 Sunday, 5th Feb 2012 11:33 by Tim Whelan Once again Leeds found it hard going against eleven men, but once Bristol City’s strength had been reduced by a couple of sendings off it was all plain sailing.
Neil Redfearn made a couple of changes to give strengthen our defence down both sides of the pitch. Pugh came in for Townsend, while our latest loan signing Adam Smith came in at right back in place of Zac Thompson. Our other loan signing Robbie Rogers had to be content with a place on the bench.
For much of the first half the home side were on top and our former player Kilkenny was at the centre of some fine passing moves, despite a bit of rough treatment from the Leeds midfield. Their first opportunity came when Adomah tricked his way through a crowd of players on the edge of the box to get his shot in, but Lonegran managed to get a hand to the ball to palm it to safety.
Our best effort in the early stages came when Delph went reasonably close from outside the box, but at the other end Adomah tested Lonegran again with a fierce right foot shot when City broke away after a Leeds corner. But then the game swung our way with two key incidents during the last five minutes of the first half, starting with the well worked move that gave us the lead.
Clayton’s chip found Pugh on the edge of the area, and he slipped it to Mc.Cormack, who spotted Snodgrass making a late run into acres of space to his right. The unmarked Scotsman was left with the simple task of hammering his shot past James to put Leeds in front. Perhaps Snoddy likes playing at Ashton Gate, as I remember him scoring another fine goal at the same end last season.
Only a minute later, City suffered the first of their two red cards, as McCormack and Wilson chased a long ball down the centre. McCormack just got to the ball first and a slight nudge from Wilson knocked him off balance and he sank to his knees. The referee deemed that he’d been denied a clear goalscoring opportunity and produced a red card, perhaps a little harshly.
Even then City could have grabbed an equaliser before half time, but Kilkenny’s left foot shot drifted just wide of the post. And that was the last we saw of the gobby Australian as he was substitiuted at half time, a little surprisingly as he’d been having a good game, and you’d have thought they needed a bit of inspiration if they were to draw themselves level.
It was no surprise that after the break we began to dominate possession, and we thought we’d doubled the lead when Snoddy’s tricky run into the area was followed by a neat chip to the far post, but McCormack had strayed slightly offside by the time he nodded the ball into the net. Then in the 58th minute the Robins were reduced to nine men. Bolasie clipped Smith as our new full-back went past him, but it may have been accidental, and it certainly seemed very harsh to give him a second yellow.
We needed this second dismissal to make up for the fact that Birmingham had nobody sent off on Tuesday, so this restores the average to one per game, with five opposition players getting a red card in the last five matches. From now on it was inevitable that huge gaps would appear in the home side’s defence, and it was easy for us to create further chances. Snoddy had a shot cleared off the line after beating three players with a great run, and McCormack had another goal ruled out for offside. O’Dea had a header saved by James and White went close, before the second goal finally arrived with eleven minutes remaining. Clayton’s chip found McCormack in plenty of space, and he took one touch to get it under control, before smashing a powerful shot past James. That seemed to have made the game safe, but even then our dodgy defence could gave given City a lifeline, when a free-kick found Fontaine completely unmarked, but thankfully Lonegran reacted brilliantly to turn his free header round the post.
That was our last scare, and we sealed the victory with a third goal as the game moved into injury time. Snodgrass chipped the ball across to Becchio, who chested it down to Pugh, and when the ball was returned to him the Argentinian turned and smashed the ball into the net. So once again we’ve ridden our luck, and amazingly we’re still only two points off the play off places. Now if we can start to play when the other side has eleven men then we might just get somewhere.
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