Leeds United 0 Hereford United 1
As I pulled into my usual parking spot last night I found the street completely deserted. Where was everybody? Had the game been called off without anyone telling me? No, it was just that the competition had failed to excite the Leeds United public, even with the prices reduced to a mere £15, as fans realised this competition was not our priority this season. The gate was an embarrassing 11,315, and that included about 1,500 from Hereford.
There were several players missing from the eleven that usually start in the league, but with one or two senior players unavailable for various reasons, there weren’t that many changes that Wise made out of choice. Westlake came back from injury and he resisted the temptation to start with Constantine, but he did decide to give Rui the night off and go with Heath and Huntingdon in central defence.
And that was a decision Wise was left to regret, as the two Hs were left floundering time after time by Hereford’s pace and movement up front, when Rui would have been far better equipped to snuff out the danger. In the fourth minute they failed to close Ainsworth down on the edge of the box, and just as I was expecting him to slip the ball to an unmarked man to his right, Ainsworth turned and hit a shot that trickled past Casper into the net.
And Hereford could have added to their lead when Ainsworth beat Parker for pace down their right and Casper allowed the cross to sail over his head, but luckily it was too far in front of the other forwards and nobody got on the end of it. Apart from that move I thought Parker did OK, though I though he might have been carrying a slight knock as the game wore on.
We woke up a bit after that, and Hughes showed his commitment by getting booked for a dangerous tackle, and risking a second yellow for the rest of the half by taking every opportunity to moan at the ref. Meanwhile Westlake and Howson had good shots blocked, as Hereford’s defenders proved more adept than ours at getting themselves in the way. A promising move saw Beckford put through, but he gave himself too narrow an angle, and Hereford were able to knock the ball out for a throw.
At the other end Robinson had a great chance on the break, but a poor touch gave Casper the opportunity to knock it clear and Richardson raced back to prevent the corner. But immediately Casper went for a lie down in the area, and while I was hoping that he just wanted the lady physio to come on and rub his groin, it turned out that he’d gashed his leg. Hopefully he will get well soon, although Lucas seemed competent enough when he came on to replace him.
And it was more of the same in the second half, with Leeds still having plenty of possession without coming all that close to scoring, with Hereford looking lively on the break. On 66 minutes Wise made our second substitution, with Constantine replacing Westlake to leave three up front, but I would have kept the shape of the side by removing the equally ineffectual Kandol.
The result was that the forwards didn’t seem to work out what they were supposed to do in that formation, and Constantine started to drop back to stop Kandol getting in his way, though at least Beckford was working hard. We did manage an inventive free kick, with Howson flicking the ball up and Hughes returning it for the volley, but once again the shot was blocked.
And our best chance of the night came in the 73rd. minute, but Brown made an excellent save to keep out a header from Beckford. As the clock ticked down Weston replaced Carole and Heath came forward to be yet another big lump up front, but all to no avail. We still didn’t look like scoring, but just to make sure, Brown started to take several months over every goal kick.
After three minutes of injury time the ref put us all out of our misery with the final whistle, and Hereford had gone through with a deserved victory. Most of the sparse crowd went home moaning that the wheels had come off our season, but I’m not so sure. Apart from the usual excuses that several players were missing and the number of games we’ve had to play, I also think that the lack of atmosphere played it’s part. It’s hard to convince the players the game really matters without the 30,000 who roar them on in the league, so in part this explains the lacklustre performance. Sunday will tell us how motivated this team really are, so bring on Cheltenham!