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Youths Beat Leeds
Youths Beat Leeds
Monday, 1st Dec 2003 23:30

Sub striker Daryl Knights scored in the last minute of extra time to give Ipswich a 2-1 win over an impressive Leeds side as the Town march into the next round of the FA Youth Cup.

On a very cold night up North, Town bought joy to their small band of followers as they completed an extra-time win over the home side.

Ipswich lined up in a 4-5-1 formation with Bowditch the lone striker and Craig Reid playing just in front of the midfield.

The game started well for Town and after a bright opening couple of minutes Ipswich took the lead through Aidan Collins, volleying home from inside the six yard box.

Leeds, without star player James Milner, responded well to the early set back and mounted a number of attacks which the Town defence, marshalled well by Collins dealt with effectively.

However, as Ipswich began to grow in confidence, they to created a number of chances themselves and Scott Barron hit a shot over the bar after some good work from Daniel Flack.

On the right wing, Liam Craig caught the eye, although that might just have been his shock of ginger hair, but in all seriousness he had a good game and was full of running.

The Leeds fans had cause for complaint in the 36th minute as the female lines-person ruled Aaron Lennon offside after he had made a good run into the Town box.

On the whole Lennon had a quiet first half and didn't really look like the Premiership player that he has become this season. Just before half time, Woods went through for Leeds and Supple pulled of a good save at the expense of a corner.

Having consumed the obligatory half-time meat and potato pie it was time to face the elements for the second half - and boy was it damn cold.

Leeds started the second half with Morris replacing Walton and they got of to a good start putting early pressure on the Ipswich defence.


The little and large combination of Collins and Synott stood firm however, and it was Bowditch who got the first shot of the second half, although Leeds hit back straight away.

The home side almost levelled the game in the 62nd minute when Kevin Smith broke through the Town defence but hit the post having beaten Supple.

Smith however did get on the scoresheet two minutes later although there was controversy about the goal. Supple went up for a routine cross but somehow managed to drop the ball. As he fell on it, Lennon seemed to kick it out of his hands, however the ref didn't see it that way and Smith slammed home the loose ball.

The goal seemed to wake up the crowd, a good attendance of 1,244 (a few more coppers into the Save Our Leeds fund), and also the Leeds side.

However, the ref could well have levelled things up three minutes later when Bowditch went down in the area after a hefty challenge from the Leeds defender but he didn't, and poor Deano was left to wave his hands in the air.

Lennon was finally beginning to show why he had made the Leeds first team and he was showing some good touches for the Whites.

Following a goalmouth scramble in the Ipswich box, Barron was injured and replaced by Darryl Knights.

With Leeds on top the crowd broke into its first chant, admittedly it had taken 80 minutes but those little voices chanted Leeds, Leeds, Leeds over and over again, and at that point the Whites looked like they might be on top.

They weren't though and the game was nearly all over in the 82nd minute when Bowditch broke through the Leeds defence, composed himself, beat the keeper ...but hit the post

It was agony, especially for my toes which were about to drop off, but that was the last chance in the 90 minutes and we had extra time.

By now Ipswich had reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with Liam Manning coming on for Craig Reid, who'd been pretty quiet for most of the game, and Daryl Knights joining Bowditch up front.

Extra time started off well for Leeds with Lennon getting a good shot away, Bowditch followed it up with a shot over the bar and then broke away, feeding Knights who could only blast his shot over the bar.

Chris Jones worked his way into the ref's notebook with a nasty foul on Liam Craig, and this was to be his last touch of the game as he was subbed straight afterwards.

Ipswich were passing the ball around very well but the seemingly larger Leeds players were closing then down and it was hard for the Town boys to find space.

As the second half of extra time got under way, it was obvious that both teams were tired and a number of defensive lapses went unpunished by both sides.

Bowditch broke through yet again and it took the combination of Leeds keeper and post to keep the ball out and leave Deano with his head in his hands.

With the crowd still chanting away it looked for all the world that we'd have penalties, but Ipswich had one last chance as they got a corner.

The ball was swung in and rebounded out to the impressive Flack whose shot though the crowd cannoned off a Leeds player and fell nicely to Krause, his cross was floated back across the box and there was Knights, one of the smallest players on the pitch to head home.

With Leeds stunned and Ipswich revelling there was just time for a bit of argy bargy between Atay and half the Leeds team, which earnt the Ipswich player a booking but showed that the Ipswich boys could mix it with dirty Leeds any day.

The Leeds keeper came up for the free kick but couldn't match his first choice colleague and the ref blew the final whistle. The boys in blue celebrated and those in white sunk to their knees, it was all over and Ipswich had got a well deserved win.

Player-wise, Bowditch and Collins both had solid games and their first team experience has obviously stood them in good stead.

The captain, Scott Mitchell had a good game and marshalled his team well. The full backs both looked composed and I can see why people rate Atay as a possibility for the future.

Knights did well coming off the bench and was tigerish in the tackle but my man of the match was number seven Daniel Flack who never stopped running and played his part in the Ipswich goal. The boys done well and need to take this form into the next round.

Town: Shane Supple, Adem Atay, James Krause, Scott Mitchell, Aidan Collins, Michael Synott, Daniel Flack, Scott Barron (Daryl Knights 74), Dean Bowditch, Craig Reid (Liam Manning 45), Liam Craig. Unused Subs Floyd Croll, Fraser Beveridge, Cathal Lordan.

Thanks to Iain Sanderson for the report.


Photo: Action Images



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