F.A.Cup 3rd round weekend is always special. The Big Boys enter. The
romance. The upsets. The heartbreak. Enduring images of Ronnie Radford's
belly as he celebrates in his 2-sizes-too-small shirt, Peterborough away
- Rochdale whites smashing up the pub in Stamford, The Centenary cup
final...Jones - McNab only half stopping him - CLARKE ! ONE NIL !

It makes the hairs on the palms of your hand stand up.

There's a very, very dull theory going about that says that in a year
ending in "1" Tottenham always win the FA Cup. Chaz and Dave dust off
the banjos.

Well I have my own theory - In years ending in "972" Leeds always win
the Cup.

So in 971 years time, in front of 8 billion fans in the all-new
levitating stadium on the Moon, Leeds will win the famous trophy again.

Judging by the way we played against Barnsley today that prediction
seems about right. Leeds fans doing the conga in the Sea of Tranquility.

But hey ! we won so who gives a fcuk ?

O'Leary wielded the axe on his pet favourite Gary Kelly. Long overdue.
Bakke came back into the side along with Smith at the expense of Wilcox
and the cheeky chappy Bowyer.

Astonishingly DOL opted for the tried and failed 4-3-3 system.

Robbo
Mills Rio Rads Matteo
Bakke Batty Ollie
Keane Belly Smith

The system, not surprisingly did not work very well.

Barnsley , to put it mildly, are dog shit. Leeds' multi-zillion pound
stars must surely put the South Yorkshiremen to the sword.

I turned to the man next to me (who happened to be my father) and
suggested "We should murder this lot - they haven't even got a manager"

"Neither have we" - he replied.

The truth sometimes hurts. At least we can laugh about it.

Leeds had 3 good spells in the game. The first lasted 15 minutes at the
start of the game. During this time Leeds camped in the Barnsley half
and as expected the first goal arrived. Bakke capitalised on a Barnsley
defensive blunder of G.Kelly proportions and the Noggie slipped the ball
across to Pork Pie who side footed into an empty net from 12 yards.
Simple.

The 5000 Barnsley fans looked reet glum.

Keane could have put Leeds 2 up with a fine break into the box but his
deft chip went inches over. It was all Leeds. Briefly.

We had to wait until 5 minutes before half time before Leeds had their
next good spell. We didn't score in this time.

In between Barnsley grew in confidence. They played the ball about quite
well considering how out of their depth they appeared to be. With only 3
in midfield it means Batty and Dacourt have to firefight. ie. they run
to the nearest player with the ball and harass him. This means nobody
plays the holding role in midfield. Barnsley simply put a man in this
area and every time they won the ball back they passed it to him and
they were off.

Leeds were chasing shite 1st division shadows. Viduka, Smith and Keane
stood motionless up the park for long periods with nothing much to do.

Recently Gerrard Houlier suggested he'd be mad to play a 3 man attack,
implying that its almost a luxury to play 2 upfront when opposition
teams pack the midfield. The guy is not stupid.

No changes at half time. As if.

2nd half and Leeds could have killed it when Batty's delightful dinked
pass put Vidooks through. The keeper threw a cream doughnut across MV's
line of sight which allowed him to smother the distracted Aussie's shot.

Barnsley had the better of things. Dyer the 57th sub that the Reds seem
to use tantalised the Leeds defence. Last ditch tackles and a string of
excellent saves from Robinson denied Barnsley a replay that was easily
within their grasp.

At last with 5 mins to go O'Leary balanced up the midfield and Wilcox
replaced our best striker Keane (why not Smith or Lard Ass?) Leeds had
their 3rd good spell but by this time the visitors had run out of steam.
Wilcox got round the back a few times but Leeds failed to add to their
paltry tally.

None of this matters though cos Leeds are through to the next round and
Barnsley aint. We got the win we desperately needed but paradoxically I
must say that the performance would have knocked our confidence rather
than boosted it.

Leeds are a mess. The formation and balance are all wrong, the passing
and the movement have evaporated and worst of all the commitment and
desire seems to have seeped away. We look like a team that doesn't know
what it is doing. The management, or lack of it, needs to be addressed
as soon as possible or the Champions League Act 2 Scene 2 may distract
us from an undignified relegation scrap.

Hey but we won today so let us not moan (too much) !

I remember a comedian a few years back saying "you dont see any white
dog shit anymore - when I was a kid every other dog shit was white - in
fact the only white dog shit you see nowadays is Leeds United"

And in a way he was right.

Scores
-------

Robinson 8 kicking, handling and shot stopping were comforting. One
mistake when he tipped a shot round the post that was already heading
for the corner flag !

Mills 6 Made one superb saving tackle. Did OK coming forward. Better
than Kelly.
Matteo 4 Crap.
Radebe 6 Passing was awful. Still a good solid defender.
Rio 7 Oooozes class. Delightful passer. Will become a BIG BIG star.

Batty 6.5 Got blood on his boots but had too much to do.
Ollie 7 As above but with an extra bit of skill. Had to play on the
left of the midfield 3 and looked uncomfortable with it. Class player
though.
Bakke 6 Too wasteful at times, but set up the goal and had a couple
of good efforts.

Smith 4 Started superbly but ended up like a ghost.
Viduka 5 Easy tap in. Poor service to him.
Keane 6 Good with the ball, didn't see enough of it.

sub/

Wilcox (for Keane)

I know we won today BUT why do we play 3 up front ? It doesn't provide
us with more chances - it means the midfield are all over the shop and
we cant ever get right on top of teams. WHY ????

There is no escaping the fact that a half decent 1st division side, let
alone an average Premier one, would have beaten us today.

With 4-4-2 we'd have more likely won the 3 or 4 nil that most people
around me were predicting before hand.

Before anyone accuses me of excessive moaning then the fact that
Barnsley left the field to a standing ovation from their fans and Leeds
didn't says it all. We are either shite or we are moaners, or more
likely - we are both.

:-)

Only 27000 Leeds fans turned up for this cut-priced game.

O'Leary you've spoilt us.

--
stotty

www.astott.demon.co.uk

(LUFC match reports, cartoons, and Flash movies)