Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Leeds cruise to victory over poor Ipswich
Thursday, 25th Oct 2018 17:28 by Tim Whelan

Leeds produced an improved performance, which didn’t quite match the intensity of the first couple of games of the season, but it was still comfortably enough to defeat a dispirited Ipswich Town.

There were three changes to the starting eleven, one enforced due to Jansson’s comments about the referee just after the Brentford game, but luckily Ayling was back after his own suspension. Harrison and Hernandez were fit enough to start at the expense of Roberts and Dallas, while there were also a number of positional changes. Alioski began the game at left-back, while Roofe was moved across to his favoured central position rather than playing out wide.

But Bielsa’s tinkering was nothing compared to his opposite number, who made seven changes in his desperate search for a combination that could lift them off the bottom of the table. I’ve taken a peek at Ipswich’s TWTD forum to see why Paul Hurst did so badly the season after coming close to guiding Shrewsbury to promotion.

The consensus among Town fans is that he changed too much too soon, shipping out too experienced players to replace them with League 1 players who aren’t good enough at this level, and in general he was out of his depth in the Championship. I recommend Simon Grayson as his replacement, if only because of his excellent record in getting teams promoted from League 1, which is what Ipswich will probably need next season.

Like a few of our recent opponents, Ipswich started by trying to counter Bielsa’s tactics by trying a bit of pressing of their own, with plenty of players rushing to surround the man in possession. But without the fitness levels produced by Bielsa’s extra training sessions, they were never likely to keep it up for very long.

Our first big chance arrived after six minutes, when Bialkowski could only palm a cross from Alioski back into danger, but Hernandez narrowly failed to get a touch on the ball before it was hacked clear. As Leeds began to dominate possession our former loan player Pennington was on hand to throw himself into a couple of crunching tackles, perhaps feeling he had a point to prove after failing to establish himself during his spell at Elland Road.

But the rest of the Ipswich defence failed to match his determination as we swept down the field to take the lead in the 22nd minute. Hernandez was given plenty of space down the right, and Chambers was ball-watching as the cross came in, allowing the unmarked Roofe to pick his spot and score with a powerful header.

During the rest of the half we produced a couple of half-chances but didn’t really look like adding to our lead, and I started to worry that it might become the kind of game when the opposition could sneak an undeserved point with a late equaliser. We also lost Berardi to a hamstring injury, with Dallas coming on for another stint as a makeshift full-back.

Bielsa decided to make two more changes in the 57th minute, with Pearce and Forshaw coming on for Harrison and Saiz, with Dallas moving further forward. I’m not a fan of using all our substitutes this early in the game, as I’ve seen it go wrong a couple of times in the past, but this time there were no more injuries.

Saiz had again been heavily marked, but as at Blackburn a few too many of his passes were going astray, and the introduction of Forshaw gave us a bit more impetus going forward. As we began to dominate possession, Hernandez worked his magic on the right and we forced a series of corners as his dangerous crosses were scrambled away.

And it was a well-worked routine from yet another corner that produced the second goal we needed to settle the nerves in the 66th. minute. Phillips allowed the ball to run between his legs in the knowledge that Cooper was coming in behind, and you know it’s going to be your night when a central defender places the ball in the top corner with his wrong foot.

By now Ipswich were looking deflated, but there was no sign of Leeds looking to ease up and hold onto the 2-0 lead we already had. This was to be yet another game we finished strongly, possibly due to the extra fitness of our players, and with Ipswich offering nothing going forward it looked like we were going for broke in an effort to improve our goal difference.

Alioski came closest to extending the lead with a fierce shot from outside the area, but just when it seemed to be going in it swerved a little too much and cannoned back off the outside of the post. And Bialkowski produced a couple of fine saves in the closing stages, so you could say that apart from Pennington he was the only Ipswich player to emerge with any credit.

The first came when the Ipswich keeper turned a shot from Forshaw round the post, and then he got his positioning just right when Alioski broke through but could only fire the ball straight at him. The visitors finally got a sniff of goal at the other end when a slip from Ayling let Nolan through, but Peacock-Farrell got down well to parry his shot, and there were no Ipswich players even close to getting to the rebound.

A goal then might have given us an anxious last couple of minutes, but as it was the only remaining action was a shot from Roofe that went narrowly wide, before the ref put Ipswich out of their misery with the final whistle. And it seems the Ipswich chairman had seen enough, with news of Hurst’s sacking coming just in time for me to me to change the start of this report to write about his spell at Portman Road in the past tense.

Quite improbably we now find ourselves back at the top of the table despite the wobbles of the last few matches. But that owed much to the three teams who started the week above us being generous enough to drop points, quite spectacularly in the case of WBA with their 4-1 home defeat. And top of the table is now very close, with Norwich and Derby catching up with the top four after their wins this week.

We won’t have many games against opposition as poor as we faced last night, and in four of the next six we will face teams who are within four points of us. So we will need to maintain the improvement we showed last night and hope that Hernandez stays fit, but at least we seem to be moving back in the right direction.

Reuters Express



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.


You need to login in order to post your comments

Middlesbrough Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© FansNetwork 2024