‘My real name’s Jason.’
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Three of my least favourite things in life, South Yorkshire Police, train franchises and Dirty Leeds all came together in a beautiful late summer Sunday at t’well. Firstly, SYP. The fixtures come out, the Londontykes give it 3 weeks for Sky to announce their fixtures…we buy our train tickets…and the very next day SYP switches Dirty Leeds to a Sunday. Some rubbish about lacking the resources to police both the St. Ledger and a football match at the same time. Fine – re-schedule the football. But why wait 3 weeks? The date of the St. Ledger is more or less cast in stone; SYP could have moved this fixture to Sunday in JUNE when they were first announced. So there was £30 down the drain (actually, £210 of rail tickets, there were 7 of us). Also, as well as SYP’s ability to write themselves a blank cheque with regards to football policing (the Sheffield derby was Britain’s most expensive game to police last year, outstripping Rangers-Celtic, Man U-Liverpool, etc), they also get to tell us we can only sell 4,200 tickets to away fans. There’s 1,800 potential £39s we’ve missed out on. (I don’t know how much we robbed Leeds today; presumably what they’re robbing us of later this season.) Oh, and after a pint in the Old #7 after the game, I got the train back…which was full of Washday coming back from Huddersfield. Superb timing all round. And SSW had scored (tw*t).
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| Redfearn's new location...the Fanzone. |
Rail companies. How do we, the gullible public, allow them to get away with it? Tickets bought a considerable time in advance are all either non or part-refundable. With the fees charged for changing our tickets, it wasn’t worth doing. Criminal. So 3 of the boys faced driving up early Sunday (one of whom looked very ill after a Quireboys gig; was it the music?), a couple didn’t make it at all, Loko arranged to be up in Yorkshire….and I took advantage of one of the tickets to go up Saturday (returning to London in style on a Megabus). Can’t the government do something about this? Oh, they’re busy with something else…
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| The teams line up. |
Dirty Leeds. They came, they saw, they beat us. Ba5tards. In brief, a very decent performance from us saw us lose to a free kick and a (debatable) penalty. But DL look a quality side (in this division). Attacking at pace, they destroyed our fullbacks time and time again (not that Cavare was ever there; a give and go and he was lost.) There were some tremendous individual performances from the boys in red, but Leeds’ rapier attacks down the flanks were always going to cost us. So it was such a shame to concede on our own mistake…
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| Dirty Leeds score...and still their fans manage to have a fight. |
Another away attack was half-cleared to (Magic) Mamadou. He’s facing our goal and ‘controls’ the ball 10 yards, losing possession and fouling their player on the apex of the box. Brilliant. Still, it’s nice to see a substitute make his mark. It’s ok tho – as long as Leeds punt it into the middle, our centre halves will do what they’ve done all day long, power it away. The danger was if the ball was put elsewhere; a bit of movement and DL would be in, as they were at the end of the 1st half, when they lost our man at the front post, flicked it on, and a geezer at the backpost cannoned it off the post when he should have done better. Yes, we’re ok as long as the opposition don’t move. They did. Ball to back post, tap-in, 0-1. Dunno who lost his man, but Sibbick appeared closest.
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| Those Dirty Leeds in full. |
So we had 7 mins plus injury time to get back in, and fair dues, we went straight down the right wing with a promising attack. Story of the match, really, the game going one way then the other, with Leeds looking likeliest. But we had our moments. Wilks surged from the halfway line, stripped 2 players for pace and ended up clean through on the keeper from an angle, the effort smothered. We had a couple of free headers from corners (missed) and Cauley had a long-ranger tipped around the post. We certainly deserved a goal from our efforts.
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| Match action in front of the Ponty. |
Then, the most controversial, I think at 0-1. A scramble from a corner and we turn it goalwards. The keeper twists and turns and pulls off an amazing save. Linesman tho calls it offside – photos I’ve seen appear to prove otherwise. Earlier in the second half, they gave it to us in their half, the keeper was 12 yards off his line…but Wilks elected to run in and blast it into the sidenetting; intelligence and vision and the lob was on. Still, the best chance of all fell to us early in the match, Thomas, clean through, put the ball too close to the keeper from 10 yards. If only these chances had fallen to Cauley…
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| Media darling Bielsa...and his bucket. |
This is obviously to ignore all of their chances. And as we piled men forward, they hit us on the break again, a ball through ending with their bloke falling to the floor. The away fans appeal. The ref looks at it. The ref looks at it some more. The linesman gives nothing. So the ref eventually points to the spot. The crushing inevitability of it all. It didn’t matter that it looked like there was no contact; the Dirty Leeds fella had gone down. But that delay. What does he think it is? Cricket? Halme, given out (LBW). The penalty is calmly stroked low into the bottom corner while Collins goes the other way. 0-2 in the 90th minute, our ‘loyal’ fans stream to the exits. Embarrassing.
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| Loyal to the end...fans stream out. |
So, it was all about what-might-have-beens, but make no mistake, we lost to a good team. Leeds’ pace on the counter is frightening and they could have had 4 or 5 were it not for a mixture of good goalkeeping, good defending (in the centre) and good fortune. But all was to come to nought, thanks to one bit of ‘magic’ from Mamadou. Dammit.
*** Halme. Stood out at centre half, winning everything, finding players with passes.
** Sibbick. Outstanding 1st half, winning tackle after tackle, breaking up away attacks, and having the coolness and composure to look up and find his man (even when in his own box). A bit quieter 2nd half, possibly cos of the cheap booking he received – their guy cut inside him on the halfway line and he tripped him. If that’s a booking, I’d love the ref to explain why their right winger avoided being carded with his fouls.
* Collins. Safe hands on crosses, safe feet on kicking and a couple of excellent saves, including a one-on-one.
Londontykes' MOTM: 1. Sibbick 2. Halme 3. Brown
Oh well - onwards and upwards!
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| The pen awaits despatch. |
Dmitri Cavare. My God. From being MOTM at Wigan, he was ABYSMAL today. I appreciate Leeds are pacey, but if all you have to do is play a one-two and run past him…Christ. That’s when he wasn’t simply stood still while a ball gets played behind him. One of the worst fullback performances I’ve EVER seen. Course, with Jordan Williams back, we could play him – and we do, at LEFT back. He had similar problems, but at least didn’t give the ball away as much as Cavare (I forgot to mention that. His distribution was bloody awful too.) How does this make Penniless feel? 3rd choice left back to Ben Williams and a right back. Though he was brought on later, to save Jordan further pain. Mads was excellent at centre half, but he had to be. In midfield, the big story was the return of Jacob Brown, and he too was outstanding in the 1st half before tiring and being subbed. Mowatt played well, generally finding his own man, while Wilks impressed me too. Maybe a point to prove against his previous employers? Let’s hope it’s the start of something, cos he was poor at Wigan and I’ve not heard anyone say anything positive about him yet. Thomas allegedly played, but I never saw him. Did anyone? Brought off for Thiam. That worked. Woodrow put the hard yards in, held it up and was always looking for the shot, but, really, he needs some support. Subs Penniless and Bahre made no difference. Indeed, it was still scoreless till our subs came on – and their sub, Eddie Nketiah of Arsenal.
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| One advantage of limiting the seating...DL can put their flags out. |
What do I think of our chances this season? It’s a difficult one. We played well at Wigan (0-0) and well today (0-2). But poor teams do play well (and lose). If I was a betting man, I’d say we’re in big, big trouble. We have one centre forward and not one with a track record of completing a season. Also, cheers to Nozzer for putting me up (putting up with me?) We had a pootle into the countryside Satdy, to see Penistone Church (FC – I’m not going anywhere to see a church!) Entertaining it was too, 2-1 v Goole, the woodwork hit 3 times and a fat balding centre forward scoring a goal. If he’s a footballer, I’m not retiring yet.
We went down early to Oakwell, and it was great to sample the fanzone. Well done to Hicksy, Gally, Loko, et al. Possibly not too busy this week due to the early start, but I wasn’t complaining – we could get served!
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| The view from inside the Fanzone. |
Drink du jour: Punk IPA at the Fanzone. The advantage of it being run by lads who actually know summat about beer.
Away: 4,200. They were a bit subdued compared to norm as well. Good.
The Damage:
£30 train
£6.53 Megabus
£3 programme
£45 3rd shirt
£45 away shirt
£10 home socks
= £139.53 (!!)
The Tunes:
Ma’at Mama (Ursula Rucker)
Supa Sister (Ursula Rucker)
Silver or Lead (Ursula Rucker)
Barbed Wire Kisses (Jesus and Mary Chain)
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| East Stand panorama v Dirty Leeds |
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| Ponty panorama v Dirty Leeds (cheers Jonesy) |
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| One of the Redfearns team in his new anti-fascist Clapton CCFC shirt |
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