The difference between today and every away game mentioned above is Brian McDermott. Under his first two games, Leeds have been better, picking up two wins out of two against Sheffield Wednesday and Burnley. His next challenge was to win a game away from Elland Road. Undoubtedly easier said than done, but I was confident. So confident, I put us on an "away teams" accumulator. Very risky. Could we win? Could we score? Could we even score in the first half?
For a brief second, it looked as if we wouldn't get to see whether we scored. We nearly died on the way to Elland Road. Genuinely. With Kez's brother Sean in the driving seat, we were very nearly cut up by a stupid old fool who'd got himself in the wrong lane approaching the M621. "Come on Eileen" was turned off, abusive gestures were made and James noted down the registration plate of the driver in question in case of any claims of whiplash. I think I can feel my neck twinge as I write this. As you can tell, I'm a bit of a Leeds United bad luck charm and although my untimely death would have probably ensured a Leeds victory, I'd rather be alive. Sean himself claims to be a Liverpool fan, but was desperate to attend another Leeds away game after trips to Arsenal and Manchester City and today was the day. He's clearly a closet Leeds fan and, after our near death experience, we all piled out of his car and onto the coach. Birmingham isn't incredibly far away and the journey passed fairly easily. St. Andrews is widely known for the fact that Leigh Bromby's long-throw could reach the McDonald's down the road and so naturally, that was our first stop. I watched as Kez, James and Sean all won something half decent on the McDonald's monopoly before opening mine. Two Instant Wins. One was a fruit-bag. The other was an apple pie. Hideous.
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We arrived in the ground and confirmed what we'd already found out by looking at our ticket; we were very close to the pitch. Row five in fact. I know what you're thinking and yes, it was a shit view. Almost as shit as some of the shooting we were watching in the warm up as Habibou, Morison and White all succeeded in hitting people in the stand. Good job then that none of them were starting. McDermott opted to pick the same side that defeated Burnley on Tuesday whereas his opposite number Lee Clark made one change from midweek, replacing Morgaro Gomis with Hayden Mullins.
A good start was imperative but it was Birmingham that looked the brightest with both Ravel Morrison and Nathan Redmond looking lively. A player of their kind is something that Leeds have lacked for years and they were to torment the Leeds back four all day. Morrison had the first meaningful effort on goal when a combination of the woodwork and Jason Pearce somehow kept out his looping, goal-bound effort. Pearce is someone who you can never trust with the ball at his feet but was called upon a few times in the early stages to make vital blocks, one denying Zigic before Morrison spooned the follow up high and wide. Leeds responded with a few chances of their own. The highly rated Jack Butland in the Birmingham goal made a mess of dealing with a Rudy Austin strike, dropping the ball at the feet of Varney who's effort was blocked well by Curtis Davies. Leeds then won a succession of corners before Michael Tonge's curler brought the best out of England's finest goalkeeping prospect. Down the other end, Redmond and Morrison continued to impress and two chances were created; one went wide but the other was on target and held by Kenny. The final chance of the half was to fall to the visitors and after some questionable defending McCormack volleyed into the arms of Butland who held on to it well. An even first half ended 0-0, making it game number twenty where The Whites had failed to score in the first period. Impressive.
At the start of the second half, McCormack clipped the crossbar with a free-kick and the Birmingham defence was on hand to twice deny a Leeds team that was attempting to play football with little luck. A problem with playing Brian McDermott's style of football is the fact that we aren't actually very good and as the game wore on, more and more passes began to go astray. On the hour mark, McDermott made his first change, replacing Michael Tonge with Lee Peltier. Although the Birmingham announcer tried to tell us that Rudy Austin was the man replaced, I'm fairly sure the player that went off was white. The move saw Sam Byram shift to right midfield, with Peltier filling in at right back. In his more attacking position, Byram was the next man to have an attempt at goal, but after Butland had again fumbled, the young Leeds right back hit the side netting from a tight angle. The longer the game went on, the less likely it looked that Leeds would score and as expected, it was the hosts that took the lead somewhat fortuitously. A long strike from distance was half dealt with by Kenny but the Leeds stopped only succeeded in palming it straight at the feet of Mullins who easily applied the finishing touch. I'm a goalkeeper myself and had I conceded the same goal, I'd feel I could have done a lot better. It was disappointing and ensured Leeds were now chasing the game.
The continued lack of quality was evident and although an Austin volley from distance had to be saved well by Butland, Leeds never looked like equalising. If anything, Birmingham could have scored again and after a mazy run, Chris Burke fired his strike an inch over the crossbar. Kez summed it up perfectly. "When we're 1-0 up at home we always seem to be clinging on, but these are taking the piss". It was true. They were keeping the ball and knocking it around well, something we continuously fail to do when attempting to close out a game. Something we fail to do in general in fact. The game wasn't to end without some drama though. In the ninetieth minute, the stewards stood up, clearly in case of some post-match trouble. None of us had a problem with it, except for one solitary woman who now apparently couldn't see the game. She pursued a one-man tirade against the stewards, screaming every possible expletive at them. After utilising every swear word on Urban Dictionary, they finally sat down. Why she wanted to continue watching the game was beyond us; she'd have had more fun staring into the steward's torso.
The coach home dragged and there wasn't much to think about in summary of the game. It was simply not a good performance and a poor game. There was one major positive though. After two wins, it would have been very easy for McDermott to potentially think the job at hand isn't a massively complex one. In truth, it is and today's game will have gone some way in reinforcing the idea that a lot of work has to be done. Hopefully McDermott is the man to do it. It would be good next season for the league's greatest away support to travel around the country following a successful team.
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