Messages

Delighted, not dicking around in the play offs this year.

100% this. I would have had no faith in our ability to respond to the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion.

We are the best team in the division and our GD shows but I would be concerned how bad the 3 promoted teams did this year and Farke is usually pretty poor in Premier league.

If I'm not mistaken, over the last two seasons, every team to get promoted has gone straight back down at the first time of asking. In Farke's defence, his previous times in the Premier League was with Norwich, and in terms of the Premier League, his spending budget would have been minimal. My hope is that the 49ers will give him a fighting chance in terms of a war chest for next season. Certainly there are key areas to address in terms of strengthening. 

I really hope we do not sign Solomon. I don't rate him at all.

Wouldn't want him either, although he has been effective for us this season. I'm afraid my reasons would not just be football.

Would love to go up as Champions. On paper, Bristol City at home would be a challenging enough fixture, but I'm hoping with the pressure off, we can get two wins from the last two matches to seal top spot. That certainly is my recollection of what happened in 2020, under Bielsa.

MOT!! 

Couple of good posts, lads, and I'm sort of half laughing, half nodding my head in agreement, at your obvious nervousness that even now this opportunity could still be butchered. Such are the mental scars of following Leeds. As the lads on the Square Ball podcast said, any self respecting Leeds fan recognises the signs of a collapse, and the Blades are undoubtedly suffering that.

Our last two away fixtures are at Oxford and Plymouth. These are two venues where Sheffield United have come a cropper in their last three fixtures, so we need to ensure that nothing is taken for granted and give these challenges the absolute respect needed.

My hope is that by the time of the Bristol City game on Monday week, we will already be promoted, with victories over Oxford and Stoke this weekend, and Sheffield United getting clipped at Turf Moor. But rarely do things go that smooth with Leeds.   

Clem Burke. Drummer with Blondie and also played with the Eurythmics. RIP.

When Leeds beat Sheffield United recently, at Bramall Lane, many pundits were lining up to announce that the race for the top was over, and that the battle was now for second place, between the Blades and Burnley. More regular (scarred) Leeds followers though, refused to take anything for granted, and subsequent matches have underlined how wise that position was.

Since defeating Sheffield United, Leeds have played five, winning one and drawing three times - six points from a possible fifteen - and are now second in the table, ahead of third placed Burnley on goal difference only.

The fall from grace represents a lot of chickens coming home to roost, with the spotlight very much on manager Farke, and his refusal to address problem areas at 1, 9 and 10, when the opportunity to change was available to him. Saturday's home draw against Swansea was the latest example. In what was a terrible team effort, the performance of goalkeeper Ilan Meslier stood out, as he gifted Swansea two goals, to throw away a badly needed victory, and lose Leeds' place at the top of the table.

Farke's options are now limited. He can stick with a keeper, who is surely not in a good place mentally, and who has lost the confidence of those around him, or he can change things and try out the rather unconvincing Karl Darlow, who has only a handful of games in his two seasons to date. Either choice is fraught with danger.

Failure for Leeds to gain promotion this season will represent a significant personal failure for Farke, and reflect badly on his managerial reputation, and surely end his ambition to prove himself in the Premier League. For Leeds, the stakes are even higher, as failure to get promoted is likely to lead to a fire sale of players, with obvious implications for the long term future of the Club. 

No-one said it would ever be easy following Leeds, and so recent matches have proved. After two brilliant victories against Sunderland and Sheffield United, we dropped two points at home to a very stubborn West Brom side, and then put in a terrible performance at Portsmouth, going down 1-0. Lot of important individual errors, at both ends of the pitch, but the reality was that Portsmouth wanted it more and were deserving of their victory.

That meant that for the midweek games, there was the possibility that when Leeds hosted Millwall last night, we could have been third in the league. However, West Brom continued their good form and got a draw at Burnley and another side with form - Bristol City - got a deserved draw away to Sheffield United.

We made hard work of beating Millwall last night, in a match we completely dominated from minute 1 to 90. It was a much needed victory and decent performance, with Tanaka and man of the match Rothwell standing out.

We're now two points clear (or effectively three points, given our superior goal difference) with nine matches to go. Burnley and Sheffield United still have to play each other.

QPR away on Saturday - another tricky fixture but one we need to be winning if we want to nail down an automatic promotion place.

MOT. 

• The Visitors
• Eagle (Long Version)
• The Day Before You Came
• Lay All Your Love On Me
• The Winner Takes It All

A top 5, eh? You've done it now...

 

Could have been a Top 10 or more - grew up in a house with four sisters, where ABBA were Kings. Their music was great. 

• The Visitors
• Eagle (Long Version)
• The Day Before You Came
• Lay All Your Love On Me
• The Winner Takes It All

Brian James - guitarist and founding member of the Damned.

• Streets of Philadelphia
• Brilliant Disguise
• Cover Me

Is the goalie not a glaring weakness chaps? Only see bits and pieces but more often then not there's a mistake in this boy. Seems v weak

Definite questions being raised over his form and his long term future. Cost us 4 points, thanks to conceding goals that cost us wins at Sunderland and Hull. Not that long ago he was being linked with a £20 million move to Spurs.

If we get promoted, expect another goalkeeper to join. Sense is that patience with him is wearing thin.

Great win. Thought they were going to destroy us after 20 mins but after that initial onslaught we were the better team.

Agreed. They really got tore into us and Leeds were rattled. Meslier's uncertainty added to the nervousness, although to be fair, like the team as  whole, he recovered well, after the first quarter.

It was a significant victory, and underlines that the only side capable of denying Leeds promotion is Leeds!

Thought Bogle and Rodon were excellent, but my man of the match was Firpo who drove the team forward. There's also an argument that in the absence of Ampadu, Rothwell should be starting. He was influential when he came on.

I hope the celebrations have long since finished, and we font take our eye of West Brom on Saturday.

Things are really looking promising!

MOT.

Roberta Flack - one of the all time great singing voices.

• It's Not Right, But It's OK
• I'm Your Baby Tonight
• My Name Is Not Susan

Well now, I will confess I've had worse nights!! 

That was absolutely exhilarating and for long, long stretches of that game, I thought we'd end up with nowt.

Huge win, which surely (hopefully) knocks Sunderland out of top two contention. Tough on the Black Cats, but no tougher than their equaliser was on us at the Stadium of Light.

Fair play to Farke. Thought he'd got the subs wrong, but they come up trumps. Both Striujk and Rothwell outstanding.

MOT!!

Leading soccer journalist, Patrick Barclay. Brilliant as a writer for many of the broadsheets and was very impressive on Sky Sports chatshows such as Hold The Back Page and the Sunday Supplement. Was always knowledgeable, articulate and came across as a decent, lovely man.

Rest In Peace.