Leeds United v Ipswich Town
Saturday 24th September 2016 – 15:00
Elland Road
Opening Thought – Jamma
If you hadn’t known which side was which watching the highlights from Saturday’s game, you could have been excused for assuming that it was Ipswich who had just come down from the Premier League with £30 million in parachute payments and Villa who were embarking on their 15th successive season in the second tier. This would have been due in large part to the fact that the vast majority of the goalmouth action came in the eight minutes of stoppage time, when the Blues came close no fewer than five times. As well as efforts from Leon Best, with his first touch, and Cole Skuse being cleared off the line, Freddie Sears could have had a hat-trick, his best attempt a curling shot from the edge of the area which struck the post. While Sears had produced the only shot on target in the preceding 90 minutes, Town again drew plaudits for their defensive display. At Derby, we had had to ride our luck for large periods as the Rams surged forward in a constant stream of pressure. That was never the case against Villa, who nevertheless dictated the play at times, with Jack Grealish always looking to get on the ball in his free role just behind the strikers. But the Blues showed characteristic desire to get blocks and interceptions in and win the second ball, allowing Bartosz Bialkowski to enjoy a relatively quiet afternoon for once. It was perhaps no surprise that both sides struggled to sustain the tempo and quality of the opening 45 in what was, for the most part, a scrappy second half. I said at the time that it was a match which was crying out for an individual piece of brilliance to settle it. With the Midlanders having made two early defensive substitutions, the onus was even more on Ipswich to press for the winner. It’s easy to say with hindsight, of course, and the game was so finely poised, but perhaps Mick could have made the change to 4-4-2 a bit earlier than the 88th minute. On another day, the introduction of Best and Luke Varney would have got its reward and we would all be looking back on a thoroughly satisfying 3 points. But at the same time, those frantic last 10 minutes left the Blue Army wondering just what might have been if we had shown a little more courage as the home team.
Interestingly, it was this perceived lack of adventure in our approach that led to discontent amongst supporters after the game, both on this forum and further afield. After the team had been applauded off the pitch, the inquest began as to whether we could have done more for the win. You can look at it one of two ways, really. On the one hand, Town earnt another creditable draw against one of the recently relegated sides, having enjoyed the best of the chances, if not possession. On the other hand, it was a prime opportunity missed to catch one of the league’s big boys cold before they could settle in the Championship. Norwich are already looking like having found their feet, and you get the impression that it will only be a matter of time before Villa get into their stride with the depth of quality in their ranks. But attacking instinct isn’t measured solely on attempts on goal, or how many strikers you have on the pitch. We hardly peppered Derby’s goal last week, and yet you couldn’t say that our desire to win was diminished as a result. For me, our Achilles heel over the last year or so hasn’t been limited to our offensive play, but rather can be summed up by ‘a lack of ruthlessness in both boxes’, as Mick would say. When McCarthy first arrived, our hallmark was our defensive solidity, which provided the platform to achieve the results that ultimately kept us up. As our aspirations have shifted, we have had to open up, resulting in more goals to our name but also more going in at the other end, to the extent that we often had to score two to get a result last season. The hardest thing in football is to combine a watertight defence with a prolific strikeforce. We are showing signs so far in 2016/17 of getting back to our defensive best, with four clean sheets from the first eight league matches and Adam Webster and Christophe Berra starting to build an understanding. If last weekend taught us anything, it’s that we still have plenty of options in attack, even post-Daryl Murphy. This weekend throws up our latest challenge, against a Leeds United side starting to find some form of their own…
The Opposition – Leeds United
Leeds United's predecessor team, Leeds City FC, was formed in 1904, and were elected League members in 1905, but were forcibly disbanded and forced to sell off all their players by The Football League in 1919 in response to allegations of illegal payments to players during the First World War.
In 1919, Leeds United was formed and they received an invitation to enter the Midland League. Following Leeds City's disbanding, Yorkshire Amateurs bought their stadium, Elland Road, before in turn offering to make way for the new team.
The chairman of Huddersfield Town, Hilton Crowther, loaned Leeds United £35,000, to be repaid when Leeds United won promotion to Division One.
On 31 May 1920, Leeds United were elected to the Football League. Over the following few years, they consolidated their position in the Second Division and in 1924 won the title and with it promotion to the First Division. They failed to establish themselves and were relegated in 1926–27. In the years up until the start of World War II, Leeds were twice relegated, both times being instantly re-promoted the following season.
In the 1946–47 season after the war, Leeds were relegated again with the worst league record in their history.
Leeds remained in the Second Division until 1955–56, when they once again won promotion to the First Division, before being relegated again in the 1959–60 season.
In March 1961, the club appointed former player Don Revie as manager. His stewardship began in adverse circumstances as the club was in financial difficulty and in 1961–62 only a win in the final game of the season saved the club from relegation to Division Three.
Revie implemented a youth policy and a change of kit colour to an all-white strip in the style of Real Madrid, and Leeds soon won promotion to the First Division, in 1963–64. In his thirteen years in charge, Revie guided Leeds to two Football League First Division titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, one Football League Second Division title and one Charity Shield. He also guided them to three more FA Cup finals, two more FA Cup semi-finals, one more Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final, one European Cup Winners' Cup final and one European Cup semi-final. The team also finished second in the Football League First Division five times, third once and fourth twice.
Following the 1973–74 season, Revie left Leeds and Elland Road in 1974, to manage the England national team, and, although they no longer dominated English football, they remained in the top ten for subsequent seasons, before being relegated at the end of 1981–82.
In October 1988, Howard Wilkinson took over the manager’s role and oversaw their promotion back to the First Division in 1989–90. Under Wilkinson, Leeds finished 4th in 1990–91 and in 1991–92 Leeds won the title.
In October 1998, David O'Leary assumed the manager’s role at Leeds and under his guidance Leeds never finished outside the top 5 in the Premier League, and secured qualification for both the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League, enjoying cup runs to the semi-finals of both competitions.
Under chairman Peter Ridsdale, Leeds had taken out large loans against the prospect of the share of the TV rights and sponsorship revenues from UEFA Champions League qualification and subsequent progress in the competition. However, Leeds narrowly failed to qualify for the Champions League in two successive seasons, and as a consequence did not receive enough income to repay the loans. The net result was that Leeds’ best players were sold, O’Leary fell out with Ridsdale and was sacked, in turn being replaced by Terry Venables, who also ended up being sacked after disagreeing with the Chairman. Ridsdale himself resigned from the Board soon after.
In the 2003-04 season, an insolvency specialist, Gerald Krasner, led a consortium of local businessmen which took over Leeds and oversaw the sale of the clubs' assets, including senior and emerging youth players of any value, which saw them relegated at the end of the season.
Following relegation to the Championship, Leeds were forced to sell both their training ground and their stadium in the autumn of 2004.
The board finally sold the club to Ken Bates for £10 million. Bates appointed a number of managers until, with relegation virtually assured, Leeds entered administration on 4 May 2007, thus incurring a league-imposed 10-point deduction which officially relegated the club to the third tier of English football.
The club was put up for sale by KPMG, and again Ken Bates' bid was accepted. The league eventually sanctioned this under the "exceptional circumstances rule" but imposed a 15-point deduction.
Over the next two seasons, Leeds reached the play-offs but failed to achieve promotion.
In the 2009–10 season, under Simon Grayson, Leeds won their final game of the season to confirm automatic promotion to The Championship. However, Grayson was relieved of his duties after failing to challenge for promotion to the Premiership.
On 21 November 2012, Middle East-based private equity group GFH Capital finalised a deal for a protracted takeover of Leeds, gaining 100% shareholding in the club.
On 7 January 2014, Leeds United's Managing Director David Haigh was involved in Sport Capital, a consortium involving the Managing Director of Leeds United's main sponsors, Enterprise Insurance, Andrew Flowers. Sports Capital came close to completing a transaction with GFH Capital that would have given them a 75% stakehold in the business. However, on 30 January, Sport Capital's takeover collapsed due to a lack of "financial backing".
On 31 January 2014, under controversial circumstances, a new buyer was found for the club in Massimo Cellino, the president of the Serie A club Cagliari Calcio and his Company Eleonora Sports Ltd. After weeks of speculation regarding the purchase of Leeds United, on 7 February 2014, it was announced that Cellino's family consortium had acquired a 75% ownership of the club subject to Football League Approval. At its meeting on 23 March 2014, the Board of the Football League decided unanimously that Cellino's conviction by an Italian Court meant that he did not meet their Owners and Directors’ Test, so could not take over Leeds United, a decision which he immediately appealed. On 5 April, Cellino was successful in his appeal and the takeover was completed on 10 April with Cellino's company, Eleonora Sports Limited, buying 75 per cent of the club’s shares.
On 19 June 2014, Dave Hockaday was appointed head coach of Leeds on a two-year contract but this only lasted 70 days.
On 23 September 2014, Darko Milanič was appointed the new Head Coach of Leeds United but he only lasted 32 days, in turn being replaced by Neil Redfern, who lasted for the remainder of the season before resuming his position for the 2015/16 season as the Academy Director.
On 1 December 2014, Cellino was disqualified by the Football League after they obtained documents from an Italian court, who had found him guilty of tax evasion. He was disqualified from running the club until 10 April 2015 and on, 24 February 2015, Cellino announced he would not be returning to the club after his ban ended.
In the 2014/15 season Leeds finished in 15th place on 56 points.
Last season, Leeds managed to improve by two places on the previous season by finishing in 13th place.
The Gaffer – Garry Monk
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
Watch back all the goals and the best of the action from Town's dramatic 2-1 win over dirty Leeds at Portman Road in January:
Media Watch - K L Blue
Liz Nice on a day at Portman Rd:
http://www.greenun24.co.uk/ipswich-town ... _1_4703817
Leon Best and the U23s:
http://www.sudburymercury.co.uk/sport/l ... _1_4703714
Ipswich's "Vital editor" on the Villa game:
http://www.ipswich.vitalfootball.co.uk/ ... p?a=461492
Form Guide
Leeds United Last 5 Matches - Currently in 15th place on 10 points
Leeds United 1-0 Blackburn Rovers
Cardiff City 0-2 Leeds United
Leeds United 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Leeds United 0-1 Huddersfield
Nottingham F. 3-1 Leeds United
Ipswich Last 5 Matches - Currently in 11th place on 12 points
Ipswich Town 0-0 Aston Villa
Derby County 0-1 Ipswich Town
Reading FC 2-1 Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town 1-0 Preston NE
Ipswich Town 1-1 Norwich City
Fixtures of Interest
BRIGHTON VS BARNSLEY
FULHAM VS BRISTOL CITY
READING VS HUDDERSFIELD
WEDNESDAY V NOTT’M FOREST
WOLVES VS BRENTFORD
ASTON VILLA VS NEWCASTLE (Saturday evening)
Marko’s Caption Contest
Scores from past two caption pictures:
READING
ITNO1 5pts
Ando 4pts
Frosty 3pts
Watership Down 2pts
VILLA
G&B 5pts
Herforder 4pts
Number 9 3pts
Nicsreamer 2pts (obvious relief caption)
LEAGUE TABLE
DerickIpsw 17
Quasar 14
Herforder 14
Nicsreamer 13
Bluemike 12
Frosty 9
Ando 9
Blueblood 8
Gold&Black 8
IpswichtownNo1 7
Watership Down 6
Number 9 5
Patthegimp 5
Tangfastic 4
LoudNProud 2
Barmy Billy 1
ItfcTrev76 1
Shed on Tour 1
Have a bash at this:
Match Referee – Stephen Martin
Final Thought – Bluemike
Last weekend’s game against Aston Villa certainly divided opinion among Town fans as to the quality of the performance. Some thought it was a competent display underpinned by a really good defensive effort which culminated in a ten-minute blitz of Villa right at the death that so nearly brought home the points, while others thought it was a typical dull and "safe" Mick McCarthy performance that lacked the courage to "go for it" earlier in an attempt to win all three points. Unsurprisingly, I am in the camp that went home happy with what we had seen. For me, there is no guarantee that going for it earlier would have even secured one point, let alone three. A more adventurous approach could well have opened things up for Villa to exploit our often fragile defence, which it has to be said is standing firm more often than not these days, but of course we will never know if we should have taken more of a risk.
Pleasing for me was the performance of Adam Webster. Two superb tackles were the highlight of his afternoon but his general all-round play was very impressive, solid from start to finish and so assured you would think he had been in the Championship for a few seasons already. With Tommy Smith out of action for some time, Webster will without doubt make the position his own and Tommy is going to be challenging Christophe Berra for the remaining spot in the team when he does eventually return. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of our captain Luke Chambers, who for me had his worst game for many a day and almost cost us the point. I have often leaped to his defence but man, too many more like that and he will be losing me from his corner.
Next up it’s Leeds, a team who are as unpredictable as the British weather. Not so long back, they looked woeful but three wins on the spin has galvanised their season and saved Garry Monk from the chop. This will be a first trip to Elland Road for me but it is a venue that has seen us do quite well in the past so hopefully that will continue this weekend. I expect we may just see a change in formation from Town, with possibly 4-4-2 being the order of the day. Either way, I take Town to nick it with the only goal. Surely it is "Freddie’s Time" ???
LEEDS UNITED 1 IPSWICH TOWN 2
