Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

Marginal differences can alter footballing lives forever, whether it’s in the difference between a good referee and a bad referee, a good Leeds team or a bad one, a good day out or a bad one! Yesterday that difference came to me, a combination of a bad referee, a neither good nor bad Leeds team and a good day out resulted in yours truly actually enjoying his football. That hasn’t happened for a while.

Dispense with the preliminaries quickly shall we? The rail replacement was ok (apart from a information vacuum at “Olympic” Stratford), added time to the journey but limited grating factor, Essex is still a land with an overpopulation of the fwitwit (loved the bouncer at our after pub who asked “home or away lads” in that accent called innit and just waved us in as two Yorkshire accented lads said “live in Essex”, priceless), the beer beforehand (in sunny Chelmsford) and after (near Colchester North station after a bit of walk from the ground) was decent and the non football part of the day was quite nice also (and even that involved a Leeds United bib!).

The Community Stadium seems to have been built in a field on the edge of the posh side of town, the vista on seeing it for the first time reminds you of a Middle East style ground, surrounded on all sides by, well nothing. On entering, via the people less turnstile the facilities’ looked ok (declined to check out the IPA smooth on offer, I have principles and taste), a cross between Hull’s and Southampton’s style (always nice to see a bog not crowded), the view from my seat almost perfect but the seat itself was a little bit plastic and “cheap”. The rest of the ground seemed ok but I wouldn’t want to be inside on a dodgy Tuesday night in January, the lack of corner stands would make for a cold, wet in parts, experience. The Police control box on the other side from us looked excessive but all in all a decent looking ground for a “smaller” club.

This “smaller” club mentality at Colchester United didn’t stretch to dealing with the departure of manager Paul Lambert to Norwich City, the programme notes bulged with resentment and a touch of anger. This did however have the advantage of limiting the number of references to the 1971 cup game, which is always a good thing to limit. The standout name on their team sheet was Alan Maybury, yes ex occasional right back in O’Leary’s young guns team, I mention this now because I don’t recall seeing much of him during the game! For reasons best known by the editors, no league table in the programme, guarantee that wasn’t true in the programme after the 7-1 win at Norwich!

The game itself was a mixed bag, I thought we started brightly enough and if we had a linesman who knew the offside rule we would have been ahead after Becchio played a lovely pass to Beckford, unfortunately we were destined for a whole set of garbage officialdom, the best of which was the referee. Almost as if choreographed, he started making strange decision after strange decision, some for us, some for them just as both sides settled down to a frustrating chance free pattern of midfield battles and minor skirmishes. Bookings flew around like confetti (but bizarrely not for the bad tackles, what Beckford got his for god only knows) and Mr Phillips put on a McDermid (as in the cretin from the Gillingham game 2 seasons ago) performance. Half time couldn’t come quick enough for me. Wait i hear you cry, i thought you enjoyed it, well I did, it just wasn’t any good quality wise. I was enjoying not being surrounded by lunatics, I was enjoying the summer sun, I was enjoying a strange feeling that no matter how I examined it the lack of cutting edge in our midfield wasn’t bothering me. Becchio was working his socks off, Kisnorbo looked effective (if a touch lean for a centre back), Crowe ok but slightly disjointed, Higgs steady and Doyle, well their without being obviously there. Normally by now I would be critical of our inability to create chances against very poor looking opponents but I just felt we were going to win regardless.

Second half started in the same comedy refereeing style of the first half, by the time he gave us the lucky free kick that we scored the first from both sets of players were shaking their head in dismay. What happened next was pure icing on the incompetent cake; cross comes in, Johnson pulls and pushes his way to in front of the goal, heads home, 1-0. Now bare in mind he has already been booked (one of at least 7), a few seconds later he and half our team are in with our support, the ref is running over and has his cards in his hands, it looks like Johnson is going to get a second booking and off, that is until Snodgrass and Howson start talking to the ref suggesting Bradley was pulled into the crowd, phew that was close.

As can be the case a lot with us, we go ahead and let the other team back in it. By this time the U’s had opted for lump ball, which only added to Mr Phillips’s options for idiocy. I didn’t need the confirmation from the Football League show that Marques (who otherwise had a decent game) had slightly touched the back of Lisbie’s shirt nor that Lisbie had gone down like he had been shot, I could see that from the other end. Question for you, what is the difference between Eduardo and Rooney? One is a foreigner who “cheats” whilst the other is a Englishman who “earns” penalties, pathetic, bit like Mr Phillips. Despite it taking a month of Sundays for the referee to be happy for the penalty to be taken Lisbie despatched it home. Some mild frustration at this point, mostly with the absence of Beckford from any meaningful part of the second half, but again still chilled out expecting a response.

That response came in a rather strange manner, the ball was pinging about the Colchester penalty box but not really causing them an issue when all of a sudden it took a wild deviation off Maybury’s head, at this point I bellow “Beckford” so loud Gary Megson must have heard it, Jermaine certainly did because like a shot he was on to the ball 5 feet out a lashed it home. Not bad for his first second half contribution. Was the bow in the goal celebration significant, no idea but will do by Tuesday night! The rest of the game is played out to a yo-yo style exchange of long balls. Even as the fourth official shows 4 minutes of injury time the normal “this is where we blow it” feeling wasn’t there. 6 minutes later it’s all over and a win is a win.

If i wanted to be critical I could mention our lack of a real cutting edge and a nervy central midfield, I could point to some issue at left-back and a tendency to get dragged down to Colchester’s dire level, but that is for another time, I felt relaxed, we looked like a team, we had people like Becchio, Snodgrass and Howson working their socks off, we are winning playing average, now that’s new! All in all it was a day to take the pints and let Colchester worry about the entertainment angle. Southend on a Friday night doesn’t look so troublesome now, I could get used to this.

Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article

I’m not a fan of previews of games, they tend to be speculative and uninformative, rarely go beyond a basic format and I certainly never intended they would be part of the Clarkeonenil mix. However I have decided to make an exception on this occasion, for three reasons. 1) because it’s a visit to a new ground, 2) because it’s my first Leeds game of the season and 3) to see if I can bring a more “hardened glare” to the concept.

Colchester United are a football club that despite our limited amount of contact over the years remains close to the memory of the older Leeds fans, the FA Cup misery of 71 (as constantly referenced by the media). Recent contact as had its moments also, the defeat at the old Layer Road on our way out of the Championship in 07 being one to avoid lingering on. I recall thinking their team that played at Elland Road earlier than season as being one of the worst I had ever seen. The win at the new stadium last season only compensated for a home defeat during the still unexplained loss of form during the dying embers of Gary McAllister’s reign. Colchester are not quite as irritating as Gillingham in my eyes yet but similar to that other Essex based team we visit soon, Southend, they come close.

Mention of the new stadium brings me to one of those ridiculous arguments you can guarantee in build ups to games in them: the “old grounds are better than new boxes” discussion. Lets be clear, the new “Community Stadium” could either be as feeble as the Walkers and the Riverside or as impressive as the City of Manchester or the Emerites, it matters not, Layer Road was about as bad as it gets, facilities were a disgrace to farm animals never mind people, glad to see it gone! The only reason I haven’t already “ticked off” the new ground was transport chaos last April (which combined with other issues scuppered a day out I’d looked forward to all season). Simular issues on the train front exist this weekend but I’m going come hell or high water.

The other thing that isn’t going to stop me attending is the Upton Park factor. We have seen a lot of coverage on that incident earlier this week, the Leeds forums have included some idiotic brave words about reminding the country what our feral can do, we know that Essex is WHU country, so what? None of it matters, 99.9% of us are going to a match, that other 0.1% can go screw and take the consequences of their actions from Essex Police. I’m going to drink before hand, drink after (taking in the ManU v Arsenal game hopefully), meet someone special to friends of mine and hopefully get treated as a human being in-between.

Having written of our chances of going up automatically and walking the division I find myself about to attend a game whilst Leeds sit top of the league and on a 100% game record. A little early in my book to be extrapolating that to celebrating in May but even so all the signs (as witnessed through video, television and reports) are good. Their remains the rather obsessive reliance on all things Beckford that operates so long as the transfer window remains open (4 days and counting as I type) to slightly blacken the sky (and let’s not forget the permanent black cloud called Bates) but Grayson could hardly have done any more with the present squad in the early games. If I’m wrong about his tactical judgement I am happy to be so, still concerned about when the pressure is on but if we carry on like this that pressure may never materlise. Personally I would settle for a point, a sign that we can come away from games against sides on form and hold our own, no point trying to replicate our 2007-08 start, Colchester look a good side, even after Lambert’s departure.

Our signings will come under specific scrutiny from me, don’t care how many plaudits others have already given I need to see for myself Higgs is as good a shot-stopper as Ankergren and how Crowe has improved the defensive issues around right-back and how Kisnorbo plays. Doyle will be interesting, especially in the context of whether it’s him, Grayson or Howson himself under orders that is restraining the young captains attacking surges. Obviously with Tuesday looming large Beckford’s body language will be closely analysed (if it is his last game for us I want him to work his socks off ala Becchio, setting his partner up in the way he has had) and I hope also to see either Parker or Kilkenny get some sort of run out.

As I indicated earlier, happy to settle for something out of the game, even more happy to have a relaxed day out (although I suspect the bus replacement between Witham and Colchester will grate) but the big thing will be whether something has changed since the disappointment of Millwall in the play-offs, can I enjoy watching my team and for 90 minutes put behind me the irritations of the last 7 seasons and the spectre of who controls the club? Here’s hoping.