Leeds games won't be cagey - Ward
Last updated 12:41, Thursday, 08 May 2008
FORM suggests Leeds will stroll next week’s play-off semi-final against Carlisle United. The experiences of several of the men in blue and the bloke in the dugout suggests it will be nowhere near so straightforward.
Recent evidence plainly favours Gary McAllister’s men. Without the infamous 15-point deduction, they would have amassed the second highest points total in League One this season and already taken flight into the Championship.
Their failure to overturn the Football League’s points penalty didn’t prevent them from accelerating into the play-offs, with six wins from their final seven games.
Set that kind of persuasive form against Carlisle’s hobble to the finish line – one win from their last eight matches – and the bookies’ appraisal of Leeds as firm favourites to win the tie seems sound.
But that discounts the old truth that logic and order often turns on its heel when the play-offs come around.
No-one appreciates that better than United manager John Ward, who piloted Cheltenham through the League Two play-offs two years ago against unpromising odds.
Few pundits backed his Robins side to get past Wycombe and then Grimsby in the end-of-season shoot-out. Their promotion, clinched at the Millennium Stadium, owed much to the kind of underdog spirit the Carlisle manager has been espousing this week, with a dollop of tactical cunning thrown in.
There are enough Carlisle players in the ranks who can also deliver a telling lesson on the unpredictability of the play-offs.
When United achieved promotion back into the Football League in 2005, via memorable victories against Aldershot and Stevenage, their route was far from uncomplicated.
Limping into the Aldershot semi-final on the back of a dreary 2-0 home defeat to Exeter, United slid to a 1-0 defeat in the first leg before the stunning second-leg penalties victory which appears near the top of most fans’ lists of improbably dramatic Brunton Park nights.
Influential players from those battles remain. Chris Lumsdon, Paul Arnison, Danny Livesey and Peter Murphy will all play important roles against Leeds next week, while Keiren Westwood and Simon Hackney, who looked on from the fringes three years ago, will also be to the fore this time.
You can add Zigor Aranalde, Scott Dobie, Grant Smith and Danny Carlton to the list of United players with their own memories of the play-offs. No wonder Ward says he will tap into such a rich pool of experience in the coming days.
“There are players in here who have been involved in the play-offs, and staff as well,” said the Blues chief.
“We will talk about our experiences and help us put it into perspective.
“It is about hitting your form in these one-off games. We did that with Cheltenham and the guys here did that in the play-offs in the Conference. We need some good form – we can’t rely on a bit of luck.
“The talking will go on, but it’s what we do now in our own football club that will have the key to it. I’ll be looking closely to see how the players’ mood is.
“It’s to be enjoyed and embraced. I’ve got confidence that these boys will give of their best as they’ve done all the way through the season.”
The fact United are at home in the second leg against Leeds can be seen as an advantage, but only if the Blues return from Elland Road on Monday with a solid result.
“It’s unusual for teams at our level to play two-legged games,” said Ward.
“I’ve got fantastic admiration for Rafael Benitez and the way he goes about European ties.
“I’ve watched Glasgow Rangers have no shots and get to a European cup final. But clubs at our level just try and win their games.
“I don’t think the Leeds games will be cagey like European ties. I’m not sure me or Gary could do that and I’m not sure our players would expect us to do that.
“Leeds will be encouraged by the mass part of the crowd to be attacking us, and that will make it open, I guess, and if we’re clever and sharp we’ve got players who can break and do things to them.
“I think it could be an open game which could provide entertainment for people.
“We’ve got to be strong and positive, to respect Leeds United and try and make life difficult for them.
“It will be a cup-tie atmosphere for both games, and it is about trying to get it right on the day. Those of us who have been in two-legged games before will have to pull on a little bit of knowledge.”
