Wednesday 26 March 2014

#afcb 4 v 1 #lufc

It had been a curious lead up to the match

Hundreds of tweets declaring hatred of Leeds but very few just supporting AFCB - I must admit that saddened me somewhat, especially from those not even born in 1990 but I guess I just like to look forward rather than hanging on to the past

Walking to the ground did make me chuckle though as the police stopped traffic to allow the Leeds fans' coaches through and the guy in the first car that had stopped took the trouble to wind down his window and shout boooooooo

I also thought it was a nice touch that before the game started all of the Leeds players went over to applaud the amazing turnout from their fans for a Tuesday night

I'd read that for one of them this was his 2000th consecutive match he'd see - just imagine how many family occasions that guy's missed - I think it's his wife that deserves the plaudits.....

The game started with Grabban instantly charging down a defensive clearance and as he ran through to get the ball he fell over on the slick surface (sack the groundsman) and the chance was gone.

He still had the ball however and managed to get it over to Pugh on the left and he cut in and forced a smart save from the keeper at his near post

A good start and from the corner, it got a lot better

The ball was fired to just outside the box for Francis to hit on the volley. It wasn't a good contact and was clearly going wide but here, unlike previous weeks, we had a stroke of luck

The shot went straight at Kermorgant who managed to quickly adjust his feet to deflect the ball into the net

Less than 2 minutes gone and 1- 0

Leeds however, reacted well and looked much better going forward than defending although they were a little predictable using their giant number 20 as a battering ram, knocking on ball after ball but Cook and Elphick just kept mopping the danger up

On 17 minutes, after clearing yet another Leeds high ball, Ritchie was away down the right.

Then the real surprise. Francis tore past him like he'd been shot out of a cannon

I'm not sure if Ritchie passed it to him or whether the wind-drag of his bullet run just took the ball with him but there he was with it tearing towards the byline

Normally this season he'd look up and there'd be no-one there but since playing 2 up front it meant we had options

This option was Grabban running left to right and meeting Francis' low front post cross at full pace and he passed it past the keeper to make it 2-0

It was SUCH a classy goal. I can't remember a faster break and better finish all season

The weird thing was , despite being 2 goals up and breaking with a directness and pace that the Leeds' 2 full backs may well need therapy to get over, I still was nervous

Going forward Leeds were good on the ball and while they had bigfoot up front ANY cross or set piece was dangerous and there were a couple of minor panics but each time the team worked ferociously to get the ball clear

In fact that was a feature of the whole game as Leeds were just given no time on the ball with Arter in particular snapping at everyone's heels

On 27 minutes Francis was again fired from his cannon and away he ran down the right. This time Grabban followed him and showing that he could see out of the back of his head Francis back-heeled it to Grabban, who cut inside and thumped the ball under the keeper to make it 3-0 and send the home fans into hysteria

Just 3 minutes later it was Ritchie terrorising their poor, unfortunate left back and his cross was met by Kermorgant on the volley and his shot smashed against the foot of the right post and out to safety

The crowd were now singing "can we play you every weeeeeeek"

We were winning 3-0, against Leeds, despite the ref not giving us one single decision - I know he was wearing yellow but come on.......

The last 15 minutes had AFCB breaking quickly and coming close a couple of times with the final ball just being overplayed and Leeds resorting solely to the long hoof ball tactic of route 1

A season ago that tactic would probably have scared me the most of any tactic but with the whole back 5 being imperious in the air and working as a well linked unit for any second ball, the danger was so minimal and Bournemouth saw the half out at 3-0

Whilst queuing for the loo, I heard one Leeds fan asking another he'd spotted whether he was sat in the Bournemouth end - they were both in the NS concourse at the time - you don't need to be a genius to follow football, I guess ;-)

On 47 minutes AFCB got their first free kick, just as Grabban was running through on goal.

Brilliant, just when we could have done with the advantage playing, he finally finds his whistle

Embarrassed by that, I think, he used it again to give a free kick to Bournemouth on the left as Grabban was hacked down just a few minutes later

Harte's radar was unusually off as he over hit the cross but Arter tore to the touchline to recover the ball.

Seeing Ritchie just inside he passed it to him and his far post cross was met with a towering Kermorgant header and he buried the ball into the bottom left giving the keeper no chance

It was now 4-0 - are you Doncaster in disguise..........?

On 63 minutes it was almost 5-0

Another amazing delivery from Harte had his corner met with a thumping Cook header and how the keeper got to the top right corner to save it I just don't know

Then, the one pubic hair in the pizza - the clean sheet was gone

A nothing ball into the middle of the park found McCormack who bamboozled Cook and he was all of a sudden running through on goal

A touch of class next as he bent the ball into the bottom right corner giving Camp no chance and providing the amazing away support with something tangible to cheer about

On 78 minutes it was time for some light relief as Rantie came on for Ritchie

Within seconds he was running through on goal and with only the keeper to beat he smashed it straight at him and the chance was lost

Worse was to come for the diminutive speedster in injury time as a hurried clearance that Jalal would have been proud of crashed against his own defender and the ball fell to Rantie on his own - surely he'd bury this one on one??

Nope. He did this time make the keeper dive, but hit the ball so close to him I reckon my gran would have saved it, and she's got an arthritic shoulder

Final Score 4-1

Summary : Possibly the best team performance I've seen at Dean Court. Every single player (ahem) stepped up to the plate and worked so hard both with and without the ball

Going forward the speed and movement, especially in the first half, was enough to take your breath away - just ask their left and right backs.

Having 2 up front just gave us so many options the Leeds defence just didn't know where the next threat was coming from and were made to look like they'd never played together before

In stark contrast the Bournemouth back 5 were superb in the air and on the deck and played as a unit to cover each other as this very good attacking side tried their best to disrupt and move our players around

The loss of the clean sheet was a shame but in this league you are always going to get pieces of quality, and when you come across that you've just got to say fair enough, and move on

Star Man : Francis - An amazing performance both in defence and especially in attack and I can only imagine Harte has been giving crossing master classes in training because it was the best I've ever seen from him

No comments:

Post a Comment