Leeds 3 v 2 Everton                                                 Wed. 19th Dec 2001

Kick-off: 7.45pm

Viduka 1-0 (19 mins)
Fowler 2-0 (26 mins)
HALF TIME 2-0
Fowler 3-0 (71 mins)
Moore 3-1 (84 mins)
Weir 3-2 (90 mins)                                                              Attendance : 40201 - eventually

Everton from: Simonsen, Pistone,Watson, Weir, Xavier, Naysmith, Alexandersson, Gemmill, Pembridge, Radzinski, Unsworth,

Subs: Gerrard, Gascoigne (for Pembo 23 mins), Moore (for Pistone 48 mins), Blomqvist, Tal (for the lazy Swede 72mins)

This game had been postponed from mid-September, given the fact that we had not won here in the league since 1951 AND we were facing Robbie Fowler we were hoping that it would be postponed until next season.

When the sides were announced we awaited Walter's surprise and we weren't disappointed, Joe-Max had not done enough on Saturday and was dropped for scoring the winner! Gazza was on the bench and Papa Smurf came in for Stubbsy. Oh yes, it was confirmed that there was also the chance of some line sniffing as he was in the Leeds side.

The choice of Watson was bemusing, we were bound to be under the cosh yet we were playing two upfront but without either Tal or Blomqvist you either go for it or you don't!

What happened to all those Blue boys? Did they know it was a 7.45 kick off? Was it Happy Hour? Had the racists stayed at home? The place was half empty at kick off. It wasn't long before it was full but the bulk missed Wato shoot over early on, maybe Walter was right after all.

It was an early false dawn, we faced wave after wave of attack - something Leeds are renouned for. Viduka gave us two warnings when he put headers wide whilst unmarked on 12 & 14 mins. He didn't miss the third time, with Davey Weir on the floor injured Kelly broke down the right crossed and the Aussy (I think we are allowed to say that) headed in the bottom corner giving Simo no chance. 1-0.

Worse was to come but not before the Physio was planning an extension to the treatment room. Gazza came on for the injured Pembridge on 23 mins. Two minutes later the inevitable happened, after Pistone had wasted a free kick (I've said it before - it is criminal to put a free kick WIDE of the tatrget - you may as well kick it out for a throw in), Mills pissed past Naysmith and with the defence square put a through ball to Fowler he slotted it with easy (as the red Echo put it - it is now played 3, scored 1, arrests 1). 2-0.

We needed to be digging in and working hard, instead we were feeling sorry for ourselves. It was like the Alamo and with Davey Weir clearly carrying an injury it was not looking good, it could have been worse as Fowler hit the post on 42 mins. As it was we went in two down at half-time, what was Walter to do - other than the obvious bollocking, he must change it but how? Again we awaited another Walter surprise.

HALF-TIME 2 - 0

The first half performance can only be described as shite, nothing for the front two to feed off and only Simo & Papa Smurf coming out with any credit. Is it me or is that Swede havin' a laugh?

Walter's surprise - No changes! He was relying on a half time bollocking by The Crankies was it going to weave the necessary magic? We thought we'd need David Copperfield to do that but lets wait and give Walt a chance we needed to put the Yorkies under some early pressure and take the game to them.

Bollocks. They got the ball and came straight at us from the off! On the third Leeds attack Simo pulls off a blinding save from a Kelly piledriver. As if it couldn't get worse, Pisto was stretchered off after a clash with Kewell on 48 mins and Joe-Max came on, could this be fate we thought? Wato goes to right back and the Yank (now i'm definitely allowed to say that) was upfront with The Rad.

The Rad was brought down in the area and screamed for a pen but the ref Peter Jones turned down the appeals. Just our luck.

The subsitution gave us our best spell so far, we started to threaten but final ball in was poor, Joe-Max fired over from an Unsey free kick - it would have been a wonder goal had it gone in.

We failed to capitalise on our second half superiority albeit without threat and were to pay the penalty. Batty has not scored a goal for 4 years, every time he gets the ball, even from a goalie throw the crowd shout 'shoot', sure enough he did on 25 mins and it took a wicked deflection and fell to Fowler who scored his second 3-0.

Johnson forces Simo into another stonking save, this is an embarrassment.

Leeds continued to press, we did not have a clue and it was starting to look it might be a thrashing. Needless to say Walter makes a substitution (it's obviously not just me ) he brings the Swede on for Idan Tal - don't get sent off Idan or you could be in for a Tal i ban, you've got to have a laugh when it's like this!

So far we have had a Wato shot over in the first, a Gary Naysmith header our only attempt to force Martyn to move and a shots off target by The Rad & Moore (you know the type were the crowd go 'wooooooo'- pathetic.

We got scant consolation as as Scouser Unsey robbed the Aussy and as the Leeds fans screamed for a pen Geordie Wato put the Yank through and he slotted it brilliantly, ARE YOU WATCHING WALTER? Unfortunately most of the blues had gone to see if Happy Hour was still on and missed Moore's sweet volley.3-1.

Wato had a half chance nothing more before Gazza was booked for a foul on Bakka. How much more must we suffer? Simo made a good save from Keane please blow ref ! Oh no, 5 mins stoppage.

Pinch me, we've got a corner, pinch me again Tal takes and that Jock Davey Weir nods in - even less Blues saw this one! This is unbelievable 3-2. Leeds are now rocking and can't believe it! Surely we can't do this, not without David Copperfield? Bastard ref, I didn't mean it when I said please blow!!

BK Star Man can only be Simo without whom it would have been much worse!

Walter just have a word with some of the fans before Saturday, we didn't expect to get anything tonight but we certainly did not expect such an abysmal performance as this. Do not be fooled by the last 10 mins we were garbage tonight and Leeds will not believe the scoreline, show us why your a 'top' manager and tell us why you bought Jesper.

On to the Mackems then the Mancs it won't get any easier. On the plus side, not one racist chant, there wasn't anybody there!!

FINAL SCORE 3 - 2

Quotes

Walter says: “We didn’t make Leeds work very hard for the first couple of goals and there were times in the game when we could have imposed ourselves a bit more than we did do. When we did manage to get two back near the end of the game it only highlighted the fact that, with a little more belief, then we may have caused Leeds more problems than we did do.”

Sausage says :' That Swede is a lazy twat and you told me he was the next Tricky Trevor'

Kipper says, 'Oh no I never', Sausage says, ' Oh yes you did', Jogger says, 'Pack it in it's not Crimbo yet!'

Leedsing the way?
by
Mickey Blue Eyes.

Last weeks verdicts and sentences on Woodgate and Bowyer were of course a travesty by an all-white jury. So was the subsequent virtually indifferent and therefore callous reaction of their management and owners. All they seemed concerned about was what it did to their "image" instead of what they could do in the game's efforts against racism. One of the Concise Oxford Dictionary definitions of "image" is "…a representation of the external form of an object." You know, a bit like the Emperor's New Clothes. There's still a long, long way to go to Kick Out Racism. In the meantime, given this latest example of their behaviour, Leeds are a disgrace to decent society. Instead of their image, they should consider the actual flesh-and-blood condition of the young Brit Asian student after the gang of four had finished with him, to say nothing of the terrible affect on his family. But I don't expect that will bother somebody like the Suit Ridsdale. Or even David O'Leary, to his eternal shame. One always expects Ridsdale to be the sack of shit he resembles, but not O'Leary. You can forget that now………O'Leary said the convicted Woodgate "………has a heart of gold but is daft as a brush with it." May O'Leary's god forgive him. You can safely assume the Najeib family will find it next to impossible.

Odd, isn't it, how the same hypocritical right wing rags who campaigned to clear a man who rigged a shotgun trap and shot a sixteen years old burglar in the back and killed him, can't raise themselves to a similar effort on behalf of the Najeib family. Wouldn't have anything to do with the family's Asian birthright would it?

Then there was the government minister, Dennis McShane, who gave an Asian politician the distinct impression that his phone was tapped because he opposed the Afghan war which has killed thousands of innocents and created tens of thousands of starving refugees to add to the New York/Washington tragedy. So much for western democracy, so much for western culture, so much for "New" Labour's place therein. As usual, the wrong hands are on the wrong triggers. Anyone want to bet American oil companies obtain ownership of oil pipeline rights across Afghanistan in the same way they ended up owning large tracts of the disputed Rumaila oil field between Kuwait and Irag? Same old corrupt song, different stage. Ask The Oil Family Bush. But I wouldn't bother with the present tenant of the White House since he can't string more than two coherent words together, or the present governor of Florida who rigged the election to get him there. No, try Daddy Bush who scammed an oil operation in Kuwait in the sixties and was head of the CIA in the seventies before becoming prez and ran his very own war. Weird how the Yanks always get into baaad shit when there's a Texan about.

All of it is as tragically ironic as the view that the USA establishment is something other than a de facto one party state with scarcely-different factions, let alone "liberal" (hilariously) "left wing." Noam Chomsky called it the National Security State many years before the terror attacks. Britain is headed the same way, en route to a privatised hell where you won't necessarilly need an identity card. Your credit card will do, especially if you are laid out as a prone street casualty awaiting an ambulance………and whoever sends for it is liable for the charges. So don't be surprised if you get ignored because you don't or won't have said credit card. So much for "liberal" America.

The global political situation is so awful, fully reflected in the administration of The Beautiful Game, it is virtually impervious to humour. Gore Vidal was once on a CNN TV programme called "Crossfire," in which a "liberal" named Michael Kingsley regularly exchanged allegedly opposite views with a foam flecked fully paid-up card-carrying member of the Republican suburban SS in mufti, Pat Buchanan or some such. But at least we were usually spared the gibbering geriatric insanity of Jesse Helms. Actually of course there were hardly any policy differences; it was all semantic piss and wind. Which is one reason US voting figures are as low as your knee cap. Straight faced, Vidal intentionally kept mistaking the "liberal" for the nazi and vice versa. It took some time for the cent to drop before the SchutzStaffell said (carefully, because Vidal can be quite wicked with instant put downs) "I think he's having us on." Yeah, right on dude, whatever, he might have flipped your gourd into orbit, man, so best cool it, like hey, don't crowd my space, man, lighten up and slip it cool.

The point was made more eloquently on Sunday evening with a good deal of patriotic sadness by a young Chicagoan named Bonnie Greer, now expatriated in London. Courtesy of a BBC2 TV programme, "Correspondent," she went home for the first time in years to assess the impact of September 11th on the America she knows and loves. The actuality amongst so-called "ordinary" Americans, odd balls and loonies excepted, is very different from that manufactured by the establishment media. What came over was a pathetically uninformed, helpless-sounding wish to get at the truth, something denied them by mainstream official news. Worse, the youthful idealism which often instructed people like Bonnie has been replaced by a sort of angry bewilderment at what caused the murdering attacks. Really all they have to do is start off reading Noam Chomsky and the rest will follow naturally. But the programme had many good and encouraging moments too for no situation is ever completely short of hope. In the end, the overwhelming impression was of people who wanted to know what GENUINELY caused September 11th and what GENUINELY could be done without turning the world into a Doctor Strangelove/Orwellian global battlefield.

America's right wing establishment won't be able to hold the propaganda lid down for ever, not now the phony Cold War is over. There's no guarantee, but my long-term money is on the good guys, not the unelected corporate Suits/Uniforms who temporarily run the planet. Orwell's half-century old prediction gets more real by the day. Now, who are we at war with? Is it EastAsia or EurAsia or Africa?

Earlier on Sunday, Duncan-Smith (lurv the hyphen), tory leader, wanted to introduce payment to your GP ever time you visit. So the assault on the NHS continues. Don't say you haven't been warned. This prick is of course a bought-and-paid-for standard English righty in the employ of the Yank establishment. Check out his record yourself. He's in a hurry to dump the £20 billion a year NHS into the ripoff laps of his international "healthcare" old school chums. Can't have anyone thinking of a mutual benefit system now, can we, not when the likes of the quasi-Yank and his fellow gangsters can scam it of any surplus value.

Later on Sunday, Leeds incredibly lost a two goal home lead to Leicester. The match ended in a 2-2 draw. It gave some hope for our game on Wednesday. Then you looked at who is likely to be missing from our team and you groaned. But you consoled yourself with the thought that You Never Really Know………

Monday, our erstwhile media sponsor NTL announced thousands more redundancies at the same time even more were threatened by BAe at Broughton. The economic sunami is still out in the ocean but it grows by the day. NTL are £12 BILLION in debt so virtually all of us outside that sinking company figure retrospectively that we had the narrowest of narrow escapes when the media deal fell through. Don't expect the softshite Melledrew Tendency to agree with you, though. They'll be far too busy staring up their own anuses.

In the Guardian, Yank loony Charles Krauthammer did a passable imitation of aforesaid Doctor Strangelove with a ranting righty piece headlined, incredibly, "Liberals should stop whining: today the US can do whatever it wants regardless of anyone else. America rules OK." Funny how righties always use the term "whining" whenever anyone stands up to their political correctness and ownership of the mainstream media. No matter, it demonstrates better than any opposition can just one of the reasons for the insanity of September 11th, and tragically inevitable future similar action. These kinds of things do not happen in a vacuum and for no reason. Ask the former administrators of the British Empire. Ask the people of Colombia and other Central and South American countries. Ask the people of Vietnam.

The Najeib family also announced the likelihood of a civil action against the two footballers and Leeds Football Club. Well done that family. The case should never be allowed to fade into the sort of oblivion Ridsdale and his ilk would welcome. It comes as no surprise whatever to learn that Ridsdale's "other" job is chairman of privatised Education Leeds, subject of harsh criticism by OFSTED last year. I hope the family win and win large and get a huge financial settlement to reinforce the point. Even as it stands, Woodgate and Bowyer apparently face legal fees of one million each. Good. The civil action should dent their privileged earnings even more. They should never be considered for an England team ever again. But guess which print media will suggest they should………

As the days wear on, one feels a growing sense of quiet pride in how our fans and club openly handled the tiny minority of racist lunatics and their sick garbage at Leicester and Fulham. It might well be that we will have some further examples to contend with, but when you lift up a stone you shouldn't be surprised at what clings to the underside. Meantime, the club announced there will be a "covert" presence in the away section to identify culprits and link up with the local police, local stewards and our own traveling stewards. The action makes me sick with shame but it is nothing compared to the anger I feel toward the small number of shitheads who forced it. The sooner we can do away with it, the better. Still, constant vigilance will be required.

The latter point was never better demonstrated than when the Melledrew Tendency predictably went off on one about some of our worst past decisions about the behaviour of Gazza and The Yin and how this negates anything said about the Leeds thugs. By that standard of reasoning, nobody should ever do anything because of mistakes made in the past. Thick bastards. If you didn't believe in the inherent ability of the species to adapt and survive you would have given up with the advent of 30s totalitarianism. No wonder Hitler and Stalin thought they could win. They always knew there would be some of the Melledrew Tendency about. But some of us want the situation to improve, not decay. You can find the same standard of "thinking" amongst the average group of drunks or junkies who think they can see to the end of the universe when they're juiced up. It never occurs to them that they're actually looking into a mirror of their own limitations.

Tuesday morning, an interview with Michael Dunford on Radio 5. Not before time, the CEO got up front on an important issue and handled it very well. Most of us were beginning to think he had a zip on his lips. Still, he dealt with an important subject with a lot of dignity and sensitivity. Given the way Leeds have dealt with their racist problems Dunford is a paragon.

Same day, and the Sheepshaggers put Bowyer on the transfer list despite him being cleared at trial. Me, I couldn't give a shit how good, bad or indifferent his play is………I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole. Time to set some standards and confront the obvious. There has to be a stand somewhere. He might well turn out to be a good acquisition for whoever signs him but so what? There are limits, and Bowyer's behaviour is the giddy limit. But O'Leary took no action on Woodgate…………who was found guilty. His actions relegate him lower than your ankle.

Tuesday was the second day of whimpering from the media about all their redundancies during the implosion of advertising revenues. Should be interesting to see if they apply what they learn about unemployment from first hand experience. Somehow I doubt it. More like they will get worse.

Wednesday morning, and the announcement our national stadium will get built at Wembley after all. This, despite the votes against of fifty-five club chairmen and seventy-five percent of supporters. Most of us would settle easily for the midlands or anywhere else outside our unloved and unwanted polluted metropolis. But the metro FA Suits ignored everyone in much the same way as the establishment politicians. A Christmas cracker for those who see a clear link between our politics and footy here. Ignore it at the peril of spending your money on a trip to Lahndan, its ripoff prices and wilful ignorance of how the rest of the country live.

Deadly Doug Ellis of Villa, promoter of a perfectly valid national stadium midlands alternative, (current recipient of an "Ellis Out!" campaign) destroyed Victoria Derbyshire (no, really) of BBC Radio Five when she interviewed him on the subject. Even by journo standards she displayed an appalling lack of knowledge of the issue. And Ellis took full advantage to patronise her with loads of venomous "m'dears" and "my loves." It was hilarious. She ended up gibbering about her mother's sole right to call her "m'dear" and nobody else and all the usual shite journos come out with when somebody works it up them. I don't have much time for Ellis but on this occasion I cheered him to the echo. I am all for scrubbing the journo fuckers with a Brillo pad all of the time and in shifts. This will only change when they acquire (a) a wider sense of responsibility, (b) a wider social awareness, (c) a better grasp of almost any subject, and (d) an understanding that most of the rest of us profoundly loathe their patent lack of conscience and common courtesy. Until then, they will carry on moaning behind what they call "free speech" but what the rest of us rightly call "doing as they're told by the establishment owners." On this occasion, and this occasion only: Well done Doug Ellis!

Wednesday afternoon, well into Winter, late afternoon and dark is not the time to be travelling across the Pennines to a football match. It is a long, long time since I have felt such pessimism before a game. Dunno why this should be. This is the fifth straight season of the current dire straits so there was nothing new about it. I fully expected us to get whacked by three or four goals. And of course everyone, but EVERYONE, said you-know-who would score.

The Bus turned out to be a luxury double decker of the "new" type. So luxury in fact that the heater wasn't working. Tommy sat in front with the driver and navigated. Which got us all thinking: What the hell do we need a navigator for? Fer chrissakes it's just up the M62. But we were all so cold we promptly forgot about Tommy. Bad move, Bus, bad move.

After everyone settled in their seats Texyla gave out a leaflet which read:

" ESCWARA AGAINST RACISM!

Most of our regular travellers to away matches will be aware of the recent statement issued by the club concerning racist chants, songs and hooliganism by a small but significant majority at the Fulham match.

A copy of the statement is attached for those who may have missed it.

The ESCWARA committee have discussed the situation and now confirm their full support for the club's stance.

We all know racism has gradually escalated throughout the season. It has never been acceptable but it seems to get worse. Now it even threatens our ability to go to away matches and enjoy a good day out, a few beers and some encouraging singing.

The colour of a man's skin is no reason to indulge in cowardly verbal bullying. It is neither supportive of Everton Football Club or humorous. It is disgusting.

We therefore request everybody ensures they do not instigate or get drawn into the kind of behaviour which brings only national shame to Everton Football Club. Enough is enough. Should it get a foothold in ESCWARA we will even consider removing the guilty person or persons from membership. That is how serious we take this matter.

Let's ensure we ignore hatred and concentrate on what is our best quality: Enjoying the day out and each other's company.

PROUD TO BE BLUE!"

Well done ESCWARA. You did your bit.

Despite pessimism about the looming result the feeling on The Bus was as buoyant as it has ever been. Our two resident loonies, Paul and Geoff led the singing in the usual manner and managed to avoid excessive demon alcohol. Their only fall from grace was Geoff's request to see one of the girls' "tats." Yes, that's right, he meant tattoos. Which he kindly explained………and then went and spoiled it all by saying, "No, not your tits." I despair sometimes, I really do. Haha.

Soon we joined the inevitable awful rush hour queue on the M62 and crawled all the way to Leeds in minimum visibility and an enveloping thin skin of freezing drizzle. It was the sort of evening where you passed lonely farmhouses all lit up and glowing and all you wanted to do was bolt inside and fall into your favourite armchair or much-loved horizontal posture on the settee. At times like that all you want to curl up with is the love of a good woman and/or a bowl of hot soup. Take your choice.

So we get to Leeds and what happens? Tommy gives the driver the wrong directions, that's what. We ended up driving in circles and arrived thirty minutes before the kick off. No time for a bevvy. I could still feel the cold despite being well wrapped in an insulated Royal Blue jacket and Royal Blue thermal gloves. As top cover Kyle wore only a wooly polo neck and Texyla had a fleece. Everybody else shivered in the way only the English can when it turns cold. No wonder Europe shakes its head at England.

Our fans were stuck in a corner in a wedge shaped seat allocation widening upward from the corner flag to the rear. We were four rows from the front. The away contingent looked at maximum but was only about two thousand or so. Still, they gave a generally good humoured vocal account of themselves throughout. The Leeds fans further demonstrated the importance of taking a stand against racism when they gave Bowyer's name the kind of support you can see on those old Riefenstahl nazi propaganda flicks of Nuremberg rallies. On this issue, Leeds and too many of its fans are a complete disgrace.

Teams, Able in. Good. Joe Max on the bench. Bad. Stevie STILL up front. Erk. I stared at me walking shoes and wondered if we would get a kick.

Well, we did. For ten minutes or thereabout, just long enough for unmarked Stevie to balloon the game's best chance over the bar from six metres. Then Pembo had to go off again and what little midfield presence we had went with him. That was it until ten minutes from the end. Leeds, no better and no worse than anyone else we have played this season, simply passed their way through midfield (occasionally brilliantly so) and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. Nothing new there, then ey. Nothing surprising either.

But I wasn't impressed with Leeds, not even when they were so obviously the better team. I don't watch them regularly so I can't say what the team weakness is. All I can say is that they lack a dimension or two, whatever that means. It would be too easy for me to put it down to Batty, whom I have never liked and never want to see disgrace an England shirt again. It isn't just that though. Maybe they lack the final self discipline to deliver, the kind of patience and concentration which usually wins things. I don't know really, I'm just guessing. All I know is that they didn't strike me as potential champions. Given their owners' and manager's recent behaviour, I can't say this bothers me in the least.

After Pembo went off they got much more of the ball in midfield and spread it out to each wing rather well. Unsy's lack of pace finally proved fatal when their man got past him to the right side bye-line and pulled over a low cross and Viduka did well to head home as he fell backwards.

Fowler inevitably got the second when the ball got fed through to him at inside-left, just inside the box and bad marking left him with a relatively easy chance. Which was a pity because Davey-Able weren't playing at all badly. They had to, since they were surrounded by an unyielding sea of shite, Simmo excepted.

Two or three times Leeds constructed quite outstanding one touch moves, usually left centre midfield to release Kewell. But he was ushered out of the game for most of the evening. The long layoff still shows. Then Fowler hit a post. Had it gone in, the route I expected might well have materialised. They go in, they stay out, the game goes on. Take it as you find it.

Half time was a merciful break if only to ease the simmering annoyance at Smiffy all around me. I am not prepared to join in with this yet because of the club's circumstances. If he goes, I hope it is because he realises he really can't do any more and is willing to make way for someone else. In which case he could go, and go with honour. He's done his best and it hasn't worked out. He hasn't had the best of luck, he was misled by Johnson and now he has no money (a la John Gregory) to buy his way out of trouble. That said, an awful lot of his decisions have been puzzling at best. And I am beginning to believe he's just plain unlucky. But I won't make him a scapegoat and I won't join in a witch-hunt. Nobody should forget how he stood by us when Johnson sold The Yin without his knowledge, an unforgivable act in football administration no matter how good a piece of business. Footy can be a cruel, unforgiving game. There are always more casualties than there are successes.

We had three subs on, Gazza, Idan Tal and Joe Max. Gazza, I'm afraid, is as near pointless as it gets. I won't mention him again because I think it is unfair to him and us. I hope he gets his life sorted. Good luck, Gazza. Idan came on for Nic, who had another poor game and looks like a scapegoat to replace Pembo, and managed at least to show some willingness. This time Nic couldn't raise his game even with Stevie behind him. As usual Joe Max's first touch let him down badly when he dropped away from their penalty area.

The Fowler got their third after a Batty shot was deflected wide left and he couldn't miss with Simmo left on his own. A fourth looked imminent when someone broke through a couple of times on their right and Simmo saved really well. A route loomed again.

And then, inexplicably, we started to play. Leeds rocked visibly. It became easy to see how Leicester (Leicester!) came back from two goals down to get a draw. Maybe it was that missing dimension I mentioned earlier. Whatever, all of a sudden the ball began to flow through the middle and out to the wings. Since there were only ten minutes to go it was easy to assume at first that it was because Leeds eased off. Not so. They are fundamentally flawed. Amongst the ifs and buts our fans felt a more attack-minded formation at the start might, just might, have prevented a leakage. Maybe. This conveniently forgets how we got passed to oblivion.

The Little Yank scored a superb left foot volleyed goal from wide left when it came over to him and he leaned back and hit a magnificent cross shot way beyond Martyn's left dive. It screamed in and he instantly turned to the away section with his arms in the air. Jaysus but he LOVED it, and quite right too. He's a natural goal scorer. In the box. Not from midfield. Me, I'm a fan.

Five minutes later, Leeds tottering, Idan took a right side corner and Davey came steaming in just inside the penalty spot, got head and shoulders above everybody, got his forehead square on it and bulleted it past Martyn again. The away section erupted. Bloody HELL, you thought, might this be?………could this be?………might we just?

A couple of moves swept forward, Leeds defenders back-peddling frantically, our fans on their feet. But then the bastard ref goes and blows his whistle. We had the gold, we had the frankincense…………but where was the valuable balm? As distant as ever, of course. Still, footy being what it is, the two goals did have a slightly soothing affect on our fans' damaged egos.

Next up, Sunderland, another long Winter's trip and the prospect of the worst policing in the league. After that, the Mancs. So looms the dread prospect of the infamous and debilitating three-losses-in-a-row. Oh well. Let's get on with it or start moaning like the Melledrew Tendency. Now that really IS a fate worse than deat

Team News

Thomas Gravesen, Alan Stubbs, & Alassandro Pistone are all very doubtful after being injured in the Derby County game on Saturday. On Tommy's cut head, Walter says: 'There was a lot of blood about and it was a fright for Gravesen obviously. But maybe it looked far worse than eventually it's going to turn out.'

Xavier is back in the squad after finally shaking off the Bellfield bug. He may go straight in for Stubbsey. Abel had played very well at centre half, until that half wit knocked him cold. Unsey came in on Saturday & did ok.

In midfield there could be a start for Jesper Blomqvist, with Pembo joining Scott Gemmill in the middle. Gazza will have to happy with a seat on the bench. He will be best used from there, as he still can't last the 90mins.

The big question is weather Joe-Max retains the strikers role, in place of Stevie Watson. We hope he does. (17/12/01)