THE BLUES:
THE OPPOSITION:
It meant a happy end to what had been another traumatic week for the Elland Road outfit following the body blow of their 15-point deduction being upheld by the other 71 Football League clubs.
Manager Dennis Wise and his players remain furious at what they see as blatant bias against United, (ha-ha), and Hughes, who signed a two-year contract after joining for an undisclosed fee, believes that can certainly work in their favour.
The 29-year-old said: "There are two reasons why I came here. Norwich did not want me to leave but Dennis Wise rang me and explained the situation. He told me about the fans and the club.
"I am from Manchester - a City fan, so don't worry about that - so I knew about the club anyway. It is Leeds and if you had said to me at the age of 11 'you will play for Leeds United', I would have snapped your hand off. Every kid would.
"I also felt this was a challenge. Things have not been going Leeds' way and we are in a bad situation, the club can't go any lower.
"It will be an absolute grind this year. I have won promotion with Reading from this division so I know what is expected. But everyone here is fully focused because we feel everyone is against us. That is a big motivation for us, as is the fact we play for Leeds United."
The joyous scenes at the final whistle both on and off the field showed the true value of this win with the Leeds players and coaching staff coming together to form an impromptu huddle orchestrated by captain Alan Thompson. They then turned to the away end where the 2,008 fans that had snapped up the club's ticket allocation, plus a couple of hundred others who had been moved from home sections, (oh dear!), were celebrating like their team had just won a cup final.
Tranmere may have felt hard done to - a feeling Leeds fans know all about, of course - after dominating the first half. But if points are handed out for bottle, guts and tenacity then Wise's men deserve the win that means the club's proud record of not having lost on an opening day since 1989 remains intact.
In the opening 45 minutes, it has to be said that United were awful. An over-reliance on long balls, most of which were hoofed aimlessly out of defence, and the midfield being too deep to offer any meaningful support to Kandol and Jermaine Beckford, meant Tranmere were able to seize the initiative.
They duly went ahead on 21 minutes when Chris Shuker was afforded too much space on the right of the United area, the former Barnsley wideman drilling a cross that Halifax-born striker Chris Greenacre, a lifelong Leeds fan, gleefullly thumped into the net.
It could have got a lot worse with Shuker having a strong appeal for a penalty turned down by referee Lee Mason despite Matt Heath appearing to hold back the wideman. It was a big let-off and Wise left his players in no doubt during half-time that things had to improve.
United heeded the call and 10 minutes after the restart a wonderfully executed Thompson free-kick saw Heath rise high at the back post to power a header past Danny Coyne.
It was just the fillip the visitors needed and after both sides had gone close, the decisive moment came with a minute remaining when Frazer Richardson took a quick throw and found Hughes. The debutant then looked up before curling a left-footed cross into the six-yard area where Kandol stooped to guide the ball through Coyne's legs.
Cue pandemonium behind the goal and although referee Lee Mason played six minutes of stoppage time, United would not be denied.
Leeds United: Ankergren; Richardson, Rui Marques, Heath, Lewis; Weston (Flo 76), Hughes, Thompson, Westlake; Kandol, Beckford (Howson 90). Unused substitutes: Carole, Parker, Elliott.
It must have been a relief for Leeds to finally be back in action?
Correct. There have been times in the past couple of months when it seemed United might have played their last ever game and there was a clear sense of anticipation among the travelling fans ahead of kick-off. So keen were they to see the game that the 2,008 tickets were snapped up quickly, meaning a couple of hundred supporters had to buy tickets for home sections.
Will those fans have been pleased with what they saw?
Not in the first half. Leeds were hopeless and with Calvin Zola's height up front causing all manner of problems, a Tranmere win seemed a certainty. Thankfully for the visiting contingent, matters improved hugely after a half-time roasting from Dennis Wise. Matt Heath's equaliser clearly orginiated on the training field and once the scores were level, it really was anyone's game.
Was it the same Tresor Kandol who scored just once in 18 appearances last season?
Yes. He missed a golden chance in the first half to score but deserves credit for sticking to his task and being in the right place at the right time to score from close range.
So, all in the garden is rosy then?
Not quite. There is still the matter of another four wins to reach nought points and the squad still looks rather light. David Prutton and Jonathan Douglas are now available after suspension, but Dennis Wise, needs a left-back, a back-up goalkeeper and at least one wideman to bring some balance to the squad.
| Sat 17-Mar-2007 | Home | Cham | 1 | 1 | Gower | 11274 | |
| Sat 28-Oct-2006 | Away | Cham | 0 | 2 | 19528 | ||
| Tue 24-Oct-2006 | Away | CaC3 | 3 | 1 | Hammell(pen) Hooper(2) | 10449 | |
Apart from the visit of Manchester United and the odd cup tie or local derby, Leeds is a fairly enjoyable place to watch your football. Away fans are located in the South East corner of the South Stand at one end of the ground, where up to 1,800 fans can be accommodated. This allocation can be doubled if necessary by giving away fans the whole of this stand. Facilities within are fairly basic, the leg room sparse, plus a number of fans are often ejected without warning for swearing. So be on your best behaviour!
THE CAR:
THE HISTORY:
Leeds United Association Football Club are the only professional association football club in the city of Leeds. The club was established in 1919 following the demise of Leeds City. The club's nicknames are "Leeds", "United" or "The Whites". Although the club name bears the "AFC" suffix, the current badge displays "LUFC", however previous badges have included the official suffix.
Leeds rose to prominence under the management of Don Revie during the 1960s and 1970s, when they won a number of domestic and European trophies. After Revie's departure to manage the England team Leeds were relegated to the Second Division in 1982 , not returning to the top flight until 1990, when they were managed by Howard Wilkinson. Leeds were league champions in 1992, (the last before the original Football League First Division became the FA Premier League, and this is their most recent major trophy. After their shock relegation last season they now play in the third tier of English football for the first time in their history. (And with a 15 point deficit as well, oh dear, see further down for the full juicy details.)
Leeds United's predecessor team Leeds City FC was formed in 1904, but was forcibly disbanded by The Football League in 1919 in response to allegations of illegal payments to players during the First World War. A new club, Leeds United, was formed and began playing in the Midland League, taking the place vacated by Leeds City's reserve team. Yorkshire Amateurs, who occupied Elland Road, offered to make way for the new team under the management of former player Dick Ray. In 1920 Leeds were elected to the Football League and acquired by Huddersfield Town's chairman, Hilton Crowther.
Over the following few years, Leeds consolidated their position in the Second Division and in 1924 won the title and with it promotion to the First Division. However, they failed to establish themselves and were relegated in 1926-27. In the years up until the start of World War II Leeds were twice relegated, both times being instantly re-promoted the following season. In the 1946-47 season after the war, Leeds were relegated again with the worst league record in their history.
They remained in the Second Division for a further nine seasons until 1955-56, when Leeds once again won promotion to the First Division, inspired by Welsh legend John Charles. However, Charles was hungry for success at the highest level, and manager Raich Carter was unable to convince him that Leeds could satisfy his ambitions. Charles was sold to Juventus for a then world record of £65,000; the loss of such a key player led to Leeds' decline, and the team was relegated to the Second Division in 1959-60.
In March 1961 the club appointed Don Revie as manager. His stewardship began in adverse circumstances; the club was in financial difficulty and in 1961-62 only a win in the final game of the season saved the club from relegation to Division Three. Revie turned the team around, winning promotion to the First Division in 1963-64. Between 1965 and 1974, Revie's Leeds never finished outside of the top four, won two League Championships (1968-69 and 1973-74), the FA Cup (1971-72), the League Cup (1967-68) and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups (1967-68 and 1970-71). Set against the success was an unenvied record of second places; during the same period Leeds were runners up in the League five times, losing finalists in the FA Cup three times, runners up in the Fairs Cup once, and losing finalists in the European Cup Winners Cup. Revie's last season at Elland Road was in 1974, and he left Leeds to take up the role of managing the English national team.
Brian Clough was appointed as Revie's successor. This was a surprise appointment, as Clough had been an outspoken critic of Revie and the team's tactics. The team performed poorly under Clough, and after only 44 days he was dismissed and replaced by former England captain Jimmy Armfield. Armfield took Revie's ageing team to the final of the 1974-75 European Cup, where they were defeated by Bayern Munich. Assisted by coach Don Howe, Armfield rebuilt Revie's team, and though it no longer dominated English football, it remained in the top ten for subsequent seasons. However, the board was impatient for success and dismissed Armfield, replacing him with Jock Stein, who also lasted just 44 days before leaving to manage Scotland. The board turned to Jimmy Adamson but he was unable to stop the decline. In 1980 Adamson resigned and was replaced by former Leeds and England star Allan Clarke. Despite spending freely on players, he was unable to stem the tide and the club was relegated at the end of 1981-82. Clarke was replaced by former team-mate Eddie Gray.
With no money to spend on team building, Gray's concentrated on youth development, without winning them promotion from the Second Division. The board again became impatient and sacked him in 1985, replacing him with another former Revie star, Billy Bremner. Bremner carried on where Gray had left off, but found it just as difficult to achieve promotion, though he did bring the club close; Leeds got to the 1987 play-off final but were defeated after extra time.
Leeds appointed George Graham as Wilkinson's replacement. The appointment was controversial as Graham had previously received a one year ban from the The Football Association for receiving illegal payments from a Football Agent. Graham made some astute purchases, and by the end of the season Leeds had qualified for the following season's UEFA Cup. In October 1998 Graham moved on to become manager of Tottenham Hotspur, and Leeds opted to replace him with assistant manager David O'Leary. O'Leary introduced promising youngsters, and under the coaching of Eddie Gray Leeds secured 3rd place in the league, sending the club into the UEFA Champions League. Unfortunately, Leeds' image was further tarnished when players Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer were involved in an incident which left an Asian student in hospital with severe injuries. The resulting courtcase took nearly two years to resolve; Bowyer was cleared, and Woodgate convicted of affray and sentenced to community service.
In the UEFA Cup, Leeds reached their first European semi-final in 25 years and were paired against Turkish champions Galatasaray in Istanbaul. Leeds lost the game, but the result was overshadowed by the death of two Leeds fans, Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, who were stabbed to death before the game. Leeds were only able to draw the return leg at Elland Road, thus going out of the competition. A minute's silence is held every year at the match closest to the anniversary of the incident to remember Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight.
O'Leary's Leeds never finished outside of the top four, but following their appearance in the UEFA Champions League 2001 semi-final against Valencia their fortunes began to change. Under chairman Peter Ridsdale, Leeds had taken out large loans against the prospect of the share of the TV rights and sponsorship revenues that come with UEFA Champions League qualification and any subsequent progress in the competition. However Leeds narrowly failed to qualify for the Champions League, and as a consequence did not receive enough income to repay the loans. The first indication that the club was in financial trouble was the sale of Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United for approximately £30m. Ridsdale and O'Leary publicly fell out over the sale, and O'Leary was sacked and replaced by former England manager Terry Venables. Leeds performed badly under Venables, and other players were sold to repay the loans, including Jonathan Woodgate whom Ridsdale had promised Venables would not be sold. Tensions mounted between the pair, eventually resulting in the sacking of Venables, who was replaced by Peter Reid. By this time Leeds were in danger of relegation, but Reid saved Leeds from the drop in the penultimate game of the season. During this time Ridsdale had resigned from the Leeds board, and was replaced by economics expert Professor John McKenzie. An unsuccessful start to the 2003-04 season saw Peter Reid dismissed, and head coach Eddie Gray took over as caretaker manager until the end of the season.
Gerald Krasner, an insolvency specialist, led a consortium of local businessmen which took over Leeds and under his chairmanship oversaw the sale of the clubs' assets, including senior and emerging youth players of any value. Caretaker manager Gray was largely blameless for the performance of the team during the 2003-04 season as the majority of the squad was sold out from underneath him and despite his best efforts, Leeds were relegated after 14 years in the top flight. Following relegation, Gray's reign as caretaker manager was terminated, and Kevin Blackwell was appointed manager. Most of the remaining players were sold or released on free transfers to further reduce the wage bill. Leeds were eventually forced to sell both their training ground, for £4.2m, and their Elland Road stadium in the autumn of 2004.
The board finally sold the club to Ken Bates for £10m. Blackwell stabilized the team by signing players on free transfers and low wages and Leeds finished the 2004-05 season mid-table in the Championship. In the 2005-06 season Leeds finished in the top 6 and made the promotion playoff final, which they lost to Watford. On 10 September 2006, Kevin Blackwell announced that within a year the club would be debt-free. However, the 2006-07 season started badly and on 20 September 2006 Kevin Blackwell's contract as manager of Leeds United was terminated. Dennis Wise was eventually installed as his replacement after a month without a permanent manager, but was unable to lift the team out of the relegation zone for much of the season, despite bringing a number of experienced loan players into the squad . With relegation virtually assured, Leeds entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement (administration) on 4 May 2007, thus incurring a league imposed 10 point deduction which officially relegated the club to the third tier of English football. The CVA was due to end on 3 July 2007 and return full control of the club back to Bates, however with just minutes to spare HM Revenue & Customs challenged the CVA leaving a very uncertain future and possibly liquidation of the club. It has since been revealed that if administration is still hanging over the club at the start of the season then Leeds will be prevented from starting their campaign by the Football League as the league require the club to have gone through a CVA. Following the challenge by HMRC the club has been put up for sale by KPMG, with only offers before 5 p.m. (BST) on Monday 9 July 2007 being accepted. After much deliberation KPMG revealed that once again they had chosen Ken Bates' bid. The league eventually sanctioned this under the "exceptional circumstances rule" but imposed a 15 point deduction due to not following football league rules on clubs entering administration.
Previous manager Kevin Blackwell said that the club had over 250,000 ticket applications for the 2005/06 Championship Play Off Final, but the club currently struggles to fill Elland Road for home matches, with attendances averaging around 20,000 in the 2005/06 season - down from 30,000 the previous season. Alex Ferguson has said that Elland Road has one of the most intimidating atmospheres in European Football. Leeds are 10th in the all time average attendance figures for the Football League & Premier League, and have the third most rivalries in the English League. Even now they sold 10,000 season tickets pre-season, though the company who looked after the credit card bills refused the transactions as they had not been paid.
Things can only get better.........maybe! (Still, look at that below!)
Honours
Football League First Division
- Winners (3) 1968-69, 1973-74, 1991-92
- Runners-up(5) 1964-65, 1965-66, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1971-72
- Winners (3) 1923-24, 1963-64, 1989-90
- Winners (1) 1972
- Winners (1) 1968
- Winners (2) 1969, 1992
- Winners (2) 1993, 1997
- Winners (2) 1968, 1971