It seems like I’m only allowed to celebrate one Leeds United
win in each of these monthly blog posts. Last time out we had just beaten
Brentford at Elland Road for Paul Heckingbottom’s first win as Leeds boss, and
it looked like we had finally turned the corner. Sadly, it’s been another case
of ‘what might have beens’ since then and Leeds are exiting the Easter period
just far enough away from a wide open play-off race for us to play no
meaningful part in it, but close enough to look on with rueful regret and green
with envy.
Yes, it’s that familiar time of year when we can write the
season off and start planning for the next one. Again. I guess we should be
thankful that we are pressing the reset button at the end of March rather than
in February as normal, but the significant fact is that it’s much earlier than
last season, when at least we carried the fight right until the last few
fixtures. It’s the failure to build on that platform that rankles the most and
there’s no escaping the fact that Andrea Radrizzani might have done plenty of
good things off the pitch – if we ignore the abomination of that badge, and we
really want to – but on the pitch it’s been a waste of a season.
That’s not to say it’s been a complete disaster. There are
some players in the squad who can still contribute something to the standard of
team we really need in this division, but not many, and it’s the lack of
standout moments that really tells us everything. Usually you can point to
games, goals and moments that make your hairs stand on end even if, ultimately,
it all counts for nothing. But this season there’s largely nothing to write
home about, save for a run of seven games unbeaten at the start of the season,
which ended up being the biggest false dawn since…..erm…….since someone dressed
us as Dawn and it turned out they weren’t called Dawn at all.
We’ll save the full post mortem for May’s blog post, but for
now, when the moments most people recollect from a season are a 4-3 home defeat
to Millwall and your star player being sent off for spitting in an FA Cup
defeat to a League Two side, and then banned for six games, you know it’s time
to draw a line through another campaign in this godforsaken division and move
on.
Except of course, we can’t. At least not yet. In typical
Leeds United fashion, we have another three largely pointless home games to
endure. Although the last one gave us something of a shot in the arm in the
form of a 2-1 win over Bolton Wanderers, and maybe if we’re being super
positive and maybe a tad over-optimistic we could suggest that ‘the’ magic
moment hasn’t happened yet?
Leeds showed something of the free-flowing, attacking spirit
we’ve longed for since those heady days at the beginning of the season against
Bolton, and the atmosphere in the pub both before and after the game was
especially buoyant. It was Good Friday, I guess, and at least this set the
Easter weekend up nicely for everyone.
April arrives now and offers us two Saturday afternoon home
games, a rare treat in a calendar month, although I guess that demonstrates
quite clearly how even Sky Sports have lost interest in meddling with Leeds
United’s season. On the 7th we welcome a Sunderland team who look to
be heading straight down to League One, but they will be sure to bring a huge
following with them to Elland Road. Fixtures with Sunderland always seem to
have a traditional edge and this will be no different, and I’m sure there are
many Leeds fans who would take a particular liking to banging another nail in
their coffin.
Following that we have Paul Heckingbottom’s reunion with the
Barnsley side he left to join Leeds in February. This takes place on Saturday
21st and again, I’d expect a decent crowd to turn up for this local derby,
particularly as Barnsley are also fighting relegation and have plenty to play
for.
Usually at the Old Peacock we start to feel quite sad at
this time of year, another league season passes by and the pub takes on a whole
different personality for the summer months as, well, just another pub. And we all
know that’s it’s not just another pub. So that’s why we are particularly
excited about the events coming up over the summer in 2018. We’ll talk about
these in more detail in our May and June blog posts, but we have Josh
Warrington’s World title fight with Lee Selby coming up on Saturday May 19th
and then England play their last friendly before the World Cup against Costa
Rica on Thursday June 7th. These will each be huge occasions and, as
always, we are right in the thick of it and intend to play our part in making
the Elland Road atmosphere something special. After all, that’s why these
events are being staged here, so we have a duty to do our bit.
We like to think we contributed something to the amazing Super
League game between Leeds Rhinos and Castleford Tigers at Elland Road last
month also. In the second of the Rhinos’ two ‘home’ games being staged here
while their Headingley Stadium is re-developed, we saw a brilliant spectacle as
Cas ended up 25-24 winners in a nail-biting climax. Clearly there was an edge to
the occasion due to the locality of the two teams, mixed with a bit of a grudge
element after the Rhinos steamrollered Cas in the Old Trafford Grand Final last
October, but no one quite expected the quality of game that we saw.
It was also brilliant to see fans of both clubs mixing
happily in the pub before and after the game. There is definitely a different
kind of relationship between rival fans in rugby league that we will probably
never see in football, and while the Peacock will always be packed before Leeds
United games, whether we allowed away fans in or not, there’s a mutual respect
between teams in RL that is quite unique and to be admired, while at the same
time we wouldn’t change the tribal football rivalries one bit.
We wouldn’t have it any other way, and we are proud of the
role we play in making the Elland Road atmosphere so special, and we can’t wait
for the next few months to play out so we can show it to the whole country, and
maybe even the whole world.
