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LEEDS UNITED: Delph is star of brave new era
Leeds United 3 Walsall 0 Michael Ricketts braced himself for an unappreciative welcome at Elland Road on Saturday. Leeds United's supporters did not entirely disappoint but their mood made it clear that he is yesterday's news.
Ricketts, in fact, is last week's. The striker was taunted during Saturday's game between Leeds and Walsall, the subject of familiar and sarcastic chants recommending him for a second England cap, but the negative reaction to Ricketts was more obligatory than heartfelt.
His name is synonymous with a trying period in United's history, and there are no kind words with which to describe the two years in which he was contracted to Leeds.
Few have made the effort to find any, and Ricketts will not bother hoping that the passing of time will shed more positive light on that part of his career.
It was the definition of abject failure. From that particular era, however, Leeds have moved on.
The attention given to Ricketts on Saturday was patchy and without enthusiasm, much as it had been when Robbie Savage was played off the pitch at Elland Road a fortnight ago.
In comparison, the reaction to the substitution of Fabian Delph after 87 minutes was positively deafening, showering the young midfielder with adulation for another performance which revealed his brilliance.
Ricketts had been forgotten by then, and unsurprisingly so.
There was little chance of the crowd at Elland Road looking back with resentment when Delph represented a future of much intrigue and no small amount of potential.
United have dropped a division since Ricketts left but the club have more direction than the one he knew.
Delph completed a 3-0 victory on Saturday with two marvellous goals, both struck from long-range and reliant on his sublime control of the ball, but appreciation of his performance did not start or finish with those strikes.
The teenager was largely responsible for running Savage ragged during United's game against Brighton on October 11, and his presence was felt again by a Walsall team who flooded the midfield with five players and still found Delph forcing their heads below the surface.
His name was mentioned in dispatches on BBC Radio Five Live's popular phone-in on Saturday evening and, as Gary McAllister was forced to admit, there is no longer anything secretive about Delph.
There is much to admire, however, in his quick feet, his wonderful touch and the natural rhythm he brings to the midfield.
Special though they were, his goals were only the tip of his contribution.
By the time his second strike and Leeds' third beat goalkeeper Clayton Ince in the 87th minute, Walsall were severely losing control of a match that had seemed promising for them until 30 seconds after half-time.
They are not the first team to have found themselves bailing water in the dying stages of a game at Elland Road this season.
McAllister at one time had clear concerns about the effect that the atmosphere created by United's stadium was having on his squad, and the club's record under him was mixed initially, if far from desperate.
But Saturday's victory was their seventh win in succession at Elland Road, and the walls of that fortress have been suitably restored.
Not since Leeds' 2-0 defeat to Oldham Athletic on the second weekend of the season has a team come seriously close to beating United at home nor been able to claim that they would have deserved to. Walsall did neither.
The visitors were resilient for almost 46 minutes and a turgid first half in which the ball was virtually stuck to legs and feet carrying white shirts created minimal inspiration, but there was little doubt among the home supporters that a goal in Leeds' favour would come and, when it did, a victory would follow.
A strong wind inside Elland Road did not aid the attacking intent of United or Walsall, and the gusts were so powerful that litter blown from the stands gave the area in front of both dug-outs the aesthetic qualities of a landfill site.
It would do no justice to United's effort and patience in the first half to say the match had similar qualities until the interval, but the game did not take shape properly until Luciano Becchio, the irrepressible Argentinian, scored 30 seconds into the second half.
Becchio cannot hope to infringe on Delph's appreciation society, but he is understandably popular in his own right and no less pivotal in a team that can run riot like no other in their league when the mood takes them.
Neither he nor Delph was an obvious talisman before the season started, but Becchio has become the attacking linchpin that Leeds lacked last season until Dougie Freedman made his way north from London.
His goal on Saturday was the catalyst for the classy victory which followed. Becchio's instinct placed him in a position to flick a shot over the goalline after Paul Boertien made a mess of Delph's 46th-minute cross and kicked a clearance against one of his own players.
The ball bounced dangerously through Walsall's box, and Becchio reacted first to stab the ball into the net before Ince could block the shot at his feet.
Jimmy Mullen, Walsall's manager, had only just emerged from his half-time briefing when Becchio scored, and the goal short-changed the visitors' prior defiance.
A goalless scoreline after 45 minutes was music to Mullen's ears; the slightly relieved clamour which greeted United's opening goal gave him insurmountable problems.
His team failed to muster any meaningful possession in the first half, though there was no denying that their chances had been more threatening than those produced by Leeds.
Delph and Neil Kilkenny drew Ince into necessary parries and Jermaine Beckford's skill worked him enough space to chip an ambitious shot over the crossbar, but two particularly nervous moments placed Elland Road on edge. The first on 22 minutes saw Chris Palmer draw Ben Parker out of position and play Troy Deeney into space on the left wing, giving him time to swing the ball into the six-yard box.
Jabo Ibehre applied a goalbound touch from six yards out, a touch which should have slotted the ball into the net, but Casper Ankergren spread himself in front of the shot and diverted it over the crossbar.
Even Ibehre was moved to applaud the save.
The margins were uncomfortably fine again when Richard Taundry's cross dropped inches beyond the foot of Ibehre, who was waiting at the near post to drive a shot home, but the doubt created by those two chances was removed by Becchio's finish.
Deeney and Ricketts led the response to his strike with near-misses during a fightback from Walsall which never grew legs, and Delph's precision soon put Mullen's players to the sword.
He scored his first goal in the 65th minute when a short free-kick from Andy Robinson, whose introduction on the hour gave Leeds a second wind, provided Delph the freedom to sweep a left-footed shot into the top corner of Ince's net, and a second goal followed three minutes from time as his curling finish from the edge of the box swept beyond Walsall's keeper.
Almost before Delph's celebrations had finished, the midfielder was whisked from the field by McAllister to the sound of a standing ovation, three minutes from the end.
Ricketts remained until the bitter end, no more than footnote in an eventful story which has happily left him behind.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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