To Everything Turn, Turn, Turn. There is a season…. and this could be ours!

This time last week we were coming into the Wigan game with a decent display at Derby, and all was good. Unfortunately, after the 1-1 draw, the world was full of despondency once more. At the death, our defence failed to clear and Wigan equalised in the 91st minute, a draw snatched away from the mouth of victory. It felt like we had lost the game and people were calling for Garry Monks head, baying for blood.

A week later, here we are again. After a hard fought team display on Saturday at Wolves, and an own goal from Sacko’s bewilderingly placed cross in front of the gaping goal, we emerged victorious. Back to tonight, and following a poor start to ticket sales initially, Leeds United have been forced to open the West Stand Upper Tier to cater for more purchases. This is good, after our poor support at the Blackburn home tie, with less than 10,000 punters turning up. Yet season ticket holders continued to complain that they wouldn’t attend as “their stand” wasn’t open. This despite the £10 a ticket for adults and a very competitive £2.50 for children / £5 for OAPs. What more could the Club do?

Should we win tonight and get another home tie, there is only one solution. Just open the whole ground up.

Regardless of whether the team are doing well or not, it looks like we cannot fill the ground for cup games, that is unless we get a “glamour” tie. Bizarrely enough, despite only getting 23,000 for the last few league games, the Newcastle game is selling like hotcakes!

I am a cynic of the highest order, therefore, I need to stop discussing this any further for fear of upsetting folk. My parting shot is that, should we progress, I hope the Club discount the tickets for anyone who bothered to turn up for the Blackburn home cup game.

MPO

As Keats said, To Autumn – the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom friend of the maturing sun, conspiring with him how to load and bless, with fruit, the vines that round thatch-ed eaves run.

For those of you who never did English Lit at O level; as is with Leeds United, the team are maturing slowly under Garry-with-two-Rs leadership. There still is plenty of room for improvement before the winter cold sinks in, so let us just consider how far we have come before we start nit picking.

Our defence, which in previous seasons has seen us produce net negative figures generally, has gone from strength to strength. This, despite the loss of our Premiership standard right back – who hasn’t chalked up 3 starts in a row since he left us for the Mighty ‘Ammers. The usual Media scrum around losing our other Want-Away Taylor has died down some, since the emergence of the Terrible Trio of Capt Bartley, Jansson and Ayling, silencing the critics. It may even be possible that they are not wanting to press his departure for fear of unleashing a better defender, who may well be the last brick needed in the unstoppable defensive wall of the Mighty Leeds. Incidentally, I would still have Silvestri back at the drop of a hat.

Plaudits as well for the matching of O Kane (good swap for Lewis Cook) and young Kalvin Phillips. The pair of them are a good unit and despite their size and relative inexperience, they have carved out their midfield role with Ninja like precision. The rest of the midfield is where the maturing sun and Garry need to focus their attention on. We desperately missed Dallas on Saturday against Derby. I still think Sacko, Hernandez, Vieira and Roofe have skills, guile, speed and agility, as much as the next man, Mowatt. But they haven’t gelled yet and they need the likes of Dallas and the out of favour Murphy and Diagouraga to put in the extra challenge that is needed. The need is especially apparent when playing teams like Derby and Huddersfield, with a strong midfield. Mooy was unstoppable, and whilst the referee wasn’t giving us anything against the South Yorks Chihuahuas that day, his presence on the pitch was something that our team was sadly lacking.

Our finishing in the final third has also been underwhelming of late. Chris Wood works hard and he chases the ball down, like a goal hungry striker should. I still think we should play two up front, unpopular as it is nowadays. It’s all fair and square getting your wide players to put a cross in, but in my mind, there should be an option of a second man for the killer touch, in true Lee Chapman poacher style, should the keeper only manage to parry the save.

Our set pieces, especially from corners have got better after the shaky season start. Captain Bartley could have scored not once but twice at The Ipro, in his Weatherall-esque role in front of goal. We should have scored from that Antonsson shot as well, only the bar saved Derby from a draw, which would have been a fair result after the goal from Greens blunder early in the second half. Silvestri had his critics last year, I still think Garry should give him the Number 1 shirt back.

Thanks to Mandy and the staff at The Crowne Inn, Somercotes for the hospitality and the photos, which were posted on facebook before we all got back inside the pub. It is on days like these that we have to thank the Home Clubs for giving us the allocation we need.

The day was marred by poor Police and stewarding after the game, right in front of the coaches. I didn’t witness anything myself but apparently fans were being attacked. I am not entirely sure who was attacking who, as during half time a fellow Leeds fan threw a punch at one of our female members. 20 years ago, taking a picture meant a trip to Boots and waiting a week for them to develop it, I hope that social media was put to good use on Saturday, so that those responsible are brought to book. But after the tear gassing at Hull and the Norwich and Bradford flare incidents last season, I doubt if any of the footage will lead to appropriate action being taken against any of the perpetrators. I know there will be criticism at what I say, but some of our own fans need to take a long hard look at themselves before they start blaming others.

Considering Derby were one of the first clubs in the country to have a second generation, purpose built new stadium, there’s always had problems there post match – biggest ensemble of Elvis’s I’ve ever seen. Long gone are the days when rival fans were able to leave stadia in relative propriety together. After “The Cheese Wedge” was put out of commission for away fans during the Bates Era as a money making scheme, there has been continuing issues for our disabled / less able fans trying to leave the ground via The West Stand. The Club say that they, and the Police think it is better and safer for away fans to be housed there, after all £37 in advance or £42 on the day, is bound to be better. I don’t think there has been any difference in the activities of the Numskulls who stand on the corner outside McDonalds, shouting at anybody and everybody, since the change, and there certainly isn’t a reduction in the presence of the Police vans who are parked up opposite The East Stand. They all still seem to be sat inside, not doing very much or standing within three feet of the vans doing a very good job protecting themselves, most match days.

Finally, tickets. My apprehension about Norwich was unfounded, with the grand figure of 2400 being announced, and at £40 per adult, all I can say is, good ( nearly £100,000) decision Norwich! Leeds United, thankfully, has also made the game a loyalty one based on their “Away Tracker” system. Given that it was based on “3 or more away games” so far, this was an excellent idea, as the first 7 away fixtures included 3 long away games to QPR, Cardiff and Bristol and the Forest loyalty game. This is music to the ears for all  hard working LUSC branch secretaries and other non season ticket holder dedicated fans. It is so disappointing to let down loyal fans when tickets are short and I hope that The Club will continue on this road. I have some sympathy with people who are just starting to travel away, but there are plenty of opportunities through the season at the larger allocation grounds, to get your loyalty points up for the next season. Any dedicated fan who travels from Harrogate to Bristol City on a Tuesday night or Brighton on a Friday night, deserves a ticket over the “one away per season” part timer. With any luck, Leeds will continue with this and the rest of the Championship (Premiership in the near future) clubs will treat the Leeds fixture as a money spinning cash cow, and give us a decent allocation for the coming seasons and years, or at least until I stop being the Branch Ticket Orderer.

Cheers

MPO

So, what about Leeds United since last month? I got a bit distracted, apologies. Meanwhile, in a city nearby… the football continues! I needn’t write about the other stuff, it’s all hearsay and speculation, boring really….

So, in summary, the away game at Bristol could be summed up with two words – poor finishing. However, the team put on a better display against Barnsley last week, and despite a very soggy walk back to the pub, we were again, buoyed by the spirit of things to come.

Firstly, our condolences to The Revie family on the sad passing of Duncan Revie. The club demonstrating that we never forget our own, with members of the family joining us at Elland Road for the Barnsley match, and a minutes applause before the game as a mark of respect. Forgive me, but I still prefer to stand in silence with my head bowed as my mark of respect, call me old fashioned.

The defence still look tidy, with Captain Bartley at the helm, the confidence extruding from the back into the midfield duo of O Kane and Phillips. Kalvin Phillips still takes a lot of flak from some parts of the crowd. They seem to forget, he’s still only 20, yes TWENTY, it’s still six weeks before he hits 21. It is a big ask to be playing for Leeds United in the first place, let alone a holding role in midfield. That goal he scored from the free kick at Forest was a sign of things to come, as long as people stop getting on his very young back. Against Barnsley, he had a good start, but then he had a couple of misplaced passes and his head went down, but he pulled himself back together again, and both he and O Kane impressed for me.

Pontus Jansson is fast becoming a fans favourite with his social media comments as well as his performances on the pitch. His style obviously suits Leeds United and not Torino, they got Joe Hart instead, I think that is a fair swap. Hernandez is still a little stop-start as is Hadi Sacko in my opinion. They both show speed and agility, but are inconsistent with that final pass and finishing. Both could have four or five goals this season each, but for their penchant for aiming for the back of the Kop / South Stand instead of the goalmouth. Still, Pablo had a fine finish for his goal, and it is only October.

The club have answered their critics when it comes to being fairer to fans, by reducing the price for the Norwich League Cup home game. You really can’t ask for more than a tenner for a cup game in this day and age, I certainly cannot recollect paying that in a long while, apart from the heady days of European football in the late 90s. So, for all those who moaned that it is too expensive, lets see how many of the 14,000 season ticket holders turn up in a few weeks time. The main (selfish) issue I have, is that I can’t sit in my season ticket seat as the stand is closed. Whilst I understand that cost cutting measures are needed for low attendances, there was talk that for the last (Blackburn) Cup game, there were still stewards and the bag checking station in position outside the Captains Corner as no one had told them that the stand was closed! I can only hope that there weren’t any staff waiting for customers at the bar inside wondering what was going on. A query to the ticket office revealed that the plan is to open the stands in a rotation system for home Cup ties depending on attendances. Whether or not there is a need to open up the West Stand for the Norwich game, after our next 3 wins, it will nevertheless, be a happy position to be in.

Lastly, my usual gripe about away tickets…. As most LUSC Branch Secretaries / ticket purchasers are very well aware, it is not easy getting tickets for away games these days. The heady days of just getting your list to Eric Carlisle, have sadly gone the way of all good things. If it were up to me, ALL away ticket allocations would be based on the loyalty system, banishing the panic stations at 10.30am sirens. Previous discussions with the Club have revealed that some fans aren’t happy with this system and don’t think it is fair that the same people get to go to away games all the time. To those people I would simply like to say WHAT PART OF THE WORD LOYALTY DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?

Like many seasoned fans over the years, I know that there is a core of maybe 1500 of us who go and have been going to every game for as long as I can remember. There used to be many more, but some have sadly passed away, some have got different responsibilities now, some have moved away and some, yes, some, have just got older and wiser. Tumultuous times at the Club have seen a fair few off as well, and as always the cost of following our team, is another unhelpful distraction. But for those who haven’t missed a game for years, to miss out on getting a ticket because someone else has a better computer and better IT skills than someone else, just isn’t right. Not everyone can afford to fork out for an away season ticket at the start of the season, so there is only one option, buy your tickets on the website. When it is based on loyalty, at least there is a 48-72 hour window for you to get your ticket. The Club have all ticket purchases on record, so it isn’t a hardship for them to use the “loyalty tracker”. Loyal fans should be rewarded for their loyalty. As our performances on the pitch improve, I can only see the problem increasing. Away allocations are also restricted by previous behaviour at said grounds, and whilst I am certainly not a fun dodger, beer fights and smoke bombs aren’t my cup of tea, especially if it means that our ticket allocation is cut. So, we wait with baited breath for the decision at Norwich following our last visit….

Another epic 20 pages in issue 13, start of the season 1997, tubthumping, Ridsdale before the fish tank…

An epic 20 pages in issue 12, as usual please read Disclaimer