Like the Pilot song, January – sick and tired, you’ve been hanging on me. This has definitively been a January to forget. I had written a very upbeat blog just after Birmingham, but completely forget to click that publish button. Thank God I didn’t, as reading it back now, after those terrible decisions TC made yesterday, I would have looked a complete Monk, sorry fool.

This has unfortunately all stemmed from the mistake of fielding a weaker side against Newport County. You would have thought that after the buzz phrase of the decade “lessons have been learned”, has been hammered round from successive Government failures/NHS and banking crises/police f**k-ups over the last 15 years, someone would have taken a bit of notice.

Sadly not. So this is my letter. A letter that I would send if I thought the Club had any sense of humour, dignity,decorum, faith, honour in traditions etc.etc.etc . However, I think that our Club, along with the rest of the 72 other football league clubs have about as much respect for our footballing history and  traditions, as they have for the fans that pay their hard earned cash, and give up their time to travel to watch their team around the country.

Please see the section from FA Cup website ( I will attempt to attach the PDF of this just in case anyone wants to read the full rules). I had no idea that a football club has to actually apply to compete (in the loosest possible terms of my understanding of “compete”) in the FA Cup.

A Club wishing to participate in the Competition must complete the application and payment
process on or before 1 April in the season previous to the season in which such Club
proposes to compete in the Competition. A Club that is either a Full or Associate Member
of The Association who fail to pay The Association’s Membership subscriptions by 1 August
may be subject to removal from the Competition.

Dear (insert as appropriate) Football Club

The closing date for your application to play in next season’s FA Cup is looming.

Please can I request that if you are  not intending to FULLY participate in the competition, please do not bother to send in your application form.

If you have little or no respect for the history and the traditions of the oldest football tournament in the world, please do not waste your time.

If you intend on making 10 changes from your league side,  fielding your 2nd/3rd and/or youth team players, entering this competition would be a pointless exercise.

If you cannot see the value of using the Cup ties as an opportunity to develop your squad players, practice new playing systems and configurations, and see these games as a distraction from the more important league games, please desist.

If you cannot see the benefits of beating a lower league side comprehensively, both in the confidence boost from scoring and winning, and increasing the goal tally for the season, you are best to avoid the Cup.

If you choose to ignore the fact that there may be a boost to the Club revenue from full house cup ties from ticket sales and the subsequent merchandise/ retail outlets /catering streams income, that is your choice.

If you cannot acknowledge the importance of the fan experience at both home and away games, and realise that the fans that travel round the country are just as, if not more valuable, than the ones that watch on which ever random television channel decides it wants to inconvenience the travelling fans with, that is your perogative.

If this is your approach, we look forward to not receiving your application.

However, if you were simply concerned that you were going to miss the Royal wedding and had already applied for your street party licence, I fully understand. After all , moving the kick off til 5.30pm, just simply isn’t enough time to enjoy the full day of celebrations with Harry and Megan.

Yours truly

A football fan from days gone by

Smiles on the faces of Leeds manager Don Revie and club captain Billy Bremner as they hold the FA Cup which the club won in 1972 when they beat Arsenal

Words fail me!

After what could have been the greatest come back of the new millenium, TC thought it fit to sit back with 10 men playing against 11 thugs. After that rousing team talk at half time, we must have been playing so well, that he must have thought we still had 11 men on the pitch! Pre game everyone was whining about Lassogga and Roofe being rubbish, and even after the game people were still whining, despite three goals between them and, as I said, being down to 10 men.

The long and short of it was that TC made the wrong decisions. When Cooper got sent off, we should have instantly replaced him with another defender, we may only have gone in one goal down. But leaving Pontus, Beradi and the new guy on their own ( given the new guy, De Bock hadn’t played properly in the first team yet) was like going to a gun fight with a water pistol. Only ever going to end in tears. Apparently Millwall had said they were going to kick us out of the game. No change there then for the EFL Family Club of The Year. So just what TC was expecting was anyone’s guess.

After losing Cooper, who if I say it once, I will say it a million times, is just NOT Captain material ( bring back Bartley) for that rash challenge, it looked like game over. He was having an absolute nightmare before he went off anyway, and frankly we actually played better without him. The Secretary informs me that this will be a four match ban as this is his second red of the season, unless Leeds United try to overturn the decision, of course. It has been pointed out that if we appeal and it still stands, the ban may increase to 5 games, lucky us!

For Lassogga and Roofe to do what they did, was pretty darned good! They answered their critics, and I may be wrong, but had the crowd not been on their backs from the off, Lassogga may have had a couple more. When we hit back at Millwall they were rubbish. All we had to do was keep running at them, their defence wasn’t up to much. All our midfield had to do was hold the ball up to give time for Lassogga, Roofe and a.n other to get into space. As it transpired, all they succeeded in doing was hacking the ball out or giving it away whilst trying to pass it back to Felix. Credit where credit is due, Felix had a good game too. He pulled off some brilliant saves and he couldn’t be blamed for Millwall’s last deflected goal.

So 10th it is, bring on the cod heads!

According to the internet, seeing as the team don’t have an FA Cup game next week ( hmmmm), they are going for some warm weather training. Great preparation for coming back to a league game on Tuesday night in Hull in January! Who thinks these things up? They would be better off going to Greenland to gear themselves up for a trip to the East Coast. Since when was it ever warm in Hull? This City of Culture gubbings is clearly completely misleading some people. Off to sunny Spain, fantastic to get rewarded for losing to lower league opposition and three red cards in a month. I wonder where they would have gone if we had won? Oh wait, if we had won, it would have been a money spinning tie at home to Spurs instead and FA Cup glory. Easy choice then.

Branch Meeting

Meeting was held on Sunday January 14th. There was a minutes silence in honour of our friend and the most loyalest Leeds United fan I have ever met in my entire life, Mr Eric Carlile.

Away Games

We are currently taking bookings for Hull on Tuesday Jan 30th 7.45pm kick off and T’Blades on Saturday 10th February 12.30pm kick off.

Memberships

The Membership Secretary was last seen in The Blues Bar with ex Secretary Rowson and Mr Reaveley.

A.O.B

The raffle draw was (finally) done for the Eddie Gray signed memorabilia. The branch have also been given a framed Leeds United shield autographed by Eddie Gray.

The Chairman was on form over the festive period. No doubt many of you have seen the footage on You Tube etc. so I won’t bore you with the details. Here are some wise words which were shared with Mr Rowson over the last week or so. They aren’t quite New Year Messages, but they are the best The MPO could do at this short notice. There will be more after the monthly branch meeting on Sunday 14th January.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS!

Apologies for the absence for the last few months. Ill health and all of that. Let’s hope 2018 is a better year for us all, on and off the pitch.

Monthly branch meeting

The first branch meeting of the year will be held on Sunday 14th January 2018. This is due to the fact that we are (properly) playing Newport away in the FA Cup, as opposed to just pretending to play them in away in the League Cup last year at Elland Road. What are the chances of getting the same team drawn in both cups in one season? So, only for the second time in quite a few years, the meeting has been moved. The branch meeting in December was unfortunately cancelled due to ill health of both The Secretary and The MPO. The much delayed draw for the Eddie Gray memorabilia will be done on Sunday 14th January.

Away games

The branch is not running a coach to the Newport game due to the lack of tickets acquired as the ground is tiny. Deputy Yates is running a minibus, please contact Mr Yates directly for info.

The branch is running a bus to Ipswich, there is currently a very limited number of seats left for members. If these seats are not taken up by branch members by the end of the week, these will be opened up to non members ( of which we have a wait list).

The next away game could be Hull or the 4th round of the FA Cup depending on what team is put out by TC on Sunday. I am seriously hoping that TC and Mr Radrizzani are sticking by their words that they will put out a team to win every game. They said this at the start of the season as part of the new era at Leeds United. At the time, I quoted the words of Billy, side before self, and reiterated how dedicated our great side were in the days where it wasn’t unheard of to play 4 games in 7 days. In the good old days of the replays, The Secretary says you could be playing a replay on the Tuesday and if you needed another replay, you could be playing on the Thursday. None of this penalty shoot out rubbish! You played until you properly won a game! Fixture congestion? My rear end! You played for the love of the  game and the pride of the shirt.

Memberships

The Membership Secretary has been out on manouvres since his misfortune. It doesn’t mean he will show up at the next branch meeting, but the branch is pleased to know he is functioning in some way, shape or form. There will be an update on memberships imminently.

A.O.B

We will ask Brian and Trish how much money was raised for the British Heart Foundation event before Christmas.

Mick Husband is somewhere in the Pacific on Dare to Lead in the Clipper Race For Life. Look out for his photo in the programme soon.

The MPO has some ideas for the LUSC Centenary and if anyone else has any ideas, please can they get in touch?

The latest edition of the blog will be coming soon.

The branch has bought a stone on the Bremner Square, albeit smaller than the one planned, but the larger sizes sold out pretty quickly.

Not wishing to hijack the Movember project at all, which is a worthy cause raising awareness for men’s health issues, I would like to propose “Move-ember”. Move-ember is a cause designed to raise awareness of playing your players in the right position thus facilitating said players to move into the best positions to score a goal or defend the goal as a team.

Since my last blog in September, I like the team have taken a short leave of absence due to various problems. Unlike the team, however, I have not headbutted / kneeded anyone in the short and curlies to give me a 3 match suspension, I was not taken out by my own player, I did not dislocate my shoulder nor has my wife given birth to a child. I am back now and hopefully hot on my heels, so is the team.

After last night’s display against Derby, unlike a large number of fans who disgracefully boo-ed the players off the pitch, I was still strangely calm in the face of such adversity. If we had scored another goal just before half time, if we had continued playing in the second half as we had in the first and if we hadn’t gifted both those goals away, it would have been ok. Plus, there are no excuses for the shoddy effort from the referee and the linespersons in that game (how anyone could give a penalty for that is pitiful). There are flashes of brilliance in our team, the problem just seems to be exactly that – there are flashes of brilliance but no consistency. I don’t mean thick enough to coat the back of a spoon either (Chef reference there!)

It isn’t as if Lasogga cannot score. It’s not as if Saiz cannot make a decent run at players. It isn’t as if we cannot close anyone down effectively in midfield and peg them down in their end. It isn’t as if we cannot defend our goal. Simply put, we can do all of this, just not consistently throughout an entire game, let alone lately, string a few wins together. After all, we are still 7th in the league. We can get to the play off positions if we beat Brentford. It’s not even Christmas yet!

I can see how some fans are a bit despondent, especially those whose interests were only recently rekindled by the new era of Radrizzani and Orta et al. You were fooled by our fantastic start, the first 6 games where we looked unbeatable, and everyone was calling TC the Messiah. More fool you, dear Hector, I still remember Sutton. The season is played and won across 46 games, and it doesn’t really matter where you are until after Christmas, as we all know well from last seasons monkfoolery!

So, where do I start? Good question? Let’s start at the defence.

In the first seven league games we looked unbeatable. Everyone said we were going up as Champions ( including me). The defence looked rock solid and Felix – Felix didn’t concede a goal in 6 games! Cooper looked a changed man from last seasons (Sutton) debacles and the team picked him as Captain. Many ate their words in a 2016/17 Chris Wood -esque turnaround with a massive helping of humble pie and despite Beradi dislocating his shoulder at Bolton, our back four looked pretty darn good. Whichever combination of Ayling, Cooper, Pennington, Shaughnessy, Jansson, Borthwick-Jackson and Anita, TC picked, it worked! It worked so well that Ayling turned into a right winger and started flinging in some seriously good crosses.

Then Millwall, and reality hit, and it hit us hard, right in the balls. If the bottle that got chucked on the pitch that day, which was ignored by the referee, the linesman, the EFL etc.etc. had hit the ground as hard as our team got hit, there would have been a meteoric hole in the den, and I don’t just mean in our defence either. Felix tried his best, and to be fair, had he not pulled off some cracking saves, we would have been 5 nil down. The goal wasn’t his fault, the blame for that goes to Jansson for hoofing the ball into the air in the penalty area rather than clearing it. There was a school of thought that it was offside, but the ref having already risked life and limb for disallowing that Morrison goal, caved under pressure. Jansson then went off injured and we were down to 10 men for the rest of the game.

Since then, our defence has been a bit of a mess. But not without reason. Multiple injuries have seen off a regular back four, Anita picked up a knock and got subbed at the Ipswich game, Pontus carried the injury he got from Millwall into the next few games. The relative inexperience of Shaughnessy, Pennington and B-Jackson (all who had already picked up niggling injuries) was exposed as Ayling and Cooper tried to take the strain. It seemed to take ages for Beradi to get back after he dislocated his shoulder, and with the inconsistency of the back four, Felix suffered the most. Felix, unfortunately took the brunt of the abuse from the fans, which frankly doesn’t help anyone’s confidence, and subsequently his dip in form has put Warhorse Lonergan back between the sticks.

So, you would think that TC would just stick to playing a flat back four until his defence shores themselves up and gets a few clean sheets under their belts, wouldn’t you? Well, I would anyway. Sadly not. Ayling has been caught forward so many times lately, it seems inevitable that any team that makes even the feeblest attempt to trickle the ball down our right flank, is going to put the ball in the back of our net. Even O Kane was coming in to cover last night, and before anyone starts this whole, “midfield should be able to drop back” rubbish, this is what Bridcutt did last season, and look how well we did with that!

The fact is that there is no point us having a 40-goal-a-season goal machine up front if our defence leaks in 50 weak shots. I would much rather us win 1-0 keeping a clean sheet, after all if we keep a clean sheet for the rest of the season, that’s play offs a cert, isn’t it?

Anyway, the long and short of it is, we need a stable defence.

Secondly, our midfield, or whatever configuration we are playing vaguely in the middle of the park in front of the big guy Lasogga. Even he doesn’t know who is playing in the middle, so who is he looking to to get the ball off? That’s right – the keeper! Seeing as all we are doing is getting the ball from midfield, passing it back to the defence, who are giving it to the keeper to hoof up. Or is that too simplistic? This is of course, when we are not trying to walk the ball into the back of the net. I am a bit frustrated about this, as you can tell. We have the potential, we don’t utilise it.

At times, our midfield has resembled something from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, four hobbits and some bloke with a pointy hat (ok – no pointy hat) trying to get past a load of orcs to get the ball in the goal. It may seem a bit harsh comparing Saiz, Alioski, Pablo and Roofe to Mr Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry, as they clearly don’t have massive hairy feet and pointy ears, but we are dwarfed (no pun intended) by just about every team in this league. We are muscled off nearly every ball (with the help of the refs) unless we make a break for it. It worked in the book and the films, but these particular set of skills are just not transferable to a football pitch unfortunately. I am not saying most of Division 2’s midfielders are disfigured, slobbering, cumbersome, oversized goblins (I think) , but you get my drift – right?

Like all good battle formations, use the flanks to draw the foe and then deliver the killer blow. Players attached to the touchline on a piece of slinky which pulls them back when they get near the penalty box, just can’t cut it. If and when, we get the ball to Saiz, draw the defenders away, the cross goes in and Lasogga scores or Phillips gets the second ball from the flick on. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

No Formation + No Movement = Headless Chickens

Mind you, at least there isn’t some weird, creepy creature hovering around in the background, wringing his hands and  muttering “My Precious” under his breath. He’s gone to Boro

Don’t start pretending like you never thought of that either!