Blues 1 Leeds United 0 .. Report

Last updated : 28 February 2007 By Richard Barker
Nicklas Bendtner's early goal separated the teams in a game that Blues probably did deserve to win, though they made harder work of it than they needed to against an absolutely shocking Leeds side. This time just six years ago Leeds were on their way to a Champions League semi-final against Valencia, but now they are heading for double headers against the likes of Hartlepool United, Walsall and Bournemouth in League One. Oh well, poor Leeds, eh?

Following Blues' embarrassing display at Leeds' rivals Hull City on Saturday, Steve Bruce made a number of changes. Stephen Kelly replaced the suspended Radhi Jaidi with Bruno N'Gotty switching to centre half, whilst Fabrice Muamba returned at the expense of Neil Danns who was so bad at Hull that even Julian Gray came back from wherever he was locked up and took his place on the bench. There was a completely new strike force too, with Bendtner and Rowan Vine replacing Cameron Jerome and the unlucky DJ Campbell who'd been recalled at Hull, done nothing wrong, been hauled off in a tactical switch after Jaidi's dismissal, and now been considered not good enough again. Interesting.

Blues started the better of the two sides, but with the way Leeds started given the precarious position, that's like saying that Jade Goody is slightly less racist than that bloke who was in Seinfeld. Although Blues were on top they didn't really create anything until a Gary McSheffrey free-kick was hacked away from goal after about quarter of an hour. McSheffrey took the resulting corner and found Bendtner, who'd made a good run to the near post and glanced a fine header into the top corner of Graham Stack's goal. The former Arsenal 'keeper should perhaps have done better, but regardless, it was good to see Bendtner on the scoresheet again having not scored since Leeds were last competing for honours at the top of the Premiership.

Blues continued to press for a short period of time having scored, but it didn't take long before they began to sit back and allow a team bereft of any confidence whatsoever somehow plunge to the depths of the confidence pool and drag up the slightest bit of confidence. Why do Blues let these teams into games? I'm sorry, and I know I often say that a lot of these teams are crap, but they are - Leeds are. Other teams don't give them chances to get into games, they just see them off. Blues should get back to doing that.

Anyway, in Leeds' mini-revival in the latter stages of the first half former Blues forward Robbie Blake tested Colin Doyle with a free-kick, whilst Rui Marques flashed a header over the bar, as did Richard Cresswell. Cresswell also thought he'd scored when some shocking Blues defending allowed him to clip the ball past Doyle before it hit the post, rebounded onto Stephen Clemence who'd chased back, before the Blues skipper cleared it off the line. The travelling Leeds fans claimed that the ball had crossed the line, and in my heart of hearts I hope that it did, just to grate with their fans even more.

Although Blues were in control of the game, it was actually Leeds who were creating the chances - Cresswell again went close when he should have scored before Kevin Nicholls fired over. Blues had allowed them a sniff of getting something out of the game though, so only really had themselves to blame. In such a game, getting an early goal should be a huge fillip, but Blues didn't seem to take advantage. Vine tested Stack, but Blues didn't create a great deal else.

The second half, in truth, was less eventful - Leeds lost the meak impetus that they had, whilst Blues continued to control the game, without actually doing that much with it. As Leeds began to throw men forward though, Blues began to create a few more chances. Clemence fired over when well placed before Bendtner was denied by Stack, then hit the post, and then fired over when well placed himself. Still, Leeds' complete lack of belief in themselves and shocking sense of resignation meant that they didn't really threaten to get an equaliser and Blues got the three points and headed back to the top of the pile.

So, what to make of it all…? Well, after the humiliation at Hull, Blues needed any kind of win, and they got it. They were considerably better than at Hull, but to be fair, all they had to do was turn up to better Saturday's performance. Still, at this stage of the season in a promotion race that looks to be tighter than Ken Bates, all you can do is win matches, and regardless of how bad you consider Blues to be, they top the league going into March and no one would have dismissed that out of hand at at the start of the season. They are in a position that 23 other teams would rather be in - you can't argue with that.

The worry, however, is that if they continue to play as they have been - lacking in any real vision, pace or movement in midfield - then they'll struggle to see off enough teams in their run-in to maintain their position. The midfield has become too static of late, and Blues are struggling to create. It's pretty much the same midfield that sent Blues flying up the league at the back end of 2006 when they were scoring 3 or 4 goals a game, so they can contribute, but it appears that they're all wary of this corrosion at the club at present and are almost being too disciplined.

One member of the midfield to whom the "too disciplined" tag can't be applied is Gary McSheffrey, who has gone from key player to main liability. Mat Sadler hasn't enjoyed a great season, but when you see how McSheffrey exposes him, it's easy to see why. McSheffrey is often unavailable when Sadler is looking for a pass down the line. On the many occasions Sadler overlaps McSheffrey, the former Coventry man too often plays a woeful ball that is intercepted totally exposing Sadler, and at present, far too often McSheffrey gives the ball away in general and leaves his defender exposed. McSheffrey was pretty poor last night, and even in stoppage time he tried to be clever and turn with the ball in his own half (in the middle of the park too, not on the left) and Leeds got the ball back and immediately bombed forward at Sadler. McSheffrey's form is a worry, and if he's off form and if he's going to play - remember he still set the goal up - then someone needs a quiet word in his ear telling him he's not in the form of his life at the moment, he needs to stop trying to be so clever and he needs to help Sadler out a little bit.

From one player slowly drifting out of form to one who looked like he was drifting back to form in Nicklas Bendtner. Having been dropped/rested at Hull (before Bruce realised he was our best player so had to play him for 45 minutes anyway - some rest...) Bendtner was back last night, and was excellent. There's too many people who criticise him for dropping deep, but that assisted Blues greatly last night. When your midfield is as lethargic as I've outlined above, you need a striker to drop into the hole with his back to goal and allow the midfield to drag themselves forward before linking the play, and Bendtner did this. On another day he'd have had a hat-trick too, and as for all this laziness rubbish, he was sprinting to take attacking throw-ins and all the rest of it - it was a fine display. Sure, he frustrates you on occasions, and sure, when you're that kind of player you'll lose the ball on occasions, but people should realise he's a fine player and his contribution is needed - without him Blues really would be considerably less effective.

Another notable mention to Colin Doyle who is appearing to shake off the nerves he displayed earlier on in his stint in the team. His kicking needs a bit of work and, to be honest, he hasn't been greatly tested of late, but his handling has been faultless and his command of his penalty area is excellent - he knows his penalty area and is often there sweeping up behind his defence when perhaps his predecessor would have been somewhat more tentative. He's improving game by game, and given his age (extremely young for a goalkeeper) his progress can only bode well for Blues.

Rowan Vine also had a fair game, but probably not enough to merit a whole paragraph. Oh, look at that. Ok then, he can have one.

Well, Blues are top of the league going into March, and as I've said above, you can't knock that. Despite all the "crisis" talk too, they have actually taken ten points out of their last five games, which isn't too horrific. Still, things aren't quite right, and there will be a need to score more than one goal in a game soon. They need to get back to creating/scoring more often. Not long ago only Albion had scored more goals than Blues in this league, but I think there's about five or six teams who have now, and Blues will need to kill teams off more emphatically because teams will nick goals against them. If the football doesn't improve somewhat, Blues will be in for a long hard slog, which is what I think frustrates Blues fans - we've all seen glimpses of Blues looking excellent this season, and IF they could get back, then they'd win the league.

If Blues keep going as they are, they'll still be there or thereabouts at the end of the season, but it'll be nervy and horrible. Wolves fans expected nothing this season and so they'll take nervy and horrible now, given how they've dragged themselves into the promotion picture. For Blues fans though, expectation is that much higher that nervy and scrappy isn't enough, and the problem is that fans sense that Blues aren't right at the moment, and that if things were right they could go on a run to win the league comfortably. Personally I'll take promotion if we storm to it or if we get it by goal difference, but let's face it, we'd all prefer the former and the fact that we know we could do it that way is the reason that everyone's a little bit stressed about it all. If it's scrappy 1-0 wins for the rest of the season though, well, I could deal with that too.

And as for Leeds? Well, it couldn't happen to a nicer team. I would imagine tears will be shed across the country when they get relegated.