The weather might have been bitterly cold but tempers nearly boiled over during Leeds’ victory over Liverpool John Moores at Weetwood Sports Park.
Both teams started brightly but John Moores began to dominate the game in terms of possession. Coyle, playing for the away side, produced a couple of threatening corners from the left-hand side of the pitch but his teammates failed to apply the all-important finishing touch.
Despite John Moores’ dominance, Leeds were still effective on the counter-attack. Uni’s Nudoui seized upon an inviting opportunity, running onto a through-ball from midfield and striking it straight down the middle to give the home side a 1-0 lead. It was perhaps unfair on the Liverpool team, who had started to become much more confident during general play.
John Moores did their best to get past the Leeds defence but somehow were unable to create a breakthrough, despite often sloppy defending from the home side. Leeds held on though and managed to double their lead through Hayhurst, who made the most of a one-on-one with John Moores ‘keeper Kelly to make it 2-0 half an hour into the game.
But with half-time approaching, Mangan brought the Liverpool side back into the game after haphazard goalkeeping from Leeds’ Baldwin.
A comeback was still on the cards for John Moores, who started the second half positively.Their hopes were dashed, though, thanks to Hayhurst’s magnificent run from midfield. The Leeds player scored by darting past the opposition defenders and blasting a shot from the edge of the six-yard box, making the score 3-1. John Moores began to get frustrated with the referee for seemingly biased decisions towards the home side, but Leeds put the match beyond reasonable doubt with Cunningham scoring a great goal against the run of play on 76 minutes.
John Moores continued to fight and retained the majority of possession, but Leeds had the extra cutting edge in front of goal that proved critical. It finished 4-1 to the home side, leaving many of the Uni players wondering how on earth they managed to secure all three points.
Sam Oliver
Image courtesy of Alice Greenfield