Leeds suffered a humiliating pre-season defeat at Bury last night, thanks to some woeful defending. We had plenty of possession and were unlucky not to score a couple of goals, but if we don’t tighten up at the back it’ll be a long hard season.

The weather in the north-west was atrocious for most of the day, and at one stage I was wondering if this game was going to be called off.  I managed to reach the ground in the midst of another downpour at about 6.30, and went straight to the turnstile in the hope of getting under cover as soon as possible.

 In fact the gate was wide open and a dozen Leeds fans wandered in, but as we stood there debating which part of the ground was the south stand a steward came along and politely asked us to go back outside. This is the first time I’ve ever been thrown out of a ground before kick off! When the turnstiles finally did open we had to wade through a small lake to get round to the Leeds end, but luckily our stand was under cover.

As Gigg Lane was refurbished a few years ago all four stands are modern, but I always get irritated by clubs who make their grounds all-seater when they don’t need to. There was a disappointing turn-out from the home fans, despite their illustrious opposition, as there can’t have been many more than 1000 in the main stand, plus a token few in the stands at both ends. So it was left to the 1700 Leeds fans in the south stand to give the game a bit of atmosphere, telling Schmeichel that “your dad’s a c***, but we like you!”

Bury looked lively in the first few minutes, but then it seemed that Leeds would go on to take control of the game, as we began to put the hosts under pressure. Johnson produced the first decent chance of the game with a fierce shot from outside the box, which the keeper couldn’t hold but managed to grab at the second attempt. Johnson then hit the bar with a header, and with some good crosses coming in from both flanks Bury had to put in some last ditch challenges to deny Leeds any further opportunities.

But Bury always looked dangerous on the break, and they really should have scored in the 35th minute, but Lowe could only shoot wide when we left him in plenty of space on the edge of the box. But Leeds didn’t heed the warning, and only a minute later Lowe was again given all the time in the world to control the ball and pick his spot, and this time he hammered his shot past Schmeichel into the back of the net.

At this stage I thought Leeds would come back to win the game, and surprisingly Grayson sent the same team out at the start of the second half, with none of the wholesale changes of the two games in Slovakia. The first 15 minutes after the interval produced a long range shot from Snodgrass, but  Schmeichel also had to make a couple of saves to prevent Bury extending their lead. On the hour Grayson sent Connolly and Gradel into the fray instead of Hughes and Becchio, while Bury made four or five changes of their own (I lost count).

While Gradel gave Leeds some much-needed urgency with his surging runs down the left, it was a Bury substitute who actually got the ball in the net in the 65th. minute, when a through ball fell kindly for Bishop, who made no mistake as he put the Shakers two goals in front. I was beginning to be seriously concerned by our defence. I wasn’t impressed by Bessone, who seemed to get drawn into the middle all the time, leaving Bury’s right winger with a ridiculous amount of space, while Collins also looked very slow down the middle.

The second batch of substitutions saw Somma, Wite and Leeds replacing Grella, Bromby and Bessonne, but the pattern of the game continued. The Bury defence worked hard to deny Somma any space whenever he got close to goal, while Johnson again had a shot come back off the woodwork. But Bury’s neat passing football was still causing our defence plenty of trouble, and they added two more goals in the last five minutes to make the final scoreline truly embarrassing.

After Worrall had a goal disallowed for offside, Carlton was able to benefit from yet more slack marking in the 85th. minute, as he converted a good cross from Bury’s right. And it got even worse a minute from time when Connolly was penalised for a push, and Bishop hammered the spot kick right down the middle as Schmeichel dived to his left.

They say that you can’t read too much into these pre-season friendlies, and we’ll have to hope that proves to be true. We weren’t at full strength and the new signings have got to get used to each other’s play, but the same applied to Bury, who have had had to make numerous changes to their squad over the summer. Grayson urgently needs to sort out the problems in his defence, or it’s going to be a long hard season.

Photo: Action Images

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