I was never going to get to South Wales in time for the away game with Cardiff City, but I do love a good beamback at Elland Road.
With the Pavillion being rested for this game, I plumped for the Norman Hunter suite instead, and the first challenge was to find the venue. A google search suggests it’s on level four of the East stand, but this turned out this info is now out of date, and the people at East stand reception had never heard of it.
It turned out that the ‘Norman Hunter suite’ is now the name of a large room in the banqueting suite behind the west stand. All clear? And when I eventually found it I was delighted to see the great man was there himself, happily chatting to the fans, signing autographs and posing for photos. And then the formalities began, with pre-match questions to the star guest.
In the wake of the Brighton debacle, it was no surprise that much of the discussion centred around the Leeds defence. Hunter thought that the form of most of our defenders was to ‘up and down’, and that they need to be more consistent, apart from Charlie Taylor who he thinks is the best left-back in the championship.
And as soon as the game began, Bamba illustrated his point with another error to gift possession to Cardiff, though Pilkington was kind enough to shoot well over the bar. But after that the defence settled, and there were few opportunities for either side, apart from Whittingham’s free kick that produced a fine save from Silvestri.
Then Leeds broke away just before half time, and Antenucci threaded the ball between two defenders, and Doukarra’s shot finding the corner of the net with the help of a deflection from Fabio. At half-time the compere took delight in telling us that Fabio was once on Man United’s books, and the evening wasn’t going to get any better for the Cardiff defender.
There were more questions during the interval, with Hunter saying that sometimes he doesn’t know what Bamba sees when tries to play of defence and passes straight to the opposition. He was asked what he thought our best central defensive pairing was, and after much deliberation he plumped for Cooper (if fully fit) but couldn’t decide which unreliable partner should accompany him, Bamba or Bellusci.
But these two were both on top of their game in the second half as Cardiff increased the pressure in search of an equaliser, though Antenucci should have put us further in front after Marshall made a hash of a backpass. And the game started to get a bit spicy, with Murphy joining Bridcutt in the book as he left Fabio rolling on the floor.
And just to prove it really wasn’t Fabio’s night, the Cardiff man got a second yellow for bringing down Taylor as our man sped down the wing. As the booking count mounted I thought the ref was going to even up the numbers with a soft second yellow for Bridcutt, but just as I was going to yell at the screen I realised the official was only reaching in his pocket for the free kick spray, not for his cards.
But Bridcutt had to be careful, and after he pulled out of one challenge Cardiff were able to break down the left for a move that ended with Immers hitting the post. It wasn’t long before he was substituted to ensure that we retained our one man advantage.
About this time Cardiff had a shout for a penalty, and their manager Russel Slade was later quoted as saying "the player’s arms were out and if that’s not a penalty then I don’t know what the rules are.” Let me explain it Russel, the rules say that handball has to be intentional, and if anything Bellusci was trying to get his arms out of the way when the ball was fired at him from close range. If anyone reading this knows Russel Slade, then do please let him know.
Back at Leeds the tension was mounting as Cardiff were kept at bay by a combination of Silvestri and the woodwork, and we had a full six minutes of injury time to survive. But once again we managed to break away, with a bit of neat passing rather than just belting the ball down the field, and this time Antenucci accepted the chance to roll the ball into the far corner.
Cue for mass celebrations in the Norman Hunter suite, and a good natured invasion of the area between the front seats and the screen.
We’d sealed our first win in Cardiff since 1984, and most importantly our first win on a beamback night since the Bournemouth game last season.
All in all it was another impressive result away from home, and once again we were left to wonder where we’d be if only our home form could rise to the same heights. We tend to defend well when we sit deep (and the defence has only really come apart at Middlesbrough and Brighton) while Antenucci and Doukara are far more effective on the break than they are when they have to get through tight defences at Elland Road.
But the good away form always makes for a good night at the beamback. When’s the next one?