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Firstly, a new feature for the New Year - "Away Fans" - where supporters of our opponents get a chance to have their say about the big match. Here's what some of the unofficial Barnsley sites have to say about Saturday's game:
*Site: Oakwell Faithful
*URL: http://members.tripod.co.uk/Oakwell_Faithful
* Do you think you're having a good season?
Nope! The loss of key players at the close season, weakened our squad beyond anybody's expectations, including Dave Bassett. We thought we would still be in with a shout this season, but a combination of injuries, suspensions, bad luck and lacklustre performances have seen us slip down the table. Really bad performances kept on coming and high expectations from last year have caused the board to take extreme actions. And now we are managerless!
* Who do you think is your best player(s) ?
Chris Morgan (FB) - Barnsley born and bred, lot of passion, excellent in the air and has a strong tackle.
Neil Shipperley (STRIKER) - Work horse, although seems a bit unfit at the moment after injury.
* Your worst player(s) ?
Robin Van Der Laan - Slow as a snail, clumsy as chuff!
*Your players to watch (youngsters or underrated players) ?
Janni Salli (RB or FB) - New lad from Finland, plays regularly in the Finnish international side.
Corbo (left Midfield) - Uraguay, can work wonders if given room and is our only real flair player.
*Your preferred formation and likely line-up for Saturday's game?
4-4-2
Miller
Salli Chettle(c) Morgan Barker
Appleby Ward Neil Corbo
Sheron Shipperley
Subs:
Sean Mclare, Martin Bullock, Lee Jones (would prefer him upfront rather than Sheron) O'callaghan, Bruce Dyer
*Your best chant ?
Stand up if u hate 'Sheffield'.
*Where do you think Barnsley will finish in Division One this season ?
Mid Table mediocrity.
*How far do you think you can go in the FA Cup?
If we escape total wipeout against u lot, which I very much doubt, then maybe quarter finals at the most. We tend to have decent runs in the FA Cup, like when we beat Man Utd a couple of years ago.
*Prediction for Saturday and Barnsley scorers (if applicable)?
Leeds 4 - Barnsley 1
Scorer: Shipperley.
F.A.Cup 3rd round weekend is always special. The Big Boys enter. The romance. The upsets. The heartbreak. Enduring images of Ronnie Radford's belly as he celebrates in his 2-sizes-too-small shirt, Peterborough away - Rochdale whites smashing up the pub in Stamford, The Centenary cup final...Jones - McNab only half stopping him - CLARKE ! ONE NIL ! It makes the hairs on the palms of your hand stand up.
There's a very, very dull theory going about that says that in a year ending in "1" Tottenham always win the FA Cup. Chaz and Dave dust off the banjos.Well I have my own theory - In years ending in "972" Leeds always win the Cup. So in 971 years time, in front of 8 billion fans in the all-new levitating stadium on the Moon, Leeds will win the famous trophy again. Judging by the way we played against Barnsley today that prediction seems about right. Leeds fans doing the conga in the Sea of Tranquility.
But hey ! we won so who gives a fcuk ? O'Leary wielded the axe on his pet favourite Gary Kelly. Long overdue. Bakke came back into the side along with Smith at the expense of Wilcox and the cheeky chappy Bowyer. Astonishingly DOL opted for the tried and failed 4-3-3 system.
The system, not surprisingly did not work very well. Barnsley , to put it mildly, are dog shit. Leeds' multi-zillion pound stars must surely put the South Yorkshiremen to the sword. I turned to the man next to me (who happened to be my father) and suggested "We should murder this lot - they haven't even got a manager." "Neither have we!" - he replied. The truth sometimes hurts. At least we can laugh about it.
Leeds had 3 good spells in the game. The first lasted 15 minutes at the start of the game. During this time Leeds camped in the Barnsley half and as expected the first goal arrived. Bakke capitalised on a Barnsley defensive blunder of G.Kelly proportions and the Noggie slipped the ball across to Pork Pie who side footed into an empty net from 12 yards. Simple. The 5000 Barnsley fans looked reet glum.
Keane could have put Leeds 2 up with a fine break into the box but his deft chip went inches over. It was all Leeds. Briefly. We had to wait until 5 minutes before half time before Leeds had their next good spell. We didn't score in this time. In between Barnsley grew in confidence. They played the ball about quite well considering how out of their depth they appeared to be. With only 3 in midfield it means Batty and Dacourt have to firefight. ie. they run to the nearest player with the ball and harass him. This means nobody plays the holding role in midfield. Barnsley simply put a man in this area and every time they won the ball back they passed it to him and they were off.
Leeds were chasing shite 1st division shadows. Viduka, Smith and Keane stood motionless up the park for long periods with nothing much to do. Recently Gerrard Houlier suggested he'd be mad to play a 3 man attack, implying that its almost a luxury to play 2 upfront when opposition teams pack the midfield. The guy is not stupid.
No changes at half time. As if. 2nd half and Leeds could have killed it when Batty's delightful dinked pass put Vidooks through. The keeper threw a cream doughnut across MV's line of sight which allowed him to smother the distracted Aussie's shot. Barnsley had the better of things. Dyer the 57th sub that the Reds seem to use tantalised the Leeds defence. Last ditch tackles and a string of excellent saves from Robinson denied Barnsley a replay that was easily within their grasp.
At last with 5 mins to go O'Leary balanced up the midfield and Wilcox replaced our best striker Keane (why not Smith or Lard Ass?) Leeds had their 3rd good spell but by this time the visitors had run out of steam. Wilcox got round the back a few times but Leeds failed to add to their paltry tally.
None of this matters though cos Leeds are through to the next round and Barnsley ain't. We got the win we desperately needed but paradoxically I must say that the performance would have knocked our confidence rather than boosted it.
Leeds are a mess. The formation and balance are all wrong, the passing and the movement have evaporated and worst of all the commitment and desire seems to have seeped away. We look like a team that doesn't know what it is doing. The management, or lack of it, needs to be addressed as soon as possible or the Champions League Act 2 Scene 2 may distract us from an undignified relegation scrap. Hey but we won today so let us not moan (too much) ! I remember a comedian a few years back saying "you don't see any white dog shit anymore - when I was a kid every other dog shit was white - in fact the only white dog shit you see nowadays is Leeds United" And in a way he was right.
Scores
Robinson 8 Kicking, handling and shot stopping were comforting. One mistake when he tipped a shot round the post that was already heading for the corner flag !
Mills 6 Made one superb saving tackle. Did OK coming forward. Better than Kelly.
Matteo 4 Crap.
Radebe 6 Passing was awful. Still a good solid defender.
Rio 7 Oooozes class. Delightful passer. Will become a BIG BIG star.
Batty 6.5 Got blood on his boots but had too much to do.
Ollie 7 As above but with an extra bit of skill. Had to play on the left of the midfield 3 and looked uncomfortable with it. Class player though.
Bakke 6 Too wasteful at times, but set up the goal and had a couple of good efforts.
Smith 4 Started superbly but ended up like a ghost.
Viduka 5 Easy tap in. Poor service to him.
Keane 6 Good with the ball, didn't see enough of it.
Subs:
Wilcox (for Keane)
I know we won today BUT why do we play 3 up front ? It doesn't provide us with more chances - it means the midfield are all over the shop and we cant ever get right on top of teams. WHY ????
There is no escaping the fact that a half decent 1st division side, let alone an average Premier one, would have beaten us today. With 4-4-2 we'd have more likely won the 3 or 4 nil that most people around me were predicting before hand.
Before anyone accuses me of excessive moaning then the fact that Barnsley left the field to a standing ovation from their fans and Leeds didn't says it all. We are either shite or we are moaners, or more likely - we are both. :-) Only 27,000 Leeds fans turned up for this cut-priced game. O'Leary you've spoilt us.
Reporter: Stotty
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