FA Carling Premiership Game 28: Wednesday 10 March 1999 Leeds United 2 - 0 Tottenham Hotspur (Half-time: 1 - 0) Crowd: 34521 Referee: N S Barry (Scunthorpe)
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Open wide, and here's 2 spoonfuls of Yorkshire goodness! - John Lee

Tottingham - Jeez I feeling a little hoarse today - not shouted or sworn at a game that much for ages! Excellent game last night - 10 great performances, with the 1 startlingly bad showing , even for him, from Jimmy! OK, the bad first, and that means Jimmy. So, up against one of the best 2 defenders in the country, it doesn't help much when you've lost the battle before getting on the pitch. I've never seen such an unwilling cowardly display, even from that work-shy fop! Jimmy actually challenged for 2 balls in the air last night which amazed me - fouls against him for leading with his elbow both times! Quelle surprise. As Campbell had him for speed too, Jimmy simply gave up! And after the clattering foul on Bowyer and our free-kick from just outside the box - Jimmys shot was f***ing abysmal! All this talk of Jimmy & Huckerby next year, or Jimmy and Van Hooydoonk - wake up suckers, it'll be Smith and Huckerby or the like, and we'll then have a team that's mobile all over the park, and competitive too! The more I see of Jimmy, the bigger the waste of a shirt he is!

Anyway, onto the good. Alf Inge Haaland - best game ever for Leeds, dynamic running, tackling like only Alfi can, linked down the right side very well with Smith. I was, to be honest, quite amazed that he had that sort of game in him! Kewell, whilst losing a lot of possesion by taking on 2 men each time, worried them time and again, whilst Batty slotted into the deep role like a bloke who we've just spent 5million on to do just that! Spurs, and especially those c***s Sherwood & Freund both took Bowyer out, and Sherwood, the chisel-chinned Cockney w*nker also stood on Bowya for good measure. It genuinely took me back to Souness days to see such a challenge only get a yellow card - he should have gone! One word for Martyn - didn't have much to do, but one excellent double-save kept them goal-less - much respect for that!

The officials - well the ref went off with 5 minutes to go - apparently Graham wanted to bring another one on as this set of officials weren't biased enough for him. In the 1st half the linesman on the West Stand side, under direct orders from their bench, gave a series of the most bewidering, biased and LATE offside decisions I've ever seen in my life! He kept on putting his flag up way after the ball had been played as the receiving player got the ball. He simply doesn't know the rule - i.e. when the ball is kicked!

Martyn 7+
Woodgate 7+
Radebe 8
Weatherall 7+
Harte 7+
Haaland 9
Batty 8+
Bowyer 7+
Kewell 8
Hasselbaink 0
Smith 7+

And I know it won't stop some of you, but the jury just walked in, and with a 12-0 majority, JIMMY IS CRAP!!!

vs Tottenham - Nick Allen

It was a comfortable victory against a team that had come to defend, which given what several of us have said about our inability to break down these defensively minded teams, was quite a relief. To my mind we never really looked under serious pressure, and we dominated the first half totally, without making more than a few clear chances.

Our passing and movement was crisp, with Harry especially, but Smith, Bowyer and Jimmy all causing problems. I'd like to point out that although the other forwards will get their praises sung this morning - quite right too - people shouldn't underestimate Jimmy's role yesterday. It was obvious that he was going to be man marked by Campbell, so Jimmy not only made sure he was busy, but he pulled him all over the back four, constantly taking him out of position, leaving space for the other boys to do their stuff. And let's face it Spurs aint got a defence if they aint got Campbell.

Unlike Leeds whose defenders were on top throughout. Woodgate mopped up anything that Alfi let get by him - which wasn't much - namely Ginola. Lucas and Wetherall were solid and composed again, as was Harte. Although the distribution of all of them let them down a bit at times. Martyn is beginning to worry me with his unwillingness to come for the high ball, I hope its just a blip in his confidence. He is still a world class shot stopper, but his lack of dealing with crosses puts his defenders under unecessary pressure.

Smith, Bowyer, Alfie, Jimmy, and Harry, all pulled wide or blasted over from decent chances. Alfie was a revelation. Thundering tackles, reasonably good distribution, and even some attacking breaks down the right, his cross for Harry's goal was measured. With him and Batty, and Bowyer our midfield was solid, and gave a lot of needed protection to the back 4. Hopkin no more!

The goals:

1. Kewell charging towards the box, attempts a 1-2 with Jimmy, there's a ricochet, back into Harry's path, who's through on goal, a defender is all over him, he takes it a touch too far, and Walker blocks the shot - Harry should have scored - the ball spoons up, and Smith smashes it home with a flying volley from 8 yards.

2. A run at the centre of Spurs defence - Harry or Bowyer - into Jimmy, out to Alfie, who steadies himself, looks up and throws in a swinging dipping cross to the far post, which Harry meets and heads into the bottom corner. Nice finish, but a real defender wouldn't have let him get anywhere near the ball.

The biggest problem last night was the officials, again. Sherwood fouled - worth a booking - Bowyer, and then stamped on him as he got up. On Bowyer's head. How the ref and/or the linesman saw nothing is beyond me. I was fucking livid, it was violent conduct, and the FA should see the video. Then Freund, continued GG's tactics from the last match - stop Bowyer and Harry and you stop Leeds - by hacking Lee on the half way line. Tempers were frayed by now and it all got a bit lively, so how he escaped a booking I don't know. Only to be booked a few minutes later for a tap on Jimmy's heels which didn't even bring him down. They should have been down 9 men after 25 minutes. And this is not one of those situations that I know KOT gets upset about where the fans bay for an opposition player to be sent off, these were bad, dangerous challenges and the only way players are going to learn is to send them off. Especially when you see those two sendings off at OTrafford on sunday, where neither player made contact. The standards of refereeing at the moment are a joke.

Then we've got the linesmen - who apart from not having the bottle to give "controvertial" decisions, and not knowing the offside rule - somebody has already said that the offsides given last night were laughable - What was going on yesterday. We had one guy in front of us Kop/ WStand in the first half, so he was watching Leeds' forwards for offside, then he switched to the other side EStand/SStand for the second half, and so was responsible for our offsides again - I thought you got each linesman for a half - but then, when the ref went off, the linesmen stayed on the same sides of the pitch, but switched halves - so he became Kop/EStand corner. !!!

POINTS
MARTYN -7- two great saves.
WOODGATE -7- covered Alfie well, went all wobbly 15 minutes from the end, which was frankly bizarre.
WETHERALL -7- wins what he goes for, but shits himself when the ball is at his feet, I fear that he may leave in the close season as we get Hiden and Molenaar back.
RADEBE -8- bollocks to those who say he's not all there at the moment, he's streets ahead of any other defender on our books.
HARTE -7- another top game.
HAALAND -9- I'm going top give him MOTM just because I never thought that I would.
BATTY -7- very composed game. This must mean the end for Hoppo.
BOWYER -7- Everywhere again. But he needs some protection - every team targets him, the punishment he takes is frightening.
KEWELL -8- if only he could finish, he would be awesome.
SMITH -8- was great - got stuck in, ran at them etcetc
HASSELBAINK -7- no goals, but a valueable contribution.

SUBS - what had McPhail done to merit being "warmed up" for the last 25mins. solid. And not get on?

O'Leary - some of the all-time great "angry touchline ranting" went on last night. And at the final whistle he charged out of the dugout give the bent arm salute to the Kop - top man.

Kewell bursts Graham's bubble - David Hopps

Copy from Football Unlimited of 11/03/1999.

George Graham's rejuvenation of Tottenham Hotspr had been such that their unbeaten Premiership record stretched back to a defeat against Chelsea in mid-December, but there was much satisfaction around Elland Road last night as the side he abandoned, Leeds United, brought it to an end in convincing fashion.

A goal in each half from Alan Smith and Harry Kewell consolidated Leeds' hold on fourth place, with Spurs mustering limited attacking threat in their first defeat in all competitions for 17 games.

© Guardian Media Group plc

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