End of Season

I know I haven't posted anything on here for months but I had to put something up for the end of the season. Leeds finished 7th just outside the play-offs even after beating champions QPR 2-1 on the final day of the season. Nottingham Forest beat Crystal Palace (something Leeds were unable to do a few weeks back) to end any slim hopes of sneaking into the play-offs. Now if you would have offered 7th place, I'm sure any Leeds fan would have bit your hand off. But it still feels a bit frustrating because Leeds have been in the play-off places for so long only to slip down the table near the end maybe due to fatigue but mainly because other teams like Reading have hit top form at the right time. Even if we had got into the play-offs, I doubt we would have won as other teams are simply playing a bit better than us. I could say that everyone that voted in the poll is wrong, as to me 7th place isn't mid-table obscurity at all and just missing out on top 6 is very credible. Hopefully with a good manager in Simon Grayson Leeds can build on this and finish higher next season and not stagnate in the Championship. The squad looks good and it annoyed me a little that Grayson kept on getting loan players from the Premiership and putting them into the first team instead of giving other players a chance to prove themselves. He is obviously a big fan of the loan market but you have to use it your advantage. There is no doubt we will get a few new players but only little changes are needed. Howson, Gradel, Becchio, Snodgrass and Schmeichel (despite a few errors near the end) are quality players that deserve a chance in the Premiership with the mighty Leeds United.

Arsenal Replay

I had the pleasure of being in the crowd for the Arsenal replay. My amazing girlfriend managed to get tickets for us. Elland Road was absolutely packed and had a great atmosphere. Yeah, it's a shame we lost but Arsenal were the better side and played a lot better than they did at the Emirates. Leeds didn't get going quick enough and were quickly 2-0 down courtesy of Samir Nasri and Bacary Sagna. It would have been 3 if it wasn't for a good save by Kasper Schmeichel. Bradley Johnson got one back with a great long-range shot in the top corner past Arsenal goalie Szczęsny, not too dissimilar to the one in the video I posted in November. Just as there was hope that Leeds would equalise, Robin Van Persie came on and scored a third so it finished 3-1 but it was a gallant effort by Leeds. The fans were chanting throughout the 90 minutes including such gems as 'You have Cesc Fabregas, We have Rob Snodgrass' and 'Are you Walcott in disguise?' when an Arsenal player was judged to have fallen over too easily. There were a few suspect ref decisions but however annoying they were it didn't change the outcome of the match. The amount of support was amazing and these two games showed that Leeds wouldn't be out of the place in the Premiership. Hopefully our good league form continues after thrashing Scunthorpe 4-0.Here are some photos from the night.

Kasper warming up

Great view

Kasper coming up for a corner in injury time!

Arsenal Performance

So I did jinx Leeds after all as they lost 2-1 to Cardiff. But what a performance to draw 1-1 against the mighty Arsenal! I am glad that I hyped the match up as it didn't disappoint. I can't believe Leeds were only a couple of minutes away from knocking a top 4 Premiership side out for the second successive year running. It would have been the first Arsene Wenger had lost in the third round as well. In the end a dubious penalty was converted by Cesc Fabregas who had come off the bench to 'save' Arsenal from embarassment. Theo Walcott has already admitted he dived to get the penalty which is quite surprising but I wish the ref could have seen that! At least the Leeds penalty was very clear as it was a stupid tackle by Denilson and scored by Robert Snodgrass. The replay at Elland Road will have a tremendous atmosphere and after that performance there is no reason why Leeds can't battle out a win to play Huddersfield Town in the next round. A special mention to Sanchez Watt who is on loan from Arsenal but Wenger gave him permission to play and caused his parent club a few problems obviously having something to prove.

Busy Christmas Period

Now I can finally get round to posting about how well Leeds are doing and hopefully without jinxing them! They are now on a 12 match unbeaten run and were up to second place on Christmas day. Since then there have been a few draws including 3-3 against Portsmouth where Andy O'Brien, arguably our best player lately managed to scored two own goals including one in injury time. Leeds are still 4th place and only two points off automatic promotion which is higher than anybody expected and just shows how open the Championship is. A lot of teams in this league are obviously looking to Blackpool for inspiration thinking if they can get promoted so can we! and there is no reason why Leeds can't fall into this category. It would be a tremendous achievement but I don't want to get carried away. The next match is against Cardiff tonight and to some fans this will evoke bad memories after crowd trouble at an FA Cup match nine years ago between the two and some point to that match as a catalyst to Leeds downturn and financial troubles. Cardiff have hit a bad patch lately and Leeds have overtaken them but a win at Cardiff would be another very encouraging sign.

Merchandise

My official Leeds United scarf has been keeping my neck warm over the last couple of weeks in this incredibly cold weather. It was a great present and it is the same scarf I'm wearing in the little profile picture in the About Me section. As I have been wearing the scarf a lot lately it got me thinking about a few other examples of Leeds branded products I own especially after previously talking about my Leeds United PS2 game.





Unfortunately the main thing that comes to mind is something unbelievably naff. I hope that I got it free from something because it is simply not worth anything and definitely doesn't keep me warm. It is a very basic looking calculator made out of polystyrene to look like a Leeds away kit. It is pretty useless and looks quite bulky. It hasn't got any special features so I may as well use the calculator on my mobile phone. I have no idea why I haven't thrown it away, maybe it is just because it has the Leeds logo on.

Obviously you can't talk about Football club merchandise without mentioning replica shirts. Some fans feel the need to buy the latest home shirt every year as it has a slightly different design. As a Leeds fan I know that the home shirt will be white so the one on the right I own from a few years ago is just fine. I used to have the bright yellow away kit and the sponsor on it was Strongbow. When I was about ten I had no idea what Strongbow was yet now a decade later I find myself listing Strongbow cider as one of my favourite drinks. I remember feeling really happy being bought my first Leeds kit which included the shorts and socks and were my favourite clothes. Now wearing a Leeds shirt occasionally will easily suffice.

My Favourite Leeds player

So my prediction was nearly right with Leeds winning 2-1. What makes it better is that Luciano Becchio scored twice in the last ten minutes to secure the win and put Leeds back in the play-offs. According to early votes on the poll on this blog that is where Leeds will finish.

Anyway I thought it was about time I did a more general post like who my favourite Leeds player is which I'm sure everybody is very interested in. It's left-back Ian Harte. It's not just because I played in the same position as I was only there because I was left-footed, not because of any kind of skill. He was a free-kick specialist, took penalties and could score goals from long range. Harte and Harry Kewell in their prime could have easily fitted into the England team and solved problem positions if they weren't Irish and Australian respectively. After going to see Leeds gallantly lose to rivals Manchester United 4-3 I was lucky enough to get some autographs after waiting for the players. As you can imagine, there were a lot of people trying to get the signatures and although I wasn't in a favourable position in the crowd, Ian Harte heard me shout 'your my favourite player' and suddenly his pen was scribbling in my autograph book. Leeds will actually come up against him this season as he now plays for fellow Championship side Reading.

Although Alan Smith deserves a special mention as he was the life blood of Leeds and I even named a pet gerbil after him 'Smithy'. Obviously he isn't held in such high regard since he moved across the Pennines to Old Trafford in 2006. However it's since come to light that he moved there as Manchester United were the only team to offer money up front rather than in payments and had to accept it to try and fight off administration. He's still in the Premiership playing for Newcastle. Other autographs I managed to get included Eirik Bakke and Mark Viduka but they aren't going to get as much of a mention. Especially seem as I'm whenever I think of Viduka, I think of how he got sent off in the game Leeds were relegated from the Premiership.

Leeds on TV

Rather unsurprisingly, the Leeds v Arsenal match has been picked as one of the 3rd round F.A. Cup matches that will be shown live on ITV1 on Saturday 8th January. I am hyping this match quite a lot so it better be exciting now! Like I said on a previous post, this match will be more exciting than the bore fest that will be Liverpool vs Manchester United, which will of course be made out to be some kind of super match only for it to be 1-0 thanks to a poor refereeing decision.

That prediction will no doubt be horribly wrong so I may as well predict the score for the Leeds match today. I will say we will beat Crystal Palace 2-0 and in an couple of hours I can look back at this prediction in utter disgust.

What I do know is that those F.A. Cup matches will be watched by millions all over the world. Believe it or not this very blog also has an International audience. According to my blog's stats I have had visitors from the following countries: USA, France, Singapore, Croatia, Australia, Germany, Denmark and Ireland as well as the UK obviously. This just goes to show the International appeal of English football teams, even those that are now in the Championship rather than the Premier League.