in, with Bowyer being the classier version. Hoppy showed occasionally good moments of linking with Hiden, but they need to do it far more.

Harry - oh dear. How to be a winger the Harry way - run pretty fast at a defender, and expect the ball to beat him. Result - bloke tackles you.

Time and time again Harry just ran at defenders, with no ball tricks or movement to deceive him. Pace is a great asset, but you need to actually make the ball do something to beat decent defenders. Plus, he can't be arsed for 65 minutes a match.

Jimmy & Clyde - I thought their finishing was woeful. Either taking too long, or hitting shots too close to Sullivan, making him look far better than he is. On the plus side, I really think Clyde looks a good all round player, and I am confident that if he can get a couple of goals under the proverbial, then these 2 will blossom together.

Overall, pretty decent, but certainly not title-challenging. Bring in Bruno for Alfie, Kick Kewell up the arse, and consider giving Sharpey a run down the right to make us more incisive.

Hi's and Lo's - Bob Case

HIGHLIGHTS:
- Bowyers Goal
- Bowyers performance
- Atmosphere in Leeds end, especially first half hour
- top notch Hot Dog and dried onions, absolutely storming. A Hot Dog might never rival a Pie, but this was the best attempt yet

n DOWNERS:
- finally getting past a superb Sullivan only to let them equalise soon after
- 100% price hike. Still, managed to get back in the Leeds enclosure after being forced the long way round due to absence of pass
- Harry Kewell. How can the wonder boy have fallen so? Let's hope this is a very short lean spell for him.

ALTERNATIVE ENTERTAINMENT - trying to spot Cadd in the executive boxes, but we had no chance as he must have had his face in the sandwich trolley/free bar for the whole 90 minutes

APPROPRIATE SONG FOR THE DAY (well, Raffe sang it if no one else did): "I Love Lee Bow-yer
You know he's quite all right.

I love Lee Bow-yer
'cos the rest are shite.

I love Lee Bow-yer,
He's the only one
Who ever scores"

A bit unfair on the rest of the team but Bowyer had to be man of the match. I think some reports are being harsh on JFH - I thought he had a great game and created a lot of chances. None went in, but you get days like that, especially when you get a 'keeper having the sort of day Sullivan was having. To JFH's great credit, he didn't allow the misses to dampen his enthusiasm, running and enterprise - if he keeps going like that, here won't be many days when he fails to score.

Kinnear finds new grounds for complaint - Adam Sills

Wimbledon remain unbeatable on the pitch but the tenants are restless and the sweetest victory for Joe Kinnear would be to scratch away their seven-year itch of ground-sharing with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

A hard-fought draw against Leeds United on Saturday did little to quell the Wimbledon manager's frustration at the lack of help from Merton Borough Council to re-house his team.

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