Apologies for missing Septembers update. October 2019 will have to just be a hotchpotch.
Monthly Branch Meeting
There have been no formal meetings since August 2019. The September and October ones have been hijacked by other pressing events, so there are no minutes available for either of these mini meetings. Our next branch meeting will be Sunday November 3rd. The day after QPR at home and the day before Mischief Night. As we are British, we won’t be subscribing to the whole Americanisation of celebrating Halloween as a “special” day, but if anyone has any chocolate (as long as it isn’t that Ferrero Rocher!) left over, you are most welcome to bring it along. That “Trick or Treat” lark is just an excuse to hike the prices up of sweets and chocolate for two weeks before October 31st. It’s just another ruse to waste your money and another opportunity to get your kids addicted to more crap sugar, although given all the laws we are going to be subject to from the fun police, it probably won’t be proper sugar and chocolate anyway. It’ll be some vegan, chemical sugar substitute that in decades to come, some scientist will tell us that it induced hyperactivity in kids and given a whole generation long term health problems.
No, there won’t be any high jinks that evening unless someone decides to knock on the door and runs away before The Chairman opens it. I have to say that “Ring” device or them video door cameras are just sucking the joy right out of Mischief Night.
Memberships
Mysteriously, we are still getting requests for people wanting to join. I honestly don’t know why as everyone knows by now that the Supporters Club’s can’t get tickets like we used to. I think The Chairman’s popularity on social media must be having an impact. Either that or people are desperate to see what we post on the closed facebook group – which frankly isn’t very much apart from departure times. Either way, it is good that more people are wanting to join the branch, as it means that we can put more money towards Ryan’s sponsorship package bill and of course any extra funds will go towards the Annual Harrogate Branch End Of Season BBQ. Everyone will get a very smart free LUSC Centenary branch wallet for their membership cards (maybe that’s why people are joining up) provided you send The Membership Secretary a stamped addressed envelope. Anyone who hasn’t had their membership card yet, please be patient as their has been a bit of a backlog.
Away Games
There have been away games and we have struggled with tickets – The End
Seriously, thanks to everyone who has been trying for their own tickets on ticket selling day. It has been a bit of a nightmare this season, probably worse than last and this interest in away games has been unprecedented in my lifetime, frankly. We are told that it is because Leeds as a city is getting bigger and because of that and the “Northern Powerhouse” the profile of Leeds United is increasing. Because of all of this, the media profile is getting bigger and so more people are turning into fans of Leeds United. And that, ladies and gentlebeans, is why away tickets are getting harder and harder to come by.
Of course Leeds United have never had such a big fan base before this season right?
The biggest attendance at Elland Road is??? 15th March 1967, FA Cup 5th Round Replay 57,892. I’ll spell it out, fifty seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety two people in the year nineteen sixty seven. Yes, it was the FA Cup – yes, that’s right a CUP game. And it was only the 5th round, not even the quarter final or semi. And to top it all off – it was a REPLAY. That’s right, a replay, this is something that used to happen when there was a draw at the end of the 90 minutes of normal play. Games used to be replayed until you got a result. I think the record goes to Alverchurch v Oxford City (gonna check with The Chairman) – they did 6 ties in 1971. This was in the “old days” where there was a bit of pride in the game, before the FA decide to get rid of replays to “ease fixture congestion”. “Fixture congestion” to “rest” players that were worn out from all these European games that they all played, seeing as the squads were so small that they had to field the “top” players all the time and no “big” club would ever field a weakened team in the League or FA Cup, ever. Plus NONE of the “big” clubs ever went to the Far East, Middle East, USA or Australasia to play in money spinning “friendlies”, did they?
I’ve gone off on a complete tangent, apologies. Anyway. Everyone knows what I am getting at. We all know the reason why people have started wanting to go Leeds United away games again. The branch will run travel for as long as we can dependant on whether we get tickets or not. Please try order your own. Departure details will be published on the closed facebook group.
Website and social media
As soon as I get time, the gallery will be updated with photos etc. Eric Ware was in the Derby programme on the LUSC page, if anyone else has an interesting article, please get it to us as soon as. By the way Eric was in that 57,892 crowd at Elland Road that day.
The closed facebook group has had the first cull. Anyone else in the group who hasn’t filled a form in will be removed shortly. It’s pretty simple, join the branch, join the closed group. The public page will remain public and facebook will do whatever it does to get some sort of revenue into it’s funds by suggesting adverts or links to clickbait. I think it has asked me to try get more likes to the page or something. I’m not really bothered, so I’m not going to. If anyone posts anything on there I don’t like, I’ll delete it anyway.
A.O.B
Ryan Edmondson
Ryan continues to be our sponsored player. He had gone from U23 top goal scorer at Leeds United to having the Number 9 shirt for England Under 19 team. To time of writing, Ryan has got 3 England caps and scored a goal. Whilst he still hasn’t got his 1st team call up, hopefully Bielsa has a plan and realises than whilst Eddie has got some skills, Ryan might be a better sub or even partner up front with Patrick Bamford. Two up front at home, come on Marcelo.
Centenary Merchandise
It’s flying off the shelves and hopefully it will all be sold by Christmas. All items are just one offs and even though there has been interest, there will be no more merchandise once it all gets sold. Sorry.
