FA Carling Premiership Game 19: Saturday 20 December 1997 Leeds United 2 - 0 Bolton Wanderers (Half-time: 0 - 0) Crowd: 31163 Referee: A B Wilkie (Chester-le-Street)
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Report from a Bolton fan - Andy Jackson

Team :

                      Ward
Bergsson     Fairclough   Todd      Philips
Johansen     Pollock      Frandsen  Sellars
             Beardsley
                          Blake

The first signs of impending doom were when we saw the line-up. With Thompson and Holdsworth suspended, the last thing we needed was Branny, Fish and Whitlow out.

The game started with an impeccibly observed minutes silence for Billy Bremner.

The first half was a drab affair with only one or two points worth noting: In the seventh minute a curling shot from (I think) Halle went narrowly wide. There was then a slight ermm physical disagreement between Pollock and Haisselbaink in which amazingly neither player got cautioned. Weve had players sent of for less than that on at least 3 occasions this season. This was indicative of the way the ref handled the game .. he seemed afraid to make any decisions, in fact in the most niggly game I've seen all season he didn't give the first free-kick until the 21st minute.

Jimmy then got himself booked for apparently breathing in the direction of Greg Louganis .. ermm I mean Wallace.

Blakey had a good chance a couple of minutes before the end , only he drifted wide and his shot went high wide and handsome..

The second half was more open, Bolton had the first chance , but Blakeys Header from 8 yards went straight down Martyn's throat. Leeds took the lead via a shot from Ribero that the unsighted Ward could do nothing about.

As Bolton chased the game, Carr came on for the in-eefectual Johansen and Leeds increased their lead as Fairclough was caught in two minds and Hasselbaink latched on to the loose balland easily slotted home.

Both teams had other chances , none of which were clear cut and the whites fans were disappointed with th quality of football on offer. The feeling amongst Whites fans was that perhaps Leeds shaded it but 2-0 was a flattering scoreline to them. We also found out why , despite our reputation, we aren't at the top of the indisicipline table as GG starts to form the New Arsenal.

Ward 6 - Solid. Unable to do anything on the the goals.
Berggson 7 - Wasn't really attacked, did everything he needed to
Philips (B)6 - Steady game. Looked un-easy on the ball (Surprise !)
Todd8 - Just gets better game by game
Fairclough7 - Was outstanding but at fault for the second goal.
Johansen (B)5 - Ineffectual all after-noon. Substituted.
Pollock 6 - Involved in one or two flare-ups. Combative all afternoon.
Frandsen6 - Wasn't given time on the ball to be affective
Sellars (B)8 - Quiet first half - outstanding second.
Beardsley (B) 7 - Showed good good touches second half
Blake7 - Worked hard for little reward.
Carr (S 75)5 - Was no better than Johansen

Ground 5 - One impressive stand - 3 shallow ex-terraces.
Away End 4 - First 3 rows below pitch level, no leg room , poor facilities.
Atmosphere 4 - Oh dear. The crowd of 31,000 sounded more like 300 for most of the game.
Programme7 - £2.00 good read - included special Billy Bremner insert. 68 Pages !!!
Fanzine 4 - Square Ball £1 A4 sized Fanmag - not the most original or entertaining read.
Pub 7 - Old Peacock. Intimidating atmosphere - nice for away fans to be allowed in a pub next door to the ground.

Bolton Match Report - Mike Sewell

First half highlights - Perfectly observed minute's silence; the Bolton fans clearly know enough about football to respect a great player's memory. Good on them.

Other notable events of the first half - erm, well the ref seemed as reluctant to book the dirty bastard Todd (his dad was a good footballer, he's just a cheat) as Poll had been to do the opposite to us a week previously. We didn't foul anyone for ages, and when we did the great david r went straight into the book. Kelly fled about 5 yards when the ref told him to get back at a free kick. Blake is slower at getting back from offside positions than fat Tony or deano ever were. The game meandered around. Wallace kept hogging the ball and not bringing others into the game. Molenaar looked quicker than previously and generally solid. We barely missed Lucas. The programme was excellent, 'cept that some company had got a job lot on kit sponsorship of all remaining players, thus denying the Benelux SC a moment of glory. Oh and we were having a good laugh at the expense of absent silly buggers who think the non-armchairs are a clique - not going to tell anybody what we said though.

Second half - the game was a bit more open. We pushed the fullbacks further forward - esp Halle to link with Kelly on the right. At times with davie R pushing on it was more like 3-5-2 than 4-42. How Todd, Pollock and 'elbows' Frandsen stayed on the field amazed me. After the previous week's card happy maniac, we got a guy who booked at random and obviously wouldn't produce a second yellow, no matter what. Bolton created a couple of chances but their forwards are crap. Good saves by Martyn. Beardsley committed a couple of bad fouls cos he's too slow to keep up with Kelly or Halle - only one card though. We had some pressure but never really played all that well. Then the ball fell to Bruno - who had been crap until then - and in he whacked it from 25 yds with his right foot just after I'd been mouthing off about how he should learn to be more two-footed. oops. If Nige had let that shot in I'd have been well brassed off. Wetherall than crunched someone from behind, they attacked half decently, we exploited space at the back reasonably but couldn't create chances or finish. Bowyer for Hopkin - who looked pissed off about it. Bowyer links better with Jimmy than Hoppo or Rodders (who gets in Jimmy's way), he looked lively for 10 mins. Jimmy out-muscled Fairclough, turned sweetly to wrong foot defender ansd goalie, and passed the ball into the net near the far post. A moment of class in a drab game.

Well I'm blowed, no one has much to say about Saturday - Voice of Football

1. Billy's silence - I was very moved by it. I looked out onto the pitch and tried to remember Billy haring around but 20 years is too long. Nice touch from the kop to sing "One Billy Bremner".

2. It took 22 minutes for the first foul to arrive "What an amazingly lenient ref" I exclaimed at one point. Wrong. It was Dr Jeckyll still waiting for the magic potion to kick in - "what an incompetent twat" was my next comment on Mr Wilkie 8 bookings later.

3. Did I ever tell you Jimmy Phillip's sister is a friend of mine?

4. Could someone please shoot that Irish git who sends "Michelle" into the Kop at half time. Irritatin by half. And how astute of Caspian to make sure no-one ever wins the car again by selecting people from the disabled section. Or that's what it's seemed like the last fortnight.

5. Rod Wallace has lost it again. Where have the little darting runs gone? He's even started falling over and scuffing shots!

6. Molenaar is excellent against teams like Bolton - nobody can compete with him physically. However, he is dodgy against pace and I fear for him at Anfield.

7. Brian Deane scored again on saturday. Groan. Swap deal for Hasselbaink anyone?

8. We are 100 times more likely to score against teams that attack us. Once we'd scored I felt sure that more would come. If you look at the fixture list we've got some bastard hard away games to come BUT I confidently predict we'll win a few of these (provided we keep 11 men on the pitch). Our piss-easy looking home games give more cause for concern.

9. David Weatherall is my new sex-god. I love him deeply.

10. Have I mentioned that Mark Lawrenson is a complete knob-head of the first water? He's bloody everywhere at the moment. Give me Jimmy Hill anyday.

11. What was the amusing comment shouted from the kop in the 1st half that had everyone laughing?

12. Nigel Martyn - fucking shite.

Erm......pretty abysmal. Sorry.

Graham's critics silenced now - Ian Ross

Tucked away on an underpass wall on one of the main arterial routes between Leeds city centre and Elland Road is a piece of graffiti about George Graham. In keeping with a city which boasts not only a Harvey Nichols store but an increasingly discernible sense of civic pride, the message is stylishly penned and grammatically sound.

The anonymous author's message was that to have replaced Howard Wilkinson with Graham as Leeds United manager was to sack the devil and replace him with Lucifer.

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