The trip to Hull was full of reminiscence due to the presence of an old branch member Mr Reynard, seated far too near to The Chairman for comfort. This sparked various memories from trips of old, with the Vesta meal discussion making it’s second appearance.

For your own information, seeing as The Chairman’s audience has been waiting for his verdict…. yes the Vesta Paella was just as tasty as it was 30 years ago. Obviously, it isn’t paella from 30 years ago, as that would probably (like Kiko’s verdict) taste quite awful by now, but as a bonus, it may have sprouted it’s own strain of vacuum packed super penicillin antibiotic.

I digress, the verdict is in, and the modern day equivalent of Vesta paella- tastes as good as it did way back when The Chairman was much, much younger and hadn’t even heard of Just For Men. He will be having his Vesta Chow Mein soon.

Running Away In Rome

The Chairman: Remember that time when I thought we were being chased by that mob with knives and we all ran out and left Stella in the bar?

Q: There wasn’t actually a mob though, was there?

The Chairman: No, but I thought there was and I just ran out

Q: Had you been drinking?

The Chairman: We were buying bottles of wine for 40p

Q: It was possibly something else?

The Chairman: But I honestly thought there was a mob after us, I had to escape

Q: Had you been drinking all day?

The Chairman: I thought we were going to get stabbed, but when we realised we left Stella in the bar, we sent you back in for him

A: Really brave

The Chairman: It was the big escape from Rome

The Banterzone

The Chairman: This is the “Banterzone”

Q: Eh?

The Chairman: The Banterzone, where anything goes. We talk about everything here. This is where it’s at. These seats, the Banterzone

Q: Like what?

The Chairman: Anything. Anything goes. It’s the official Banterzone.

You know when you’ve made it

The Chairman: Remember when we were young, on a night, you used to go out to a club and order food in a basket.

Q: Food in a basket?

The Chairman: Chicken in a basket. You knew when you made it when you ordered chicken in a basket. Everybody would see you and think “yes, he’s made it, he’s ordering food in a basket”

Q: Eh?

The Chairman: Everything in a basket, even soup in a basket. Yes, nights at the Gallop Inn and chicken in a basket.

Q: You never had soup in a basket then

The Chairman: Didn’t need to, you know you’ve already made it already with chicken in a basket

Lucky Shoes

The Chairman: These are lucky shoes

Q: Eh?

The Chairman: These shoes. Very lucky. We haven’t lost in these shoes. 100% record

Q: Did you get them from the Lucky Shoe Shop?

The Chairman: I got them from Sports Direct

Q: Does that make them lucky?

The Chairman: They’ve been very lucky. I got them from Sports Direct £20. Very lucky shoes

 

……… Somewhere there is a clown with very cold feet… alternatively:

 

 

In Round 9 (or is it 10 now?) of the Battle of Football Hierachy v Leeds United, Leeds United have once again – lost. In the most unsurprising turn of events since that Philip Schofield saga, it was decided to rule that Kiko wasn’t quite guilty but not innocent enough. So because he wasn’t innocent enough, he was probably guilty.

8 match ban? Very harsh, I was expecting 6, but then not totally unexpected, given our history of completely disproportionate punishments to the various crimes that Leeds United are deemed to have committed. Regular Readers will be tired of my outbursts regarding the condemnation of Cellino and his yacht / car irregularities, compared to the lack of disbelief when the Football League accepted as truth when Harry Redknapp declared that he didn’t realise his dog had accidentally opened a bank account and he actually couldn’t read properly even after all these years of football management.

The trouble is we may have lost this battle but we are still winning the war. The more they do to us, the more will we stand our ground. There is a saying, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Well, they’re not exactly trying to kill us, but you know what I mean. All this is doing is reinforcing our walls, we will stand fast in our battleground and we will go again. The siege mentality is only going to get worse.

Of course, this will be playing right into the hands of the Media. All these “top” football pundits will finally have something else to talk about, seeing as Liverpool are actually going to win the League this year, thanks to VAR (only way they were going to win it, mind). Citeh are finally taking the hit of winding that bloke up from the UEFA all those years ago (now there’s a man who can hold a grudge!). Guardiola isn’t rising to it, so they’ve got bored with that tack. Thank God the EFL after 5 months of dragging it out, have finally made the decision. Because frankly that game between Norwich and Leicester was so poor, I switched to watching NCIS on Fox instead. I didn’t see the second half but there was nothing to write home about, so they would have been desperately fishing for something to discuss, and the EFL haven’t disappointed. They’ve served the story up on a silver platter for them.

They’ll be bringing every left of centre has been and self righteous ex player into every discussion tomorrow. Thankfully it’s an early kick off so we’ll be doing something more interesting instead. Even though they technically haven’t proven that he is guilty and he only is “probably” guilty, it won’t matter. Anyone who might deign to be standing up for Kiko will be condemned by association for being racist as well. But at least they won’t have to talk about Norwich v Leicester.

It’s funny, if these people were around in the 70s and 80s, probably early 90s as well, and actually opened their ears – THEN they would have heard racism. What is going on now is nothing compared to what it used to be like. And while “Let’s kick it out” and “Level Playing Field” claim to be doing everything to stop racism, they are in complete denial that most of the reduction in racism over the last few decades has actually been down to the supporters and supporters associations themselves, not these “action groups”. Most things that have changed in football have been down to supporters doing it themselves, not the Football League, or these virtue seeking groups, us – we have done it ourselves. But that’s not what they want to hear and it’s not what they want us to think, because they get government funding etc. and probably Charity status as well ( tax perks) , so they want us to believe that they are doing all the hard work. Yes, they have all the media machines behind them and have all these engagement workshops etc. and probably (!) do put a bit of work in,  but the reality is that they don’t acknowledge what we, the decent minded supporters, have been doing all along anyway.

So that EFL Quest show (I genuinely do not get any thanks for plugging it) will be a right barrel of laughs tomorrow. And because we’ll be home by 6pm, there’s no excuse that we’re on the coach back home, not to see it live. If we lose, we’ll be on first for 5 minutes, with a reference to Kiko every 15 seconds. If we win, we’ll be half way through or just before they start going on about Division 3 and be lucky to see more than 30 seconds of Bamford’s hat trick.

What happens now then? Nothing. The best we can do is just take the hit and as the saying goes, we go again. Give yourself a rest Kiko. You’ve done your best. Get yourself a nice seat in the West Stand and watch the game with your family and enjoy the food in Hospitality. You might even get to eat a decent steak and chips meal for 6 weeks before you go back to your “proper” diet. You never know, Kiko might get a ticket in the away end and he can join us getting soaked in the beer fights and queueing for the bogs at half time.

The ones who will be most happy (apart for the EFL of course) will be these keyboard warriors who will be ecstatic having been handed the opportunity to put post after post, tweet after tweet and insta after insta of fake indignation and those “angry” emojis out, just so they can get a like and get themselves a bit more attention by posting a little cartoon symbol.

As for us, our barriers will be strengthened, our walls will be higher, our siege mentality will continue to be fed.

David Coverdale never looks any older does he?Apologies for the deliberate typo, I know,  Whitesnake did Here I Go Again – I’m just keeping you on your toes, dear Readers.

I’m just waiting for our 15 minute highlights on 403 SkyTVisf**kings**t Football HD against Reading yesterday. It’s not actually on until 9pm, so I’ve an hour and a half to get this blog done. I’m pretty sure if I wasn’t so tight and paid for the SkyQ upgrade with a proper box, I probably wouldn’t have to wait so long and could probably just record it, but I’m from Yorkshire… Plus, even if you have Sky Q and have one of these Ultra HD 4G LED tellys, when you watch the game on the Red Button, is it still the same crappy blurry picture that I get on my ancient Panasonic? How does that work then? The highlights are still in HD. It makes you think that SkyTVisf**kings**t are doing it deliberately just to piss people off as surely it doesn’t matter if they show it in HD or not? I bet if you are used to watching something in Ultra HD, watching the Red Button must be like watching it under water? Just asking for info. I don’t intend getting Sky Q until I have to.

Back to the blog. It’s the end of February. We are in that familiar territory of possible promotion – again. We had a fantastic start to the season – again. We had a blip after Christmas – again. We lost against Wigan – again. The pundits are saying the wheels have fallen off the bus – again. But unlike the last time, we are not plagued by a massive injury list, we have pulled points back against the form team Brentford at Griffin Park (where we have never won or haven’t for 50+ years at any rate) and we have had two consecutive clean sheets against two polar opposite opponents, in two completely different games in the last two weeks.

Bristol and Reading. I haven’t seen the highlights of Reading yet, but despite similar swirling weather conditions pitch level, these two games couldn’t have been any more different. Ok, maybe more missed chances against Bristol.

Last season by Christmas, the dreaded “teams have learnt how to play against Bielsa’s Leeds” phrase crept into the matchday commentary like the flesh eating zombie plagues in the 70s horror movies. About as welcome as a dose of the runs. The cliches about “falling apart again” , “not being able to keep the pace up” and “running out of ideas” became tiresome, especially from that curly haired Keith Andrews and Goodman.

This season however, (fingers crossed) we have had our blip and these two good results against Bristol and Reading have got our hopes up again. We are 5 points clear of 3rd and I don’t care about West Brom. Whether 1st or 2nd, it means promotion without the dreaded play offs. I am content with that. Automatic promotion means an enjoyable start to summer, a well deserved rest before Euro 2020 and looking forward to happy pre season. We have Boro on Weds night and then away to Hull at the weekend.

12 games to go and as Groupon Geoff cheerily said post match yesterday in the Golden Lion, if we win all our next 12 games, we’ll probably get promoted. He was quickly corrected, if we win all our next 12  games, we will get promoted.

In complete contrast to the game against Bristol, despite Bristol being a “better” side on paper, yesterday the air of nervousness was palpable. The first 15 minutes wasn’t so bad, but it did feel like panic was setting in. I don’t know which part of the ground it started, but by the time Kalvin limped off after that initial hefty challenge, it was like the scene from The Fog, where the mist rolled in and engulfed the 35k crowd at Elland Road. After Pablo’s second try from that rebound went in, the mist lifted briefly, but by the time 70 minutes came up, it was well and truly choking the life out of us. The last 10 minutes genuinely felt like an eternity, and I didn’t even have enough spare energy to have a pop at the ones that started leaving before the 85 minute mark came up. The game was on a knife edge, and you still want to leave before the final whistle?

The Bristol game was nail biting but exhilarating. This game was a nail biter, but not for the same reason. That save by Kiko was a defining moment. It showed that we could hold our concentration and nerve right to the end.

I’m really hoping that it is a sign of things to come and we (the team and us supporters) can maintain our concentration, hold our nerve and get that effing promotion.

Come On Leeds

 

It’s snowing!

Apologies for the delay to the February 2020 update, it’s been a bit busy

Monthly Branch Meeting

Branch meeting was held Sunday February 2nd, thanks to all who attended. It was decided to allow a little longer to try sell a few more raffle tickets for the Hospitality for the Reading game. There was a bit of a discussion about how difficult it has been trying to order tickets and how different it used to be when we were rubbish, when there were never any problems getting tickets. There was some feedback from the IAG meeting and the potential cut (again!) to the Hull  City allocation this season due to persistent standing. We, as a supporters club, have seen the away ticket allocations serially cut over the last few years. It is undoubtedly due to the poor behaviour of fans at away games. But, as we well know, there is an element of Leeds United fans who are far too busy enjoying their big day out to think about the connotations of their actions and the impact it has on the following seasons. It’s not just about the standing and blocking the aisles, the beer fights, smoking in and then the trashing of the toilets, the banging on the shutters because the home team are refusing to serve the people having beer fights any more beer, the climbing on the walls… need I go on? But it’s also about the misuse of alcohol and other substances which ruin it for the majority of people who genuinely are only there to watch the game.

I can only see it getting worse, so I think we will be saying goodbye to the days of managing to get to every game in a season very soon. Thank the Lord we enjoyed it while it lasted.

Moving on…

Memberships

The branch is showing a very healthy growth in numbers. May it long continue…..  The branch is not just about away games, 50% of our branch would never be able to get a ticket to an away game anyway! Our branch attend the LUSC exec meetings fortnightly, vote for the Player of The Month on your behalf,  organise monthly branch meetings, and we proudly sponsor home grown Harrogate talent Ryan Edmondson. We attend the LUSC Annual Quiz (and do badly but enjoy the pie and peas supper), the LUSC Annual Dinner and try to promote the LUSC best we can. We have our own website with it’s star, Chairman Charley at the helm. To top it off we have a pretty good end of season BBQ. It’s a diverse group and we don’t all agree with each other, safe to say, no one agrees with anybody else most of the time, but we are a nice group of people on the whole. We may not be as active as some supporters groups, but we make as much effort as we can within the limits of work and organising trips.

Away Games

Enjoying it while it lasts! There will be a trip to Boro (details to be posted imminently) and then tickets pending, there may well be a smaller trip to Hull.

A.O.B

LUSC Annual Dinner

The Centenary LUSC Annual Dinner is pencilled in for Luton on the Spring Equinox, Saturday 21st March. The usual 3 course meal and disco. The branch will be subsidising the ticket and travel costs are per usual. It is a good chance to meet up with other branches for a natter and see how well people scrub up when they are not dressed in football gear. We are hoping that the Club allow us our usual access to the players post match, before the meal. Normally The Deputy manages to get photos with all of them, so that shows you how long we get before they leg it back to their hotel. We are hoping that they will honour the fact that 3 of the LUSC branches spend money sponsoring players, so crossing our fingers that they let us have Kalvin, Klich and Ryan for a little longer. If anyone sees Bielsa in Wetherby, can you ask him nicely please?

LUSC Annual Quiz

Likely to be held somewhere in the East Stand on Thursday 16th April, which is the week of the Barnsley game. It is Easter the week before, so Stoke at home on Good Friday and Swansea away on Easter Monday (unless SkyTVisf**kings**t decide to change it). Pork pie and peas supper for the meat eaters and grass for the rest I am guessing. The questions are difficult, even harder after a few pints, and positively impossible after bottle of red wine… yet somehow someone still manages to get some answers correct. We had 3 teams last year, 4 if you include  Ripon bringing a team as well. We didn’t do very well, but it was a good laugh and we really need to start revising well before the week before. 4 people to a team, the branch pays the team entry fee and subsidises drink and travel. Let us know if you are interested, we don’t stick a chance of winning unless we sign up one of the people from The Chase.

Hospitality for Reading and other Sponsorship benefits

The winners of the two pairs of Reading tickets were….. Mally (I never win anything – EVER) Appleyard and Smuff (yeah give us a tenners worth) Paul Smith. Congratulations to you both. When the tickets arrive we will sort out getting them to you with the itinerary. Thanks to everyone who took part, any monies raised go towards the cost of Ryan’s sponsorship.

When the Thorp Arch event is confirmed, the branch will do the same and raffle off the places to branch members. I think last year the Thorp Arch places were split into a parent and child pairing and then two individual places. It’s worth remembering that the Thorp Arch event is always at the last minute.

There is still the LUSC Hospitality tickets which have yet to be announced.

Player Of The Month

There was a great response to vote for Player of the Month last month. Please can you continue to do so, regardless of whether some of them deserve it or not…. as at the end of the season there needs to be a winner to accept the LUSC Player of The Season trophy. The last few seasons someone from the LUSC has been able to present the trophy pitchside before a game. If anyone wishes to be put forward for that, please get in touch.

Programme Page

Most of you will have seen Bruce Reid got a picture and congratulations from the branch for doing his bit spreading Christmas Cheer round Harrogate. If anyone else has got anything like this, please get in touch with us.

Finally, monthly branch meetings etc.

The branch hold a monthly meeting on the 1st Sunday of every month (unless we are playing that day). It normally only lasts an hour or so, it’s not that much time out of your evening to come down to the Londesborough for a pint or two. If you have anything to contribute or wish to volunteer to help out with anything, please do so. This is your branch, so if you want anything to change, think the branch could do more or have any other (sensible) suggestions, this is where you need to do it. Other than The Membership Secretary (who has a job for life – not just Christmas) and probably Chairman Charley, all of the places on the Committee are up for grabs. If anyone wants to take the responsibility of ordering tickets, sorting coaches and refreshment stops and all the other social media, communications and admin stuff that comes with the job, all you need to do is put your proposals in, with a seconder, in WRITING four weeks before the AGM. The AGM is usually 1st Sunday in July, so as long as we have received your written proposal in time (so June 1st normally) for the agenda to be printed out, it can be put forward, debated and voted on at the AGM.

 

 

 

Apologies for lack of correspondence since October. There have been lots of long away trips etc. to deal with. Once again, if anyone in the branch can help out with this website to keep it up to date, any offers greatly appreciated.

Monthly Branch Meeting.

Monthly branch meeting was held on Sunday January 5th 2020. Thanks to all who attended despite the Christmas run in of Fulham, Birmingham and West Brom away, with Arsenal in the FA Cup imminent, it was a good turn out. The branch had donated some alcohol free (yes such things exist) beer etc. to Harrogate Fire Station for their Christmas Day open door event. Bruce Reid who has been a branch member for quite a while, works there and was happy for us to share the event on social media etc. The branch also donated some memorabilia which may go towards fund raising in the future. Hopefully, there will be a piece about this on the LUSC programme page in a future Leeds United programme. The Club have got back to us about our Hospitality places. A vote was taken at the meeting and we have gone with either Reading or Luton as our chosen game. See AOB below.

Memberships

Healthy numbers for this season. The Membership Secretary is returning all the forms to The Secretary as soon as he can and any membership cards will be sent out as soon as possible if there was a stamped addressed envelope provided. If no envelope was provided, you will have to wait until we see you at a home game or on the bus at an away game for your card and free LUSC white Centenary wallet.

Away Games

We will be trying for QPR but as it is a free for all sale, we are not holding our breath. ***Update failed to get any in the season ticket holders sale, managed a few gold members tickets on Weds*** . There will not be any transport arranged for QPR due to lack of tickets. Forest is the next away  game and once we know the ticketing arrangements, we will sort transport accordingly. Brentford, frankly is a non starter. The members who qualify for the tiny amount of available tickets will be informed. Future travel will depend on what Leeds United decide re tracker v free for all. Any decisions re transport will be done on a match by match basis. If we end up getting promoted, next season will be a nightmare. We will have to see what happens when that situation arises.

A.O.B

Tickets

If anyone can please order their own away tickets when it comes to the free for all sales, PLEASE do so. It is a tremendous help and judging by our luck when it comes to free for alls, it is probably the only way to guarantee your ticket. I know the broadband signal in North Yorks is patchy but some branch members have been extremely lucky with their efforts this season, so keep up the good work. Also, do not disturb us anytime between 10.30 and 11.30 on ticket selling day. Messenger and facebook really do not help at all in these moments of crisis. If you are lucky to get your own tickets, let us know lunchtime-ish or at least after the red sold out bar comes up on the Leeds website.

Since we have been doing better, home tcikets are selling out very quickly. We can TRY to order you tickets on your numbers, but can you please give as much notice as possible. If you are trying to order your own, please remember that it won’t let you order in the family stand unless you are ordering two adults and two children at the same time. The only ones you can get are at the top of the East Stand and they won’t let young children sit up there.

Hospitality package

We will confirm whether it is the Reading or Luton  game for the hospitality package in the Gary Speed Suite. There are four places available and we will raffle them as two pairs of tickets. It will be free food and tea/coffee, free programme and then seats in the East Stand. The view is excellent and the prize is well worth it. We will be selling the raffle tickets, same as last year, at £1 per ticket to branch members only. Tickets can be purchased on the bus, in the pub (Golden Lion) if you see us on matchday, at the next branch meeting or you can email/message us and pay us by BACS for the tickets. The winning tickets will be drawn at the nearest monthly branch meeting to the game. Hopefully, this will be the Reading game and therefore will be at the NEXT monthly branch meeting. all money raised will go towards branch funds and hopefully the continued sponsorship of Ryan Edmondson. There has been no information yet regarding the Thorp Arch event, as soon as I know, we will let you know.

LUSC Programme Page.

If anyone has anything that they wish to have on the page, please get in touch. Hopefully Bruce Reid will be on the next one. Text has to be about 220 words long and a picture would be great. It publicises the LUSC  and the branch, so all good. The branch has done several articles. the MPO can help out if you need any further advice.

Centenary Merchandise

Still have some stock, especially the wristbands and car stickers. Any proceeds go back into the branch, so get in touch if you can help sell any of the items please.

Social Media

Just a reminder that the Harrogate Whites facebook page is PUBLIC and where we post any old rubbish that happens to be interesting at the time. The Harrogate & District LUSC page is the CLOSED group for paid up branch members who have filled in a form. If you haven’t filled a form in, you aren’t in it and this is where we post departure details etc. If I have missed anyone, I will add you to the group eventually with a reminder. If you aren’t a branch member, soz.

Website

Any help appreciated, especially if you know how to put photos in the gallery section. It is still getting sufficient views to continue with it, so even though it is yet another thing to do, we are persevering with it.

Football Cards

Just like to thank Ripon Mark and Bev for helping to do the football cards on the bus. Everything helps!