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Tuesday 30 January 2018

Hull City v Leeds Utd. 30th Jan 2018.

After a week in the sun Leeds resumed their Championship campaign at a distinctly chilly KCOM Stadium and thus begging the question would their warm weather sojourn to Spain prove to be an advantage on a freezing Tuesday night at Hull?  Over 2,000 travelling fans were about to find out.  First things first though who would be in a team ravaged by injuries and self inflicted suspensions?  Shaughnessy at centre back with Pennington now injured was the first shock and looking on the bench to find young Pearce and Vieira's brother emphasised how threadbare the squad is.......unlike the bulging U23 squad and that team in the Spanish 2nd Division.  Still we were playing a Hull side desperately struggling to stay out of the relegation quagmire.  What could possibly go wrong?

The bizarre rave like light show in the stadium that greeted the players as they walked out was met with justifiable derision from the Leeds faithful.  The pyrotechnics, co-ordinated music and lights are just about acceptable at a Cup Final but definitely not on a cold night in Humberside.  The game's gone mad.  The teams lined up with Forshaw making his Leeds debut and we were soon underway.  Now as regular readers know I tend to tell it as it is so rather than bore you with the minute details of the first half I will just say it consisted of 45 minutes of excruciating football from both sides.  Both teams were extremely lucky to get to half time with nil to their name.  It was shocking.  Add to that Shaughnessy getting injured as Campbell ghosted past him in the 6th minute and you get the picture.  Berardi went to centre half with Dallas going to right back.  HT 0.0.

Forshaw and Wiedwald were the only Leeds players who showed any sort of form in the first 45 minutes as the whites struggled to put more than a couple of passes together when they had the ball and stood off their opponents when they didn't.  Hull's very direct tactics caused Leeds a lot of pain.  It's a good job they can't finish I mused.  The Urinal philosophers were suicidal.  "We're light years away from a top six side" grumbled one fan whilst another thought "what the fuck is up with Vieira? He's always giving the ball away"  Mmmm there was a distinct lack of positiveness about the opening 45 minutes.  Would it change in the 2nd period?

The quality or lack of it continued in the 2nd half with at times farcical periods of play with each team heading or booting the ball to each other reminiscent of a Sunday League game where both teams had been on a stag do on the Saturday night.  Dicko got the prize for the most unbelievable piece of skill as he somehow headed the ball over the Leeds bar from about a yard out with the goal gaping wide in front of him.  The game had now become embarrassing as the quality decreased as each minute passed by.  For the record Leeds finished with not one shot on target but both Lasogga and Alioski did go near with decent shots.  Sacko came on for the last 10 minutes whilst Hull built up a head of steam to try and snatch a winner.  In truth neither team deserved anything from the game and it ended 0:0.  Pontus picked up his 9th yellow card putting him within one card of getting a ban which he almost certainly will get against Cardiff.

With the exception of Forshaw, Wiedwald and De Bock Leeds were dire.  Even Wiedwald went walkabout midway through the 2nd half as he tried to clear the ball and ended up sort of dribbling past the Hull strikers.  Although the point moved us within 4 points of the play offs we are a million miles away from promotion form.  There is a lack of confidence in the team when they're on the ball at present.  News that Tyler Roberts is about to join from WBA didn't exactly brighten the mood after the game.  Not the quality of striker we yearn for at this moment in time.

Cardiff up next on Saturday.  When Mr Warnock sees the video of this game he will be salivating at the prospect of his strong-arm tactics punishing Leeds at Elland Road.  The good ship Leeds United is in a storm and heading for the Bermuda triangle of mid table oblivion for this season unless there is a drastic change in fortune/form/personnel I'm afraid.  Roll on Saturday. I might take my boots I could get a game!

Can't wait.

MOT

2 comments:

Andy P said...

Oh dear. The short report seems to have included all the high points of the game. Nice to hear that Forshaw and De Bock are worth a mention for their contribution. Thanks Andrew. MOT.

Leeds watcher since 65 said...

Sounds awful, pretty much as Adam and Noel described it. If your feeling pessimistic we really should start to worry. MOT

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