Good Morning, With just over a week until Christmas things are starting to look rosy at Elland Rd., Another 3 points at the weekend against in form Ipswich, and another goal from Paul Green. Is he the buy of the season, or is it Diouff Those that went to the game on Saturday, is the atmosphere at ER improving, and did we deserve to win? Chelsea do not arrive back in the UK until this afternoon, which means they would not train until Tuesday if at all. They might at well travel straight to Leeds.... It would still be one hell of a task to beat there reserves with the likes of Sturridge, Mata etc, agree? After Chelsea, we have a home match v Boro, then on Boxing day we travel to Forest, and then on the 29th make the short trip to Hull. We are 4 points adrift of the play offs with 9 points to play for during the rest of 2012. Can we realistically make it to the play offs by the end of the year. How many points can we collect from these 3 games? If this is not enough pressure, we are due to complete the takeover, this Friday.... Our top scorers of the season, so far. Thoughts? [TABLE="class: team-top-scorers-list, width: 624"] [TR="class: odd rank-1"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Luciano Becchio[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]12[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]2[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]14[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: even rank-2, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]2[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]El-Hadji Diouf[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]4[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: odd rank-2"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]2[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Michael Tonge[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]4[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: even rank-3, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]3[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Rodolph Austin[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]2[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: odd rank-3"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]3[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Paul Green[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]3[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: even rank-3, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]3[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]David Norris[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]2[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: odd rank-4"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]4[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Samuel Byram[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: even rank-4, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]4[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Tom Lees[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: odd rank-4"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]4[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Ross McCormack[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: even rank-5, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]5[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Michael Brown[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: odd rank-5"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]5[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Andy Gray[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: even rank-5, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]5[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Dominic Poleon[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: odd rank-5"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]5[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Jerome Thomas[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: even rank-5, bgcolor: #DCDCDC"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]5[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Luke Varney[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: odd rank-5"] [TD="class: rank, align: center"]5[/TD] [TD="class: player-name"]Aidan White[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]1[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: competition, align: center"]0[/TD] [TD="class: goal-count last, align: center"]1[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
Well another welcome 3-points which makes 12 from 15 recently and good top 6 form. We're still 4-points outside the zone though, so forgetting the Chelsea match I would love to see us beat Midds, Forest and smash Hull which would deffo put us into the top 6. This should followed by a couple of top signings and then we go the rest of the season unbeaten giving us auto. Then I wake up and find the nightmare continues, as the takeover fails on Friday and we have no cash. No players coming in, more injuries and the season collapses leaving us mid table. 19,000 on Saturday isn't great but is this down to the economy, people spending cash on Xmas or is there still some not bothering until the takeover is done and Bates sliding out of the back door. There will be some who chose the Chelsea match above the Ipswich game, which seems crazy as they can watch Chelsea on telly. Our gates are falling but plenty of teams in our league are seeing an increase, which suggests that it's not just the economy or Xmas.
Morning all - Each week as it comes for me, when I start to look too far ahead we slip up. Nice win and clean sheet on Saturday, same again on Wednesday would do nicely
Morning all. Every week seems to be a crucial week now. Wouldn't worry much about the 19k crowd on Saturday. Traditionally worst days for crowds at games, Xmas shopping and all that plus not a lot has happened to entice the crowds back yet only a load of promises and Bates still writing the ****ty program notes. It's action required from here from GFH, stump up the rest of the cash this week, no more excuses, followed quickly with some proper investment to begin rebuilding and repairing the eight years damage Bates has done. I'm more excited by the Chelsea game than most, it would seem. It's more than 20 years since we've lifted a trophy. A win against Chelsea and we have a really decent chance. Remember four wins in the cup and we've won it. Four wins in the league might not even see us in the playoff positions and regardless of Colin's record re promotions, the playoffs are a lottery anyway. Roll on Wednesday
Morning all Looking at that list it screams out for another striker. But with McCormack back we can only hope he will start scoring again Canât see that we will get anything out of the Chelsea game and therefore should we concentrate on the league.
Morning Doc, have to agree with you about the attendance, there again, Hull had only 16,000, with an in form team (until they meet us again)
Morning Eire, I think we are guaranteed a full house on Wednesday, suppose thats to be expected though...
Morning Norway, Absolutely. I didn't realise just how we have relied on Becchio this season. I know that McCormack has been injured but 2 goals by his standard is not good. Warnock has already come out and said BIG NAME STRIKER in January...
Morning all. The one downside of Chelski losing the World Club Cup & not playing particularly well is that the'll come & take out their frustrations on us. That said, as long as we don't embarass ourselves, I don't much care about the result. Big game of the week is really us v 'Boro on Saturday. If we get our collective fingers out, it's one we can win. But we will need to keep Thomas & Hall fit as well as Diouf & McCormack, if we're to have any chance in the next few games. A 19k crowd on Saturday wasn't great. But it is Cliffmas & Ipswich aren't the biggest club we'll play this season. With over 35k expected for Wednesday, at this time of austerity, no great surprise that crowds are down.
These "boycotters" Will always have an excuse 19 thousand is a joke especially when 37k are going chelsea Atmosphere was **** Saturday
But which game would you rather watch YW, Leeds v a silly team near Norwich with a couple of quite little tractor boys or the European cup holders & 3k of their very vocal fans v the mighty whites & our equally vocal supporters? Some of ours would also have had to carry bags for their beloveds as they go our Cliffmas shopping.
Morning Boggers, Suppose Chelsea don't have much to play for, but if we did meet me, we have a really good change of getting Bradford in the semi's, then who knows...
If we win, get Bradders in the semis (& avoid it going to penalties), we'd only have a few moaning about the cost of travelling to Timisoara or some such place in the early rounds of the Europa League.
Personally, i am looking forward to the Chelsea game, it's on live out here and let the people world wide see the support we have, and we are a team on the mend. Spoke to Jason McAteer out here on the Saturday (he was drinking in the Golf Club) who is working for Aljazeera TV, and he can see a upset if Leeds go at them from the off, just hope he is right.
In the grand scheme of things Chelsea is a sideshow, because the most important thing is league position. A full house on Wednesday will only benefit Bates, and although we have equiped ourselves pretty well over the last 3 seasons playing a against Liverpool in this same cup, with Benitez as manager. We ground them down only to see the likes of Torres and gerrard come on and finally beat us. We played well against Spurs, man utd and Arsenal and we were all proud of what we did. But after we played these teams we went backwards and the players never put in the same performance against our league opposition, as they did against the prem teams. So I dont give a fook about Chelsea and only want to see us perform in the league and get the fook out of this league
Green or Diouf as buy of the season? Just goes to show there is nothing wrong with free transfers when the manager knows what he's doing! Both have been top class this year. On another note, this should hopefully lighten the mood further; [video=youtube;DWsAiGVtPL0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWsAiGVtPL0[/video] We love a bit of Jeff Stelling!
Good point Doc over the loss of form after our cup exploits, but we were under Grayson then, somehow i dont think NW shall allow that, i shall be very surprised if he does, the bottom line is to give a good account of ourselves, and a win shall be a bonus, plus the squad will up the tempo to keep there place for a possible Wembley visit, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, game at a time as they say!
Nothing's been done to entice them back so far, has it? GFH have a month and a half to get the ball rolling before they too are written off, so they'd better get their arses in gear and stop being silent except for the sporadic positive tweet, just because Bates is still fisting them. I'm a returning boycotter and couldn't make it on Saturday since I was travelling, but went to the Palace game and will probably do Boro too, as well as Huddersfield and Wednesday later in the year. But you can't demand an instant return of thousands upon thousands of people who need the club to be the ones making the first move (which, in fairness, it is their job to do). Except when he fails to pronounce Becchio... after every game.
I dont expect the thousands to instantly come back but the attendance is still dropping. consistently under 20k is unheard of for us
