...Comes Crushing Disappointment

Sunday 25th May: So, by now, you will probably know that, despite the heroics at Carlisle, Leeds lost the League One Play-Off Final 1:0 to local rivals Doncaster. I'm not going to dwell on the match, or the result, too much. Basically, Leeds were poor up front and gave away a poor goal which, ultimately, means that they stay in League One next season.

The positives, from a football point of view, are that it is a totally new season - there are no (apparent) financial difficulties to overcome and we start on a level playing field with the rest of the division. Without sounding like one of the many, if not most, supporters who believed that we would win promotion at Wembley simply because it was LEEDS UNITED vs Doncaster Rovers (deliberate emphasis), I do believe that we have a very good chance of winning automatic promotion next season. And, let's face it, with the off-pitch trials and tribulations of the past season, it's a wonder we got as far as we did anyway.

Anyway, I will take away many memories of the day itself...

• The three of us stopping at services during the drive down and finding hundreds of Leeds and Doncaster fans rubbing shoulders with no trouble at all.
• The heart-stopping moment when, while I was doing 90 m.p.h. on the M1, a police car flashed me. And, at a similar speed, the same thing happening on the way home.
• Leeds fans in Stanmore practically knocking on the car window to tell us to park up anywhere as the carpark was full.
• Driving on to Harrow-on-the-Hill and finding it very quite with, apparently, no other fans around and parking on the main road near the famous school.
• The posh exclamtion of "Oh my God" as the three of us (two wearing Leeds tops) crossed the road near a family out for their Sunday stroll. (We could see the next-day headlines: "Harrow invaded by football fans"...)
• Walking down the hill towards the tube station and hearing faint Leeds songs.
• Turning the corner and finding a small pub (http://www.myspace.com/trinitybar) full of Leeds fans, happily singing their hearts out, especially at the security guard (Mr. T) and local (Jesus), who seemed quite happy to be the subject of so many songs.
• Walking up Wembley Way (again) - something that always has a certain resonance.
• The first sight of the interior of the new stadium - despite my personal misgivings regarding having the national stadium in London, I have to admit that it is very impressive.
• The lump in the throat build up before the match.

Of course, the trip home was not the best part of the day - not only had we been beaten (which always makes the trip seem longer) but, because of the sheer number of people heading North, it took us about ninety minutes to move from Harrow to north of the M25.

So, a disappointing day but one I wouldn't have liked to have missed.

Bring on the 2008/9 season.

With Great Expectation...

Monday 19th May: So, two weekends in a row without a musical night out, no new CD purchases and finishing two more SF Masterworks which, being honest, just weren't that exciting, has left me with little to write about.

Except football...

A week ago tonight was the first leg of the League One play-off semi-final. A game which saw nearly 36,000 fans heap expectation on Leeds United when they took on Carlisle at Elland Road. Your could almost hear the scorn reverberating around the stadium - "OK, so we haven't got the 15 points back and we are going to have to get promoted the hard way but you are only Carlisle and there's no way you're going to stop us!!" Imagine the reactions of the few handfuls (not able to sell all their tickets??) of Carlisle fans when the weight of that expectation caused the Leeds players not only to look nervous and play poorly but to concede two goals.

Still Leeds have done nothing this year if not prove that they are a team who will continue playing right to the final whistle. It was in the 96th minute that on-loan Dougie Freedman scrambled the ball into the Carlisle goal, past a keeper who had excelled himself all game, pulling off three or four top class saves, including one that looked impossible.

So, 36,000+ fans left Elland Road feeling happy - the few Carlisle supporters because they were in the driving seat for the home leg to come and the Leeds fans because one goal had changed the whole complexion of that up-coming tie. That must have been the first time that a 2:1 loss was treated almost as a win.

And so, three days later, three of us left work early to set off for the Cumbrian hills and the away leg. Yes, we'd managed to get tickets (long story, ask me sometime...) After Monday night's performance I had told a couple of people that my ideal match would consist of an early goal (to Leeds, obviously), followed by free-flowing, end-to-end football, with a match ending "like the away game at Oldham". For the uninitiated, we won that game 1:0 with pretty much the last kick of the game.

We arrived at Carlisle early and from the wrong exit off the M6, meaning that we had to drive through a town centre which, judging by the number of police in full riot gear, was expecting something akin to a civil war. Damn that Leeds reputation. Anyway, after finding the ground and parking up, we failed to get a beer, enjoyed a bacon roll and headed towards our barrier in the terraces. Vaguely surprisingly, Gary Mac had named an unchanged team, despite most people saying that Johnny Howson had been so bad on Monday that he should be dropped. Once again, Carlisle had failed to sell all their tickets - they really shouldn't be allowed to compete in such "big" games!!

Now, I can't remember all the details of the match (I generally can't do that as I walk away, let alone a few days after) but, bizarrely enough, we scored the opener, through Johnny Howson, after ten minutes. So far, I was half right with my "ideal match" scenario. After that the football, at on Leeds' part, was much improved. It now seemed as though Carlisle had the weight of expectation (although, given the number of fans, it was a fraction of the weight) and it looked as though it had affected them as it affected Leeds at Elland Road.

For the next eighty minutes, the football was free-flowing and attacking - we worked their keeper, we hit the woodwork, they forced us to make one save. Then, as the minutes ticked away and the end of the match moved inexorably closer, I began to think that, just maybe, my ideal match would have consisted more of three or four early goals. I was getting more nervous and, as the fourth official indicated just one minute of added time, it looked as though we were heading towards extra time. Then the ball fell to a certain 19-year-old Howson at the edge of Carlisle's penalty area. His left foot swung and with a somewhat less than clean shot, he put the ball into the back of the net for the second time that night. A quick glance at the scoreboard behind us (while celebrating, obviously) showed that we were into the 91st minute. Surely the local lad had propelled Leeds into the Wembley final.

The referee allowed Carlisle one more attack, which petered out, before blowing the final whistle and sending the 1,600 travelling fans into ecstasy. Yes, we were kept in the group after the game had ended and the home fans departed. Yes, it was a two-hour drive home. Yes, we still didn't manage to get a beer.

But it was all worth it. Wembley here we come.

To be continued...

No Music This Week

Sunday 9th March: ...and a distinct lack of musical activity this week leads to thoughts on football and a bit more on the books I have been reading.

The last couple of days have seen the most interesting round of the F.A. Cup that I can remember. I have just finished watching West Brom beat Bristol Rovers 5:1, but that was the only game that went to form. Earlier today Cardiff City beat Middlesbrough 2:0. I have no great love for the Welsh side (for historic reasons relating to Leeds United) but, being honest, they deserved the win seeing as they were playing a below-par Boro who seemed to have forgotten that the aim of the game is to score goals.

Perhaps more surprising were the results of the Man Utd v Portsmouth (0:1) and Barnsley v Chelsea (1:0) games. The dumping out of the competition of two of the top four English teams was particularly satisfying given the amount of chances both of them squandered - if you can't score from some of the chances that they had, you don't deserve to win games, let alone trophies. Portsmouth are now favourites for the Cup but, given that Barnsley knocked out Liverpool on the previous round, I think they are worth watching.

On a more personal note, it was good to see Leeds get there first Elland Road win under Gary McAllister (and second win in a row), even if it wasn't a particularly good performance against a bottom-of-the-table team. (Who am I kidding? It wasn't anywhere near a good performance.) The win moves us another place closer to the play-off places - now our only hope of a chance of promotion.

Since the last time I wrote about books, I have only finished two more. First up was Cavalcade (Alison Sinclair, 1998) tells the story of tens of thousands of people who have volunteered to be taken away by a fleet of alien spaceships, focusing on a sub-group of these "passengers" who are trying to work out the secrets behind the vessels themselves. The book was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke award (the UK's premier science fiction award) but I have no idea why. Despite the characters being a random group from different backgrounds, they all speak with the same voice, making it difficult to distinguish between them. The plot did nothing for me and the final revelation was a let-down. Although only 300 pages long, this book took an age to read. I have previously read Bluheart (1997) by Sinclair and didn't enjoy that one either. I don't think I'll be reading any more of her books.

Much more satisfying and with more of the sense of wonder that I like in SF was Reckoning Infinity (John E. Stith, 1997). The crew of a spaceship explores the interior of a Big Dumb Object which is moving through the solar system. So far, so Rendezvous With Rama and, in the cold light of day, this book is nowhere near as good as the Clarke classic. However, with an interesting bunch of characters, including a doctor who was pilotting a shuttle when it crashed into an Earth-orbit space-station and a first officer who was almost fatally injured in that crash, resulting in a lot of her body being replaced and thus formenting a hatred of the person she sees as the cause of the accident, this was a whole lot better than Cavalcade. Like Rama, the ending practically cries out for a sequel. Unfortunately, this appears to have been Stith's last novel (so far, anyway).

My current read is Lady of the Forest (Jennifer Roberson, 1993), which is a huge 700+ page retelling of the Robin Hood legend. Despite a fairly dense prose style, this is one of the best books I have read for a long time. It focuses on how Robin, haunted by his experiences in the Crusades, becomes an outlaw rather than his adventures as one - I'm less than 200 pages from the end and, while we have met the men of Sherwood, Robin has yet to join them - and also gives Marion a much bigger part in the story. All the characters are there, as are all the recognisable bits of the legend (the staff fight with Little John, archery contests, schemes against Prince John, etc) and the story is told with a richness and honesty that brings the era to live.

Mac's Back (pt II)

Saturday 2nd February: Work shifts, family and finances meant the I was an absent member of the Friday Night Music Club this weekend - a review of the York music scene can be found here.

So, for the second time this week, I'm going to write about Leeds United. As anybody who read my last entry (or the newspapers, or just follows football in general) knows, this was Gary McAllister's first game in charge - a home match against Tranmere Rovers.

Added to the players previously signed by Dennis Wise before his move to Newcastle were Bolton defender Lubo Michalik (why he dropped two divisions and was able to be bought for just £200k, we don't know), and prolific Stockport striker Anthony Elding. Darren Kenton, previously a loanee, signed for us full-time and defender Alan Sheehan was brought in on loan. Of those four, all but Sheehan started the game, as did a returning Johnny Howson. Missing were defenders Fraser Richardson and Paul Huntingdon, midfielder Neil Kilkenny and 'keeper Casper Ankergren.

Any new manager must be looking at the pros and cons of his side and, I have to admit, there were few cons. In fact, there was an almost total lack of confidence, conviction and (in some cases) control. As to the pros, there were few of them as well. Howson did well in midfield - he always seems to have more time than anybody else and manages to pick out his passes most of the time, unlike David Prutton who just seems to lump the ball forward without looking.

New striker Elding got a reasonably good first-half shot away, which seemed to calm his nerves. As much as commentators point out that, to a lot of First Division players, the large Elland Road crowds can be intimidating, I would have thought that the same would be true for a player like Elding who, not that long ago, was a part-time player with a proper job.

However, we lacked invention and goal-scoring opportunities, whilst Tranmere seemed to have both and, after a goal-less first half, they dominated and scored the only two goals of the game. Leeds slipped out of the play-off spots for the first time since they got into them, eventually ending the day in eight place. It's now five games since our last win.

At the moment, it's hard to see where any wins are going to come from. Opposing teams seem to have worked us out now and we are less of a "scary" opposition then we were at the start of the season. McAllister had only had three days with the players and you can't expect things to change overnight but you also can't help feeling that there is a lot of work to do. Hopefully he will think that he can change our fortunes with the players we have as I, for one, don't want to see another raft of loanees coming in. After all, the players that Wise signed in January were brought in with a view to playing in the Championship next season, so they should be good enough to get us there.

Mac's Back

Tuesday 29th January: So, after a flurry of activity over the last couple of days, Leeds United have seen the departure of a manager and the arrival of yet another.

It was just over a week ago that I first heard rumours that Dennis Wise was being linked with a job at Newcastle United. At first, I laughed them off. After all, despite what he has done for Leeds this season - and, yes, I am one of those that thinks he has done a good job, remembering that we started with -15 points - I didn't think a club the size of Newcastle would be interested in him.

Then, in a few hours yesterday, the speculation turned to fact and Wise, while being allowed to prepare the team for tonight's game away at Southend, would be gone before that game kicked off to take up an executive directorship with the Toon. Today Dave Bassett, his assistant of just two months, also left the club. Some would be breathing a sigh of relief.

So, the hunt was on for a new manager. Apparently, the bookies had a list of favourites including Steve Mclaren, Garry McAllister and Paul Ince. Then, at lunchtime, I was told that McAllister was suddenly the overriding favourite, with at least one bookmaker no longer taking bets on him. Sometime after I left work, it was confirmed that the ex-Leeds midfielder was to return to football as the new manager. One of the quickest managerial turn-arounds I can remember.

As I type this, McAllister could be listening to the team take on Southend. We are approaching half-time and there has been no score yet. It sounds a slightly better game than Saturday's draw at Luton. Whoops! Scratch that - Southend have just taken the lead!!

Me? I wish Dennis good luck - although I think he's in a win-win situation. A job with a Premiership club, with a Premiership salary but pretty much behind the scenes. He's not going to be in the front-line when/if things start going wrong and the fans turn on Keegan.

I also wish McAllister luck (obviously). He's coming in as a relatively new manager - he previously managed Coventry before leaving football for personal reasons - at a time when he has little or no opportunity to bring in his own players, with the transfer window about to close. Still, he is a Leeds hero and will no doubt be welcomed with open arms by the vast majority of fans.

Oh My God I Can't Believe It

Tuesday 1st January: So, a funny thing happened to me on New Year's Day...

At about 1 o'clock in the morning, Debbie and I were watching Jools Holland's Hootenanny show on BBC2. The Kaiser Chiefs were performing and I mentioned to Debbie that I didn't think they would be at that day's Leeds United game. Some of them sit just four rows in front of me and I doubted that they would be able to get back from London in time, assuming that, when the show finished, there would be some sort of party for the many celebrity guests.

However, that afternoon, at the match, one of the band - bass player Simon Rix - was in his usual seat. After a dire performance, at the end of which a much under par Leeds side had been beaten 3:1 by Oldham, I found myself standing close to Mr Rix and decided to try a little light banter. Something along the lines of:

Me - "You got back quick."
Rix (slightly quizzically) - "Yeah."
Me - "Was there not a big p*ss-up after the show?"
Rix - "Yeah, but we decided to come back because we thought the football would be good."
Me - "Oh well. Never mind..."

Recounting the tale the next day at work, one of my colleagues advised me that he had been told that the Hootenanny show is actually recorded in early December. So, either Mr Rix was humouring me (Wikipedia states that the pretence of the show being live is strictly maintained) or he was assuming that we had both been at some New Year's do. I'll probably never know.

Music 0, Football 1

Friday 16th November: No trip out to see any bands tonight - the guys didn't fancy anything on at Fibbers, so were heading to the Roman Bath to see Freeway. They are a heavy metal covers band which, under normal circumstances, would be well within my tastes. The problem with the Bath is that the bands don't start until sometime after 9pm (usually), which means that my usual plan of catching the last bus home means quite a strange time-out-to-travelling ratio and could lead to me missing the end of the show. Given that I had been out for three Fridays in a row, I decided to give this one a miss.

Saturday 17th November: Leeds United v Swindon Town. A couple of pre-match pints were livened up when some of the local "yoof" saw that quite a few Swindon fans had found their way to our watering hole. Nobody inside seemed to mind, even when they started singing their team's virtues and predicting a 2:1 victory. However, being of little brain, those outside decided to throw multiple somethings at the windows, causing a surge to the bar (in case anything decided to come straight through) and a bit of a scare for the ladies sitting next to said windows. Fortunately, the police appeared in record time and no further trouble ensued.

On the pitch, Leeds managed a 2:1 victory - the Swindon fans getting the score right but result wrong. One nil up at half time, after Beckford's penalty and with Swindon looking poor (but their keeper looking good), we looked to be very capable of winning by a margin until the second half started and Matt Heath was passed down the wing as if he was standing still. Three Swindon players were queuing up in the box to equalise. The lead was restored just a few minutes later when Johnny Howson played a long pass out to Tresor Kandol, who knocked the ball down to Beckford to score his second. As good a goal as you will see in this league. Swindon did have the ball in the net a second time towards the end, but it was disallowed for off-side. Good job, really, as the ball was definitely put over the line by hand and the "scorer" would almost certainly have been sent off.

A card-happy referee spoiled the game a little, but Howson was a revelation. Not somebody I would normally class as a Dennis Wise player, he managed to run our midfield better than anybody else has this season - spraying balls out in all directions and riding tackles like a seasoned pro, belying his relative youth. Leeds ended the day in fourth place. My guess is we'll be top well before Christmas.

An Ill-Fitting Tribute?

Friday 9th November: My wife was having a Body Shop party at our house tonight so I had known for some time that I would have to vacate the premises. My choices? Go to the pub, on my own, to watch Leeds United play their first ever match in the first round of the F.A. Cup; Mostly Autumn, live at the Grand Opera House, again on my own; Whole Lotta Led at Fibbers, with friends.

In the past I had expressed disdain (bordering on contempt) for tribute bands. If they are that talented, why limit themselves to playing one group's songs. To me, it smacks slightly of laziness. However, because a) I didn't fancy standing on my own in pub watching what could have turned out to be one of LUFC's biggest embarrassments and b) wanted to avoid being in close contact with Mostly Autumn CDs (because they are all on my Christmas list...) I decided to head to Fibbers.

Sort of a bad choice, really. The vocalist was obviously having problems with the sound (apparently he couldn't hear himself. At times I though that was probably a blessing...) and, overall, I thought the performance was a bit nondescript. They certainly weren't as good as I had been led (no pun intended) to believe. Being completely honest, the two best bits of the whole show were when the musicians were probably being themselves. The instrumental section of No Quarter rocked and, while I have only heard two version of what is my third favourite Led Zeppelin song, it sounded nothing like either. After a rather bland version of Stairway to Heaven, the band kicked into Moby Dick, featuring an absolutely brilliant drum solo. Again, I don't think it was supposed to be a copy of any particular Bonham solo and I have no idea whether it was technically good. What it was, to this totally non-musical music fan, was truly impressive - I don't think I could move my arms continually for the length of time that this drummer did, let alone keep to the many rhythms he used. I like to watch drummers but, unfortunately, couldn't see much of this one from where I was standing.

At the end of the show we wandered round to the Swan to see Hazzard County. Before anybody points out that they are also a covers band, they cover lots of artists and are, therefore, not a tribute band. We arrived just in time for the first set to end and wondered for a few minutes where Chris was, before realising that he was probably playing keyboards round at the Grand Opera House. The second set proved that they were as good as ever and that they were almost totally ignoring the play-list on the floor. Thankfully, we had taken our usual position just in front of the band so, when Tom started his staccato drumming for Who Do You Love, I was able to watch him in full flow.

So, a night of two halves, really.

Oh, yeah - Leeds were held to a nil-nil draw away at Hereford.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

I'm not a huge rugby fan (either code) but have just watched England progress to the final of the union World Cup, beating France on their home turf. I find games like this mildly exciting and always think that understanding the rules would probably help my enjoyment immensely. However, it still looks like legalised mugging to me. I'll probably watch the final next weekend. That'll be three games I'll have watched in four years.

England also won at football, beating Estonia in a European qualifier. I didn't see this one as, being a season ticket holder, I was at Elland Road watching Leeds United. Ignoring the fifteen point deficit we were handed at the start of the season, this was effectively top of the table versus third place (Leyton Orient). It probably lived up to that billing, in a strange way. An early goalkeeping error gave Orient the lead from a free-kick that they should never have had and, not long after, our keeper again watched the ball sail over his head, this time to hit the bar. Orient's scorer was sent off in the first half for using an elbow, so Leeds spent most of the game trying to break down a team of ten men. Unfortunately, we only managed one goal (Seb Carole with a curling shot from a corner) before Orient contrived to miss an open goal and have an apparently good goal disallowed (couldn't see it from where we sit but everybody who could says it was a goal, except the linesman...) A missed penalty from Tresor Kandol added to an exciting, but frustrating match and once again Leeds ended a match with more points than they should have won, even if this time it was only a single point. We stay in 12th place, just six points behind top spot, but teams behind us now have a game in hand...

Last night, I met with a couple of mates to see The Travellin' Band at The Roman Bath. A four-piece with a combined age greater than most football teams. They dressed the stage with Confederate flags and performed covers of Bob Seger, the Van Zandt brothers and others. Good guitar playing and drumming but the vocals were, for the most part, not that good.

I'm reading two books at the moment - I'm two-thirds of the way through Terry Brooks' "Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" trilogy. The first book was much the same as the previous trilogies but the second left me a little disappointed. Every since the first Shannara book, way back when, there have been hints that the world they are set in used to know technology. I know that the latest trilogy is explaining what happened to that but "Antrax", the book I've just finished had the first instance of the druid Walker and his companions meeting (and fighting) that technology in the form of an ancient A.I. To me, it just didn't work - swords and magic versus lasers and robots and none of the characters really seemed too phased by what to them would be the complete unknown.

Because I have the trilogy in hardback and wanted something to read while cycling at the gym today, I started Stephen Donaldson's "The Real Story", first in his "Gap" series. At about 200 pages, it's probably one of the shortest modern SF books, but the other four books in the series more than make up for it. I haven't got far into it, but it seems an easy enough read.