we are 1 point off the playoffs,we beat the league's form team,we did play well,and in the last 3 years have won promotion and held our own in the Championship finishing above many teams that have spent way more than us.
- The volley - O'Dea's header which hit the bar - Thompson's shot - Nunez's free-kick All good chances. Loads of others which were blocked. We dominated them, and if they were unlucky to get a player sent off, we were unlucky not to score the chances that we came so close to scoring. The result was harsh on us if anything and their goal came from nowhere. Own goal and goalkeeping error, yes. But they were errors which we forced, not Rachubkaesque howlers which let down half-decent performances. Burnley's attack was non-existent and they only looked competent for very fleeting moments. I maintain that O'Dea played well except for a minor error which was punished to great effect. I'm not one of these people who sees faults in every goal that's scored. All defenders are fallible; it's just that other teams' attackers are sometimes quality players, and as much as I think Austin's a prick, that was a quality strike. If we'd scored it, we'd think the opposition lot were pathetic if they put it entirely down to poor defending. Like I say, it was hard to make chances through the middle due to Burnley's crowded, defensive outlook. We therefore spread it wide and peppered their box with balls. That worked in the end, and it was justice that we won. You can produce 'lucky' moments, and I can produce equivalent 'unlucky' ones which balance them out. But that gets us nowhere. - The majority of players put in a good shift - The team had good shape and good balance - The build-up play was good - We pressed well and had a quick tempo - We dominated the game Surely no-one can disagree with that. And those facts can't be representative of a team which has fluked an undeserved win.
I wasn't even that 'lightened' today. I've already discussed that elsewhere, but my gist is that we put in a promising performance today which looks like the passion has come back. All teams in this division have slumps and slides, and we appear to have arrested ours with a dominant display today. You can't expect a pennilessly-assembled team to be consistently good in attack, midfield and defence. Today's performance does bode well for the rest of the games this month which are all winnable. Grayson's doing a good job?? Am I to assume that his 3 years working on our defence is going to produce results at last? I think not. I am down about the state this club's in, and I hope Ken Bates dies soon and Leeds can move forwards when his regime of bullshit is ended. But the team and Simon Grayson are trying their best despite the constraints and we've turned a corner today whether it was 'lucky' or not. The manager is not the problem at this club. Just because the Chairman's a complete **** doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself when we get three points, play well and put some degenerate Lancastrians in their place. More lightening up juice is in order I feel. Celebrate good times, come on!
At least we finished with a win before the break for the cup. Snodders will be nearly back by the time we play next in a couple of weeks, and we might have a few more new faces by then and be a bit nearer to knowing what sort of team we will have for the run-in. By the sound of it, him and Townsend could run riot if they're both firing. This could be good for Becchio and the other strikers. We're one point off the play-offs and nine off the top, but we're in turmoil if you believe some people. I reckon we're about where we should be given our playing resources compared to others around us.
I wouldn't say clear cut chances. Okay, we did create some, but I still think we lacked creativity a lot with Snodgrass out, and I worry for when we play against 11 men. Saying we dominated against 10 men doesn't really mean anything. I agree those errors were forced. But still late and lucky to get the errors. I really don't rate O'Dea at all. I didn't before he came to Leeds, because I'd seen him at Ipswich, and he's been poor. Too error prone and weak for me. It was a quality strike, but it was down to O'Dea's failure to get the ball out the first time. Everyone played well, apart from O'Dea. The build up play was good. We dominated because we had more players though. I didn't say undeserved. I said unconvincing and lucky. Which is was. It was unconvincing because we failed to create any clear cut chances and our goals were from their errors, whether forced or not. I'm not saying it was a terrible performance, but it wasn't that convincing and based on our performances this season, I don't think anything's changed. I still think we'll finish midtable - and I'll be delighted to be proved wrong.
