Sponsored by
Leeds United v Doncaster Rovers: A crazy welcome for Neil
Luciano Becchio fires home the winner. PIC: Varley Picture Agency
YEP football writer Leon Wobschall provides his view from the press box.
THRILls, spills, bellyaches, a bit of aggro and a 99th-minute winner...Welcome to the world of Warnock.
Even more madcap than the same ‘open house’ fixture last season as United fans strapped in their seatbelts for a rollercoaster ride from the first minute.
There have been some plain daft games at ER this season and this one was right at the top of the list.
With a pantomime villain to boot in the shape of El-Hadj Diouf. Or as the new gaffer once called him: ‘The Sewer Rat.’
Lord knows what Neil Warnock made of it all at the final whistle. Probably didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the end.
One thing’s for sure. If Warnock didn’t know much about Leeds United’s season ahead of taking his seat in the West Stand, you bet your boots he does now after witnessing the good, bad and the ugly in ninety – okay 99 – minutes.
Gallows humour was de rigeur at half-time following a pitiful first-half performance from United which had to be seen to be believed.
“Had enough already, Warnock?’ was the cry from one wag shortly before the interval as the newly-appointed boss no doubt contemplated his half-time address. Good cop, bad cop?...He’d have been forgiven for getting out the hair-dryer, Fergie style, in the dressing room.
A new signing took to the field at the break, by way of a young nipper who escaped the clutches of his marker to make an impression on the pitch.
More than United managed in a desperate first 45 minutes, “Sign him up.”
“We’re winning away, we’re winning away. How **** must you be, we’re winning away,” was the ditty of choice from the Rovers fans, with the cries from the home end following the visitors’ second not exactly politely and discreetly enquiring what the hell was going on.
Then, crazily, it all changed with the very same welcome mat defending which afflicted United all game spreading like wildfire and engulfing Rovers, left feeling sick at the end with Dean Saunders giving the post-match presser a swerve.
The day belonged to the two Neils, with the other Neil mobbed by jubilant players after United’s dramatic winner.
The frenzied scenes with exactly not the same bonhomie continued when the players left the stage at the end.
A mad end to a mad day.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.