Firstly the negatives: Barker is a great div 4 striker but at this level he's irrelevant. I've yet to see him look threatening against a good team. Yes I know he's our top scored but how many are penalties? I also know they count but they do not reflect the effectiveness of a centre forward. To take it to an extreme to make the point; lets say Budtz was our penalty taker that would put him ahead of Barker in our scoring charts, would that mean that Budtz is a more effective striker? Either way I bet Barker's scores don't include too many one on one chips over the goalie.

Elliott I thought had a none too shabby game ditto for Humphreys and Brown. The latter I think he's a liability at left back but he is still a decent enough midfielder at this level. Nolan I like but he's temporary and Antwi fills me with fear every time a ball comes in. Theres nothing like the calmness and confidence you get with Clark & Nelson. I'm unconvinced about Budtz, yes hes a good shotstopper but there's something missing, probably communications. Man of the match for me was Liddle who seemed to be everywhere on the pitch.

1-1 against the title favourites shouldn't be a disappointment but it is today.

explain the latter comment please brownie??

Willie Boland read the game well today, he could see where the next ball/move was going when they had the ball, and positioned himself accordingly to prevent the next pass, or to make a tackle. He also used the ball well when he had it.

I think that's the problem, near the end i think we needed someone just to calm the back 4 down. I was looking at Nelson to steady the ship, especially when the keeper and Nolan had some words with each other after Leeds had a chance, but he didn't.

I thought Antwi was fine today and i read a Swindon fan saying he was our best player on Sat

I thought the midfield two were good today but we need to see it week in, week out

Not with you? I said his game much like Humphreys was none too shabby. (its a compliment)

i thought we by passed the mid field a bit today and played into their hands by doing that
the little display towards the end of the first half when we were playing keepy was very good passing play

Indeed, excellent. I had a mate with me from Leeds who again reckoned that we were still the best team he's seen Leeds play this season.

are you drinking heavily ? i'm no fan of barker but i can see why he stayed on today. wilson know we were under the cosh and fancied him to hold the ball up and waste some time. I thought elliott was man of the match, some superb crosses and excellent tackling. likewise nelson and antwi, both delivered their best performances of the season.

its a bad habit of mine, looking for positives from a game against the best side in the league that we outlplayed for long periods of the game.

And he scored how many?

well i thought moore was excellent today

who ?

i thought mooore would have been the best option to go up front today against a slow back four

mr I, can't agree with you

Leeds certainly aren't no great shakes are they? Don't like it up 'em! The tactic of hassling and harrying them at every opportunity worked a treat. However, there was still that nagging doubt that they'd get something from the game and unfortunately it came to fruition. You just don't gift players like Beckford chances like that at the death. We switched off for a second and it was 1-1.

Liddle was utter class, excellent game from that young man. As Mr I said, he seemed to be everywhere and involved in everything. Brown floats in and out of the game a tad too much but when he's involved he's a pleasure to watch. I thought the centre defensive pair played very well and Elliott also seemed steady enough and put some nice crosses in.

However, Boland failed to impress once again imo. He works hard but his end product is one dimensional, he's one paced and I thought Liddle carried him for parts of the game. I can understand Wilson's reasons for picking Barker but I'd have liked to have seen Mackay get at least 10 minutes at the end, I think he'd have caused Heath no end of problems.

agree

but i can see why barker stayed, i.e to hold the ball up and waste some time.

elliott MOM

it was stagnateing and we should have changed it rather than wait for them too
we had it in the bag wilson at fault for not bringing on fresh legs when baker was knackered

I'd have swapped humphreys for Matty for the last 15, we didn't really look like scoring another and leeds, well we know all about leeds and those last 10 minutes.

Mind, it was criminal giving beckford the space to score, can we not keep a clean sheet

Also with all of their big blokes on the pitch we needed him at the back to help out at corners and free kicks.




I agree Mr P, also everytime the ball came out from our box Boland was the first of our players closing players down

spot on chip
we had missed how many? early doors and they tightened up
fresh legs such as foley or mckay running at them would have kept them unsettled
as you say we sat back and gifted them the equaliser and almost three points

what some might call utility player

I was not impressed by Leeds at Walsall recently. Sounds like you had a similar experience. We played well but they offered nothing and we completely dominated them in the second half after breaking even in the first.

Clayton Ince had literally nothing to do all game, their goal was a massive deflection off a 30 yard free-kick on 87 minutes. I think their wheels may well fall off at some point in the new year, the question is will they buy their way to an unwholesome and undeserved promotion?

On a positive note, Port Vale throughly deserved all three of the points on offer at Fail Park yesterday. Cue Ricketts on 93 minutes to exploit the only decent cross all game to power a point blank header through the Fail keeper and send the Saddlers into a Boxing day carnival

Their players, manager and fans were not pleased!

Oh yeah, and we only had 10 men

They started the season on -15 and after our game yesterday they were top. They'll certainly be thereabouts come the end of the season and probably win the league. They have already won more games than anyone else by a country mile. To call that undeserved is an amazing statement.

you can't buy luck and the successful teams always get the lucky tag
but they were there for the taking and we blew it
we need a more mobile striker than barker because even if he is holding the ball we are doing nothing with it
and i just dont have a clue what we are trying to do at set pieces they seem to fall apart as soon as the ball is crossed
with the exception of nelson's goal we did nothing from them

I though we missed a trick in the last twenty. Barker should have been subbed and we should have introduced a bit more pace. They struggled against Moores pace all day and I can remember about four or five times when the ball dropped to Barker our on the left wing in the closing stages and the move stopped dead almost.

maybe Danny should stand in the town end he might see that too

I retract 'undeserved' but will defend 'unwholesome' to the hilt

But failed to beat them !
We let them off the hook 100% & I feel badly let down.
Im afraid at the minute I see a bunch of wimps,easily pushed around & bullied.It happened early on last season & is frustrating as hell,especially after the MK Dons game when we showed that we can stand up for ourselves.

I'm sorry but you can't throw that at them after yesterday. We battled and scrapped for every ball and outfought them in the first half. The fact they scored a last minute equaliser doesn't change that one bit. I know it was frustrating but we certainly weren't bullied by any stretch of the imagination it was more like the other way around

Sorry PJ,but we just didnt look like we wanted it enough or were prepared to get stuck in as much,maybe I seen it wrong but our players spent more time laid out than theirs did.

Unwholesome is a given for Leeds surely. You need a further insult.

ouch

who decided 12noon kickoff

match
budtz - some good saves wi feet
nolan - could have come forward more
nelson - shouts of nelse/mine would help every now and then
antwi - makes me nervous
elliott - i dunno - good game with bad points - slow/no malice in the tackle
liddle - shit kicked out of him - but very classy
boland - aye ok stuff
humpty - committment - nowt flash
barker- 70 min man
moore and brown - non stop running - keen - role swap was good

crucial point in game - 75 mins in - liddle pegs it forward to chase lost cause - leeds shit emsels - 2 mins later moore the same - that would have been subs on for me there n then - stretch em tire them out

sweeney for brown...

they were shite we should have won we didnt - still in the melting pot if you ask me

SPOT ON CHIP AND THAT WAS FROM OUR FIRST CHOICE STRIKER SADLY

Trust me, this feller is the definition of unwholesome......

it was a bad miss!!

What like Nelson did, eh, what a puff, I mean an elbow straight to the kipper and he went down like a big girl

Maybe if he had gotten his own elbow in first it wouldnt have happened.

i said the same thing, the subs should of been Bullock for Brown and Foley or Mackay for Barker.......

it was a shocker - there was time to steady himself and at least make the keeper do some work......

supposed to be a seasond striker it should have at least tested the keeper