please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Just before I left home, I saw the news that West Ham were looking for a postponement for the game due to David Gold their co-chairman dying today. Whilst I have every sympathy with his family, I disagreed with the game being postponed. Knowing our fans had travelled from Hawaii, Cornwall and from all over the country and world already, it wasn’t something that should be done. As it was, there was an announcement just before kick-off about his death. On a blustery and wet evening, it wasn’t a good one to come out for but there was a good atmosphere around the ground. Team: Meslier, Cooper, Adams, Gnonto, Summerville, Roca, Aaronson, Rodrigo, Koch, Struijk, Ayling. Subs: Klich for Aaronson (63), Harrison for Summerville (63), Greenwood for Roca (78), Gelhardt for Gnonto (90). Subs not used: Robles, Kristensen, Gyabi, Firpo, Llorente. The score ended a 2-2 draw with Gnonto (scoring his first goal 28) and Rodrigo (70) scoring for Leeds. Attendance: 36,173 with approx. 2,700 West Ham fans. Referee: David Coote. Booked: Rodrigo, Summerville, Cooper, Marsch. Some great play between Gnonto and Summerville once again showed what a good partnership those too will make going forward, when Gnonto smashed the ball into the net in front of the South Stand to give us the lead. West Ham got forward many times and as we cleared the long ball more often than not, it fell to them to attack us again. We did try to play it out of the back a few times which gave us more possession but at times, West Ham looked the stronger of the sides. That said, I thought we’d closed them down more and weren’t so open on the flanks as we had been in previous games. When Meslier came out of goal making a save, West Ham lobbed the ball back in but luckily it went over the bar hitting the top of the net. We managed to put some pressure on West Ham but once again that curse of half-time looming took over. As West Ham came steaming forwards, this time great spaces appearing on both sides of the pitch, the referee played on when a tackle was made in the area by Struijk, and West Ham then shot wide. As he signalled a goal kick, the West Ham players started appealing for a penalty which was given after VAR intervention and duly scored from it. That stunned the Leeds crowd into silence as the rug was pulled out from underneath us once again. As the teams came out for the second half, within a minute West Ham had taken the lead after a poor pass from Aaronson saw West Ham take the ball forward and hit a shot that went in off the post. Things didn’t go so well for Leeds then as they came under a lot of pressure and some agitation coming from the crowd. Summerville let his frustration get the better of him when he was blocked but the referee gave nothing. He went hard in for the ball on the touchline, taking the player with him and ended up with a booking. Marsch then went to the subs bench, and I knew he was going off. As soon as both Klich and Harrison came on that gave Leeds a spark back into their play as they started to grow and put pressure on West Ham. Some direct play down the middle saw Adams pass the ball to Harrison who evaded a tackle before putting a great ball through for Rodrigo. He touched the ball to the left before hitting it into the back of the net to equalise. Leeds started to get on top then as Cooper with a great header from a Greenwood corner, saw it cleared off the line. Then a Leeds free kick headed on from Cooper saw Rodrigo’s header bring a great save out of their keeper. As some fans were saying it was two points dropped today, the positive is that one point is better than none. The referee wasn’t very good today as the number of times West Ham were able to move 10 yards (a slight exaggeration), further up the pitch at throw ins without him pulling them up was astounding. When Leeds tried, they were pulled back and had to take the throw in again. It felt like he’d booked half of our team at one time too but that was probably because there were a couple one after the other. As the team were going around the pitch at the end, it became apparent very quickly that Klich was going to be leaving the club by the body language of his teammates and all the hugs he was getting. The fans still left in the stadium gave him the send off he deserved with ‘Klich is scoring goals’ and ‘you’re Leeds and you know you are’ ringing out. Klich was in tears, and it was very emotional watching this happen, and I ended up in tears too as another part of the team under Bielsa leaves. As they were going off the pitch Klich t-shirts were handed out to the rest of the team as Klich went down the guard of honour to the tunnel. Thanks for everything and good luck, you will be a big miss to the team but as you say, you want to play football and not be on the bench. I know we have just signed Max Wöber from RB Salzburg who can possibly play at left back or defence, but our squad depth is weakened which I didn’t want to see. Sunday sees the very early start to head to Cardiff for the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. This is a competition I hold dearly as my favourite ever game was being at Wembley in 1972 to see us win the FA Cup for the only time in our history. I said to my sister that I wanted to see Leeds win the FA Cup once again in my lifetime. Never say never, see you there, LUFC – Marching on Together! please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
You wasn't the only one that noticed west ham constantly stealing 10 or so yards Hedi, Marsch was going nuts about it
