Main Page

Quick Links
    Fixtures
   Reports
   Players
   Transfers
   Rumours
   Table
   Stats
   Reserves
   Academy

The Rest
    Archives
   Club info
   Fanzines
   Last Season
   SJP
   Unlikely Lads
   A-Z Index

Date: Sat 20th January 2001, 3.00pm. Venue: Elland Road  Conditions: Balmy / Barmy

Leeds United	1 - 3	Newcastle United
Half time:	1 - 2
Score Sheet:
Keane (2)		Solano (4 pen) Acuna (44) Ameobi (86)
	Teams
Robinson Mills Woodgate Radebe Matteo Bowyer Dacourt Bakke Wilcox Keane Viduka		Given Barton Hughes Goma Quinn Solano Lee Acuna Speed Ameobi Gallacher
Substitutes:
Smith for Wilcox (79)		Bassedas for Lee (73) Lua-Lua for Gallacher (74) Marcelino for Ameobi (90)
Subs not used:
Martyn Harte Batty Burns		Cordone Karelse
Bookings:
Radebe (36) Woodgate (77)		Solano (33)
Referee: Alan Wiley (Burntwood).
Attendance: 40,005. Just short of capacity.

2 mins. Viduka rolled Goma and pulled the ball back from the byline. There was a  miscue but it still ended up at the feet of Keane who crashed it past Given. 0-1

4 mins. Gallacher was with Mills on the left side of the box and as he flicked the bouncing ball back it made heavy contact with Mills' arm. Ref Wiley pointed to the spot and Solano tucked it in the opposite corner to the way Robinson dived. 1-1

44 mins. Speed played the perfect through ball for Acuna to charge forward. He showed good pace and Dacourt was always struggling to catch him. He lunged desperately and brought down Acuna but as the Chilean fell he lifted the ball over Robinson, or as a BBC reporter memorably said, "managed to dink his shot in a perfect parabola..." I think I once had one of them in a bar in Cuba. 2-1

Half time: Leeds 1 Newcastle 2

86 mins. Another Leeds corner was cleared by Barton and a prodigious leap from Lua Lua helped it out. He then nipped around Radebe and stole the ball before charging upfield. He then almost played in Bassedas with a through ball that was just too strong for the midfield man. As the Argentinean was forced wide he laid it back for Quinn to swing over a cross, Solano touched it perfectly into the path of Ameobi who hit a low swerving shot into the corner.  3-1

Full time: Leeds 1 Newcastle 3

Uncle Bobby said: 

David O'Bleary kissed the Blarney stone and trotted out this: 

Waffle: 

Just when it looks like we're coming apart at the seams and Bobby's magic wand is in urgent need of new batteries, along come Leeds and everything clicks into place again.

The team responsible for our miserable pre-Xmas showing at Derby transformed itself into a fighting unit by the time O'Leary's lot showed up on Boxing Day, and we did it again in this reverse fixture. A side so clueless and lacking in direction that they had to seek directions to their dressing room at Villa Park on Wednesday suddenly re-invented itself as a mobile and intelligent body of men, to the surprise and delight of the toon fans, and presumably uncle Bobby. Hell, the share price might even have gone up...

Things looked decidedly bleak however, when Robbie Keane hit his third Leeds goal in six minutes (he'd netted at Man City last week in the 89th and 92nd minutes) with Viduka and others looking to exploit a big hole where our right back should have been. 

Gradually though, Leeds became less imaginative and lapsed into the same style of play that brought them little reward at St.James' in December, with Wilcox's failure to stick out his big toe and thus score a second marking something of a turning point. The sparkling form of Given also frustrated the home side on numerous occasions.

Robson had praised Acuna in midweek when the Chilean had been nowt special, but our boss was obviously misreading his crystal ball, as wor Clarence was in the groove today. A succession of gritty challenges was married to a willingness to support the attack, perhaps trying to compensate for the absence of Dyer. His frustration was evident when a header was placed into the arms of the grateful Robinson, but as the first half drew to a close he struck.

Appropriately in the week that the "T" word had been mentioned on Tyneside, Clarence's goal was reminiscent of an Asprilla effort in one of those 4-3 Anfield losses so beloved by Sky. He got a crucial touch to the ball while falling on his backside, and an incredulous away end became a sea of flailing arms and legs, with more pogo-ing and stage-diving than a Clash reunion tour could conjure up.

The second half was played out to a script from a previous Solano-inspired win on this ground, with the home side throwing everything they could at our lot, but failing to make that vital breakthrough. At times it threatened to become siege-like, but with a rested and resurgent Lee on hand, and the willingness of Gallacher to chase down stray punts and hopeful clearances, Leeds singularly failed to ignite their home crowd with a genuine onslaught to  threaten an equaliser. Yorkshire moans and mutterings by this stage were clearly audible.

As corner after corner drifted in and were smuggled away (16 for Leeds, 1 for us), the feeling grew that we were actually going to pull this off. When the clinching goal came, in the same way that the subs conjured up the leveller against Man Utd, so the fresh legs of Lua Lua and Bassedas were the creators. From behind the goal, Bassedas seemed to have a clear run in on goal but the TV replays justified his decision to check back and lay the pass off to Quinn. Shola's strike caused the trickle of disconsolate home fans leaving to become a flood, and when the final whistle blew, the boos nearly drowned out the cheers and celebration from the black 'n' whites. 

This seemingly improbable victory moved us up to a highly respectable sixth place, and in the midst of injury and suspension worries, Bobby must be heartened that he was able to shake things up and freshen up his side to banish the memory of the Cup exit. Robert Lee was simply outstanding, and had obviously benefited from his enforced rest, while Kevin Gallacher once again ran himself into the ground for the cause. Your correspondent was cheered by the exclusion of Bassedas from the starting lineup and Barton had one of his on days, with more good things than bad coming from his boots.

We said in the preview that if we picked up even a point from this game, it would be as a consequence of the poorness of the home side, and the Leeds fans we spoke to post-match were firmly of that opinion. David O'Leary also felt the same way, as he dragged his players back out for training drills in the now-empty stadium, before individually laying into each and every one of them behind a locked dressing room door. "Incandescent" was how our insider described his mood. Which was nice. What we couldn't have predicted though was the total turnaround in attitude from both Villa games. Whatever Robson said to the lads, it worked and the belief was back. Our ten day break now provides an opportunity for knocks to heal and the likes of Quinn to integrate himself more into the side. Let's just hope Bobby remembers his lines and can inspire his charges before they take the field at Stamford Bridge.

PS - Deserving of special mention is the support given to the lads by the crowd massed behind the goal - far better than the reduced allocation stuck in one corner that we've recently endured here. Despite their increased numbers, a good number of mags still infiltrated home areas, but no serious trouble was evident this year.

An almost constant racket was produced, which seemed to spur the lads on - to a man all sixteen players applauded our contribution at the end of the game, and Shay Given paid tribute to the travelling fans in his TV interview.

Inevitably messrs Woodgate and Bowyer were the recipients of some ribald comments from the crowd regarding their impending court appearances, Bowyer being treated to a rousing chorus of:

"Ten Years, You're Gonna Get Ten Years.." 

PPS - Celebrity steward spotting continues - last season at this game, the crowd appeared to be marshalled by the Walrus of Love, Mr Barry White. This time ? Gary McAllister, who got himself increasingly vexed as he vainly tried to stop people standing on their seats, having given up long before trying to get bums on the plastic. He was assisted at one stage by Lennox Lewis, who perhaps fortunately chose not to indulge in a little sparring. 

Biffa

Reports