If I took much notice of the local talk-in’s, Sunday Sun & various letters pages, I’d believe that the failing of NUFC up to now has been the inability of Solano & Robert to track back & work hard. As I’ve only been to 5 games this season I’ve bowed to the more regular’s judgement, but up until yesterday I thought the teams undoing was that Lee & Speed effectively did the same job & neither had the power & creativity to get forward & cause problems. In my eyes, they sat too deep putting a lot of pressure on the wide players to create & we were one-dimensional.

The Leeds game convinced me that I am right & everyone else is wrong. Replacing Lee with Dyer gave us so much more in midfield. Even when 3-1 down, Leeds could not defend 3 fast & mobile midfielders with Speed having his best game since the Qtr final against Barnsley we played some flowing stuff. Solano was brilliant and could never be described as lazy. Dyer proved how so many United fans have been wrong to suggest we take the money for him We like our midfielders to have skill, pace & vision on the pitch & if they are womanising champagne Charlies off it (short of getting into fisticuffs) all the better in my book, if I were them I’d make the most of it. Robert faded in the second half but his tight passing & pace caused Leeds some headaches in the first. He could learn a lot from Dyer in tracking back, Dyer doesn’t go to ground but does enough to let his opposite number know he’s there, his goal apart, Bowyer rarely got a free ride.

It was sad to see Dabs go off who enjoyed the rough & tumble against Viduka (who should have gone, it may have been a forward’s tackle but potentially leg-breaking all the same). Distin came on & is a very good centre back, once the communication gets sorted out he will be a rock. Very coolhead on him, makes centre forwards show their hand and not at all bad in the air.

As an aside, I was sat behind Bobby & the bench. All the lads on the sidelines were over the moon with the goals even though Bellamy called Bobby an f’ing bitch (strange choice of word) when Bobby was telling him to stay on his feet after Bellamy was fouled for th eumteenth time. Bobby ensured Bellemy gave a bit of gamesmanship as he came off, told him to slow down and limp a bit which had both Bobby & the welsh version of Plug (out of the Beano) in hysterics.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001

Answers

Wy does the server not reconise punctuation? I'm getting a bit I’d with it

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001

Yeah, I find the usual apostrophe a little bit pithier.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001

Against some other teams we would lose if we play like we did against Leeds.

However, Dyer is on top form for someone who has been out for nearly a year - and he beat Patrick Vieira in a one on one tackle which was quite something to watch. Little Dyer, the man who can't tackle to save his life.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001

Love that bit about Bobby telling Bellamy to limp off the pitch. Must've driven O'Whingy crazy. :-)

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001