Having lost a league fixture for the first time this season in a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Carlisle. Dennis Wise’s men look to bounce back against AFC Bournemouth this evening.
Vital Quotes:
Leeds United boss Dennis Wise has kept his head firmly screwed on as his side went 13 games unbeaten. Following defeat, Wise has continued the sensible approach in his pre-match interviews.
Speaking to leedsunited.com he said: ‘Carlisle stopped us in our tracks, now it’s up to us to go on another run.’
‘We want a result as soon as we can, we don’t want to go too long. It’s Important we are professional at Bournemouth. The lads are well capable.
‘When you get beat you want a game straight away. I said after the Carlisle game ‘we’ve done fantastic, but we’ve made mistakes today and it’s cost us’. We’ve lost one in 14, now we have to start performing again straight away.’
The Leeds boss is no stranger to his Bournemouth counterpart Kevin Bond either, and knows that the former Newcastle United assistant will have his side all fired up for The Whites trip to Dorset: ‘I know Kevin Bond well and he likes to play football, they’ll try and pass it,’ Wise added in his interview.
‘It’ll be interesting to see how they go about it. They like to play five in midfield and one in front. They might change that on Tuesday, but it’ll be interesting how they line-up at home.’
Midfielder Andy Hughes echoed the sentiments about requiring another match soon after defeat, impatiently waiting for this evening to come to get back to winning ways: ‘It’s going to be massive, they’re struggling near the bottom, but maybe they’re in a false position. We need to get a result.
‘We’ve got a big week now, we’ve got Bournemouth then the FA Cup. First, it’s Bournemouth away on Tuesday night and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
‘We’ve got to grind away and go at it again.’
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Meanwhile, over in the Bournemouth camp, manager Kevin Bond believes that his side will respect the ‘fallen giants’ but they are not afraid of the League One powerhouses:
‘We are massive underdogs but it’s a game to look forward to. Hopefully, we’ll have a full house, which would be great for a league game, and it would be nice to be able to do ourselves justice if we can.’
‘We know we need to respect them but we can’t be playing with any fear.’
AFC Bournemouth Team News:
Vital Bournemouth are expecting loan signings James Henry and Alex Pearce to feature in the game having impressed during Bournemouth’s victory over Bristol Rovers on Saturday.
Jo Kuffor has suffered a knock and may be a doubt for the game.
The Bournemouth official site have announced that there will be an unchanged squad for the match.
Player to watch: Darren Anderton
He’s old, he’s slow, he gets injured a lot.
However Darren Anderton can still quite happily pull the strings at this level, and will definitely be the one that the defence and midfield need to look out for.
Leeds United Team News:
Leeds United are unlikely to make any changes from the squad that lost away to Carlisle at the weekend.
Kishishev, Thompson and Flo are all long-term injury problems, however Leeds have welcomed back Leon Constantine to add some much needed cover for the front two.
Player to watch: Casper Ankergren
admittedly I only saw the (atrocious) highlights served up by Virgin Media this week, and I felt that Ankergren was perhaps at fault for 2/3 goals.
Casper can quite easily do better than that, an improvement needs to be made else he will be a ghost of his former self.
Match Facts & Stats
In a rare move away from the useless facts, Vital Leeds is to provide some more useful facts for one week only!
* AFC Bournemouth haven’t beaten Leeds United in all 7 of their league and cup fixtures.
* Bournemouth have been dismal in front of a home ground, picking up just 2 points from 7 games.
* It’s also not the best place to see home goals, with The Cherries scoring just 4 times.
* Darren Anderton has played for 5 clubs in a career spanning 17 years.
* The tallest living woman (as listed in the Guinness Book of Records) is Sandy Allen who lives in the U.S.A. Sandy was was last measured to be 2 m 31.7 cm (7 ft 7.25 in).
There had to be one useless fact, sorry!
Ref Watch:
Leeds United have yet again been graced by the presence of a Premiership referee for this match.
Unfortunately however, it happens to be Steve Bennett.
Mr Bennett is well and truley in the Christmas spirit early, managing 48 yellow, and 6 red cards in his 14 fixtures so far this season.
Funnily enough, the last time he was in charge of a Leeds match, he sent someone off! Brad Jones, on loan from Middlesborough was dismissed as a David Healy penalty sealed all 3 points for Leeds in a 1-0 victory away to Sheffield Wednesday.
Match Prediction:
Leeds will bounce back (lets face it, they have to) tonight with a resounding 3-0 victory.
Kandol & Beckford to share the goals.
Next Fixtures:
It’s FA Cup time for Leeds United next in the televised fixture against Hereford United on Friday evening (9th) kick off 1945hrs.
Sky will be showing the game so get the beers in early for this one!