Birmingham - Leeds United 26th of October 2011

In 1985 some of the worst football riots happened in England, and our game against Birmingham in may of 1985 was one of the worst games Leeds have ever been involved in. A 14 year old kid was killed and even Leeds legend Eddie Gray, then manager of the club, was abused by LUFC fans.
This will be our first meeting with Birmingham since 2007, they have enjoyed time in the Premier League and also winning a Carling Cup last year, while we have been in league 1 and won, ehm.. not much!

Birmingham are currently 14th in the table, but in their case the table actually do lie, they have only played 10 games due to being in the Europa League, so they have three games in hand, and would easily find themselves in the play offs if they were succesful in those games. They have been great in both league and Europe so I think it's safe to say that Simon Grayson's men will face their toughest test so far this season.

Leeds United grabbed a dramatic winner in the 6th minute of Fergie time on saturday, with Darren O'Dea getting his second goal in two games (Had Luciano scored I would have gotten all three goalscorers right from my last blog) and Leeds once again look like a team who can outscore any opponent, but defence still needs a bit of work, but ok, it doesn't help that Lonergan is now injured for weeks, hopefully Paul Rachubka will improve in form when he gets more games under his belt.
Robert Snodgrass missed this weekends win and was replaced by Varynen (who picked up an injury himself), Snoddy is expected to feature tomorrow and if he can't play, Lloyd Sam looks a likely replacement, the Leeds born winger created the last two goals in the weekend, so maybe he will get the chance ahead of Snoddy anyway?

So the right winger is the only questionmark for SG, I think he will play Sam and keep the rest of the team as it was on saturday, eventhough I would still like to see Becchio start, but maybe he is being saved for the next two games when I am on ER? Due to my travel over I won't be able to blog about the next two games, but will return with news from Leeds and hopefully new memories and a brilliant pub guide!

Leeds will win a hard fought battle 1-0 with a late winner from Luciano Becchio M.O.T

 

Peterborough - Leeds United 22nd of October 2011

Leeds United & Adam Clayton will visit the posh tomorrow, Clayton spent part of last season on loan there and helped Peterborough clinch promotion to the championship. Darren Ferguson's men have played better then expected and find themselves in 7th place with 19 points, 12 of them coming from games on London Ground, so it's a team with a decent home record that we face.

It's not a team full of stars but they have a few worth keeping an eye on, George Boyd being the biggest name, and also former Leeds youngster Ben Gordon on loan from Chelsea - Their most famous name is probably their manager, Alex Ferguson's son Darren, who has guided them from league 2 to the championship, then got relegated and left the club to manage Preston (and beating us 4-6 at ER) and then returned to the posh and got them promoted, among all these great things he's also managed to get arrested for beating his wife!

Leeds United have played som great football in recent weeks and have started looking like a top six team again, we suffered a little bump on Tuesday when Coventry managed to steal a point in overtime on a mistake from reserve keeper Paul Rachubka. Sadly Andy Lonergan is expected out for 6-7 weeks so I hope that Paul can find his pre season form so Loner's injury won't cost us points. Simon Grayson is not expected to make radical changes to the side, I would love to see Luciano Becchio replace Andy Keogh soon, but will also admit that Keogh have not played himself out of the side, however both he and Ross McCormack were replaced by Luciano and Mikael Forrsell on Tuesday so maybe SG is looking to try Becchio out for 90 mins soon?

I think the lads will pick themselves up after the disapointment on Tuesday and start a winning streak on Saturday (tough games coming up, Birmingham (A), Cardiff and Blackpool (H), the two home games with me in the stands!!), so a solid win tomorrow to give confidence for the next games would be nice!

So I say 3-1 Leeds, goals by Clayton, Keogh & Becchio

Leeds United – Coventry October 18th 2011

Next up at Elland Road is Coventry City, a team that I have hated with passion for 15-16 years, they've never been that good, never really beaten us alot, but I have always ranked them close to Man U and Liverpool on my hate scale, actually only Galacrap are worse. The reason? They took Strachan & McAllister from us (Whelan too but that never pissed me off in the same way) - Macca was still great when he left, and with Strachan leaving we missed out on a man who I believe could have done with Leeds in the 2000's what Revie did in the 60's & 70's - And now it's to late and wee Gordon S won't get his chance a ER - At least we can always look back at the picture of him with the 91/92 championship trophy.

Coventry arrieve at ER with 10 points and laying in 19th, they have been terrible away from home getting just a single point so I don't think they will be looking forward to facing a very strong Leeds side. They don't have any really strong players worth mentioning but Lukas Jutkiewicz have had an ok season so far bagging five goals in 11 games, his strike partner Gary McSheffrey (one of the worst players ever to pull on a Leeds shirt???) have scored just once in seven outings.

Leeds United played their best game of the season on Friday when Doncaster were torn apart by a great playing Leeds side, the 3-0 win could easily have been 3-4 goals larger. Despite my best efforts to persude Simon Grayson to play Becchio instead of Keogh he still haven't listened, and after a man of the match performance from our loan man on friday, he seems likely to start tomorrow aswell. We will probably field the same 11 who did so well on friday, our only concern is that Andrew Lonergan hurt his finger in the game and is doubtful, but Paul Rachubka did well in the pre-season, and I have no problems with him between the sticks if Lonergan can't make it. Leeds extended the undefeated (league) streak to five games with the great win, and hopefully SG and the lads can make it six on tuesday night. The clean sheet streak was also keept alive and is now on two and counting, defence have looked steady since Tom Lees moved in next to Darren O'Dea so I hope and think we will keep Coventry away from goals tomorrow.

As mentioned I don't like Coventry too much so therefor my guess is 3-0 Leeds, goals from McCormack (of course), Snodgrass and Becchio and that's being nice!

And here is that picture to remember Strachan by!

Doncaster - Leeds 14th of October 2011

For the second time this season Leeds will take the short trip to Keepmoat to face Doncaster Rovers, the first visit was in the Carling cup were a Ramon Nunez brace gave Leeds a 2-1 win.

Doncaster had a rough start to the season and are currently 20th i the table with 8 points, 7 of those however have been collected in the last three games.
Their terrible season start got manager Sean O'Driscoll the sack, and he's been replaced by Dean Saunders, who have signed some quality players since coming north, among them Pascal Chimbonda, Chris Kirkland and Jon Parkin (the chubby bloke who scored loads of goals for Preston against us in the terrible 4-6 defeat). So it is a improved Doncaster team that take on Leeds, who are on a roll as well, our last defeat in the league came against Ipswich almost two months back.

Simon Grayson will welcome his players back from international duty, and all of them should be fit and raring to go. I think that the break will have become Luciano Becchio well, and I expect him to start the game alongside Ross McCormack, apart from that I think we will put the same team in that beat Portsmouth. This means that Tom Lees will once again play in the centre of defence, a position which I feel is his best, my only doubt concerning the starting 11 is whether Paddy Kisnorbo will come in instead of Darren O'Dea, but as always Simon Grayson is keeping the cards close to his chest.

We will probably hear the LUFC fans sing; "Town full of Leeds fans" towards the Donny crowd, always good with a bit of banter. The game should be a close one, and Doncaster seem to be a different team after changing manager, but I think Leeds will win 2-0 goals coming from Becchio and captain Jonny Howson.

Me and Jonny, had to put my shirt on backwards to get both an autograph and a picture!

The return of talent from the acadamy

Before this season very few people had seen Tom Lees play a game, and actually some might not even have heard of him. Aiden White is a different matter, people knew he was around and he had even managed to get a few games, I personally saw him in February 2010 against Oldham where he was named man of the match and given a standing ovation when subbed with 15 minuttes to go.

Tom Lees have been out on loan the last seasons, in Accrington Stanley and Bury, in both clubs he played a lot of games, and he was one of Bury's best performers last season. Aiden White have only had one loan spell, last season when he went to Oldham. Both players seem to have benefited from their loan spells and the joys of playing week in, week out.

Leeds have had problems in the back four this season, but some highlights have been seen - The two youngsters from the acadamy, both have been steady in the back, and dangerous going forward, Lees even managed to score in a game against Hull (in both ends actually) and Aiden have provided many crosses and given right backs plenty of problems with his great speed. In last weekends game against Portsmouth Simon Grayson moved Tom Lees from right back to central defence and what happened, Leeds kept the first clean sheet of the campaign.

The arrival of Lees & White in the first team mark something that Leeds fans love, home grown talent, we all remember players like Woodgate, McPhail, Alan Smith & Paul Robinson who came through the ranks and played a massive part in building a team that was feared all over England, and even in Europe - Dare we dream that this is the start of another adventure?

There are some other young players pushing for a spot in the first team squad, the Turner twins, Zac Thompson and Charlie Taylor among others, this could prove to be exiting times for Leeds fans and the hope that we will once again have a team of home grown talent led by Howson, White and Lees seem a real possibility. 

I for one hope that the next time I meet Aiden White, he will have made the starting spot his own and be on his way to become a Elland Road legend.