Good for motorway views.
In the second of our series of guest writers, Robert Law goes home.
As a right I should be a Walsall supporter rather than the Leeds fan I am, to those that know me and where I reside will know that I’m only a handful of junctions up the M6 from the Walsall ground so can be at the Banks’s Stadium within 30 mins on a good day (even though good days are very few and far between if you know the M6 around that area). I’m also closely linked by my heritage. I come from a family who’s roots are firmly grounded in and around Walsall, their stomping ground was the old Fellows Park, which now makes a living dressing up as a Morrisons Supermarket, in fact my father was born within a goal-scoring cheer from Fellows Park just the other side of the road, my Mother used to manage a Walsall Youth side named Reedswood Combine that had players who went on to play for Walsall. My Grandfather now sadly departed used to regale me with stories of the famous FA Cup defeat of the mighty Arsenal in 1933 when they were just a lowly 3rd Division South team and Arsenal were top of the tree, but I find myself following a team from Yorkshire through the ups and downs.
As I said by rights I should be a follower of the Saddlers, but last night I found myself walking alongside fellow Leeds fans hoping for a better result and performance than last season when we were beaten by a single goal and were kept at bay by the heroics of Ince. The match started pretty brightly for Leeds with Beckford finding himself with half a chance on goal in only the second minute but a Walsall defender managed to block his attempt. Walsall spent long periods of the first half on the back foot with Leeds looking to take the opening goal, the end result though wasn’t forthcoming, in fact it seemed that nobody had any ideas on how to penetrate a Walsall team who seemed to have every intention of claiming a draw. The next real chance fell again to Beckford who met a Bradley Johnson cross brilliantly only to see Clayton Ince pull off an outstanding save, I began to get a feeling of deja vu and hoped that this wasn’t going to set the mood for the evening.
As the first half wore on the match started to become a scrappy battle between the respective midfield’s, with neither side having a decisive break on goal but with around 10 minutes of the first half left Walsall had a penalty appeal turned down (rightly so in my eyes) when Marques was alleged to have bundled over a fast advancing Walsall player, luckily the ref was close by and waved away the Walsall appeal. Not long before the half time whistle, we thought Beckford had got the goal we’d been waiting for, he managed to round the keeper and send the ball towards the net only to see a Walsall player block it, now whether it was blocked before it crossed the line we’ll never know as the linesman had flagged for offside. The half time whistle brought the game to a momentary close with the score goal-less.
The second half seemed to follow that of the first with Leeds dominating but showing no metal or ideas when it came to the final ball, it seemed clear that we weren’t using the width enough and were either pumping long balls up front hoping someone would get onto the end or trying to run into the barricade of 11 Walsall players all defending. As the game wore on and entered the last 20 minutes it seemed that it was going to be another one of those disappointing and frustrating nights, but then disaster struck as Marques pulled down Jones in the penalty area and the home side were awarded a penalty, the penalty was struck well, straight down the middle with Higgs diving to his right one nil to Walsall.
The goal seemed to awaken something within the Leeds players and they seemed to find another gear and within two minutes we were back level after a corner was met by a beautiful diving header by Bradley Johnson at the back post. Leeds continued to press and with only a few minutes left of normal time Beckford picked up the ball with his back to goal, turned and hit the ball on the half-volley past the outstretched arm of Ince and into the bottom corner sealing the win for Leeds.
One thing I must say is that the support from the Leeds fans was tremendous (apart from the few idiots that thought a mini pitch invasion was a good idea), they (myself included) never stopped singing throughout the match and put the home side to shame in fact it would have been difficult for an outsider to pick which set of fans were at home.
I may have a soft spot for Walsall and check on there results each week, but my heart was definitely a Yorkshire heart last night.
