23-07-07: Energie Cottbus (a) 1-2 (HT 0-2) Crowd (4,236)

Programme:

Manuel Grafe of Berlin was the referee in the third and final game of the German pre-season tour in front of a crowd of 4,236 at the Paul Griefzu Stadium at Dessau, one hundred and thirty miles from their usual home ground, against FC Energie Cuttbus from the Bundesliga. United lined up: Scott Loach; Frazer Richardson, Matt Heath, Rui Marques, Eddie Lewis; Jonathan Douglas, Alan Thompson, David Prutton, Ian Westlake; Jermaine Beckford, Tresor Kandol. Jonathan Howson, Sebastien Carole and Curtis Weston came on for Alan Thompson, David Prutton and Ian Westlake after seventy-three minutes while Tom Elliott, Nick Hamann, Ben Parker, Robert Bayly, Mouloud Akloul and Fabian Delph remained unused on the bench. The game was ruined as a spectacle when the referee reduced United to nine men by dismissing Jonathan Douglas and Jermaine Beckford within two minutes of each other the first, Douglas, being in the sixty-fourth minute. Leeds were 2-1 down and giving Cottbus a testing time when Beckford’s sending off brought the match to a standstill with twenty-four minutes left and after much posturing by the referee, players and officials the game finally restarted and was played to an unconvincing end with neither team seeming very interested in the pointless exercise. Cottbus had started the game at a quick pace and were by far the best of the three teams United had played on the tour and they struck fifteen minutes into the game when Efstathios Aloneftis scored with a fine shot which left Scott Loach groping after Ervin Skela had opened Leeds up with a precise cross-field ball and it was he that increased the home team’s lead three minutes later with a curling free-kick from the edge of the box and United were in danger of a humiliating defeat. However, they survived until half-time without conceding further and soon after the break Tresor Kandol reduced the arrears, and brought United back into the game, when he managed to stay on-side and collected an Alan Thompson through-ball to slip the ball past the advancing keeper. Then came the bust-up, when a foul by Francis Kioyo on Rui Marques saw a barrage of comments from Jonathan Douglas to the referee and the official immediately showed him a red-card. Douglas left the field quickly but the tension simmered and Jermaine Beckford was soon walking down the tunnel after questioning another referee’s decision. Dennis Wise summoned the players to the touch-line but then the game resumed after a short discussion between the United Manager and the squad. Soon after Gus Poyet was order from the dug-out for remarks to the referee and Jonathan Douglas who came back to watch the game from the touchline was ordered down the tunnel in a pantomime performance by the referee. After being outplayed for most of the game, Leeds almost drew level in injury-time when Curtis Weston got in a lob that beat the keeper but finished up in the side-netting but had it found the net the Cottbus coach would have been most unimpressed by the result. The Cottbus substitutes were: Martin Mannel (GK), Steffan Baumgart, Timo Rost, Sebastian Schuppan, Toni Wachsmuth, Michael Lerchl, Daniel Ziebig, Lucasz Kanik, Przemyslaw Trytko, Tomasz Bandrowski, Kristijan Ispa and Marco Kuntzel.