Leeds United v Scunthorpe United

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Football League One

Leeds United :
Ankergren, Douglas, Marques, Naylor, Parker, Kilkenny (Trundle 56), Howson, Delph, Snodgrass, Beckford, Robinson (Johnson 15), Trundle (Michalik 88).
Subs not used:
Lucas, Grella.

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Byrne, Crosby (Thompson 85), Pearce, Mills, Sparrow, Togwell, McCann, Woolford (Hayes 56), Hooper, Odejayi (Lansbury 81).
Subs not used:
Lillis, Wright.

SULSESC REPORT

by Matt Gray at Elland Road

I'm sure you all know the feeling. The wide eyed shock of the dawning realisation, the empty knowing of the disappointment, the sinking feeling of helplessness, that this time there's no getting away from the obvious.

You have to do the SULSESC match report...

Oh god, what to write about? How much to write? When to do it? How to do it? The sweaty palms and the nauseous anxiety that sits in your stomach until it's all finished.

This time, it's different. This time, there is simply too much to fit into one smeasly report. Yes, that's right, smeasly - if Mr Sumner can use 'stymied' - during a game of Black Maria, then I'm going to fill this report with various incantations of the finest verbal diarrhoea.

So, this tale begins on the 0905 out of Kings Cross with Messrs Skeels, Sumner, Watson, Wright and yours truly. Seemingly the entire London branch of the Leeds Supporters Club had as one taken over the train, leaving the five of us to boldly plough through the unwashed hordes of West Yorkshire, repelling all invaders to install base camp and our own little corner of claret and blue. Sentry Watson stood guard whilst the four of us settled in for the traditional cards and dissemination of the morning's sports pages.

Yet, things would begin to disseminate from here amidst a whirl of unmitigated erroneousness. Mr Skeels conjuring up a bum deal on the first hand, Mr Sumner befuddling us with his vocabulary and a non-scheduled delay outside Newark station for thirty minutes.

Oh yeah, there was a football match too and a jolly fine one at that. Losing 3-2 at Elland Road can't really be called a disappointment, but after a rousing display from the Iron, and the strike of the season from Gary Hooper, Nigel Adkins offered a fair assessment that Scunthorpe 'deserved more from the game'!. Ok it could be argued that no team should deserve anything when the defending was as kamikaze as Scunny's was. Indeed, Crosby, Byrne and Murphy should know all about Jermaine Beckford, yet the former Iron striker was given far too much time and space on the ball, and he punished us when it mattered.

For me, the match will be worth remembering simply for Gary Hooper's one man wonder goal. Winning the ball only just inside the Leeds half on the right wing touchline, he advanced forward, beat three defenders, continued apace into the box and rifled a shot into the top right corner of the Leeds goal. Cue huge celebrations for a simply marvellous piece of footballing individualism! Forget the result, what a goal!

So, at the time of writing, a fourth straight defeat and now we find ourselves just outside the playoffs, but with a lot left to play for and to look forward to. It's fantastic that we're are going back to Wembley and even more so that, for many Scunthorpe supporters, this will be their first visit to the new stadium, and it will be to see the Iron on the hallowed turf.

We are now living through arguably the greatest period of Scunthorpe United's history. Once again, we are coming to the end of a season with realistic promotion chances and as a first, a cup final to contest. When have Iron fans had it this good? Yet still the cretins of Iron Bru claim the board lack ambition and demand 'Adkins out'!! Utter bunkum and hogwash!! Presently, we have sold just 6000 tickets for Wembley and fewer than 3,500 attended the home match against Walsall.

Before this minority start throwing around these ridiculous posturings, maybe they should look at the evident 'ambition' of the fans instead?