It’s the last day of January already for our game against Arsenal and I can’t believe where the time is going. After a great meeting with some of the Bremner Legend Team in Kippax last week, our plans for the Billy Bremner Gala Dinner on Saturday 23rd May 2026 in the Leeds Lounge at Elland Road starting at 12.30pm are gathering pace. Everyone in the team got a late email as I stayed up until gone 1am on Thursday morning to ensure everyone was updated. After phone calls earlier in the week with Paul Reaney and then Glynn Snodin on Thursday lunchtime, we can confirm that Glynn and John Sheridan will be our guest speakers on the day as they played for Billy and we will have Paul Reaney, Allan Clarke, Mick Jones, David Harvey and his wife as special guests who were Billy’s teammates alongside some of Billy’s family. Jed Stone will be leading things on the day so looking forward to a great event. A lot of hard work has been going on behind the scenes for a long time, and it is great to see all our plans being put in place. Tickets will be on sale shortly and includes a one course meal for £60 per person or £70 per person for a premium table. We have tried to keep costs down as all the profits will be going to the Billy Bremner Statue in his hometown of Raploch, Stirling. The Billy Bremner badges continue to prove popular, and I had some on me at the game as well as meeting up with others who had an order in and once again thank you for your support. It was lovely to be told that fans appreciate what I do so thank you.

Last night saw me head to the LUFC Trust AGM in Leeds and it was lovely to listen to Jermaine Beckford and Ben Shires. Jermaine came from a humbled background, and it showed in his talking and to be honest, I would much rather try and find talent that fit our team from the lower leagues than pay silly money for players who don’t care.

It was nice to see Lucinda who has been involved in previous consultations with fans about the ground improvements. After seeing some things that didn’t work right at Everton on Monday, I made sure these were passed on. Firstly, about making our disabled fans have a long walk to and from the coaches. I said that we had to get this right first time at Elland Road from my perspective. As well as the away coaches, we must have a dedicated coach park for our own fans too. I also mentioned the stories I’d heard about the men’s toilets not having enough in them and only three ladies’ loos in another. The refreshment facilities need to be that you only need to queue up once to get what you want to buy and not go to different areas as someone mentioned plus, I felt the concourse was too small. I also said the club must remember that many of our fans are from out of town for instance, we have a group of fans who travel from Plymouth to every home game. They will not want to be hanging about at the end of a game to have a long walk or waiting for buses to take them elsewhere when they have a long journey ahead of them. This must be taken into consideration with their plans going forward.

When we played Arsenal at their place I think we gave them too much respect and were in awe of them but all in all they are just another team. There may be a gulf of difference in the players, but it is so obvious where referees are concerned that the clubs at the top of the table do get preferential treatment. Innocuous things were picked up giving Arsenal many free kicks whereas we had one taking a piggyback without us getting a free kick as well as being let off with foul throws.

Team: Darlow, Ampadu, Rodon, Bogle, Calvert-Lewin, Aaronson, Gruev, Struijk, Justin, Stach, Gudmundsson.

Subs: Okafor for Gruev (46), Longstaff for Justin (46), Buonanotte making his home Premier League debut for Aaronson (71), Gnonto for Stach (81), Piroe for Calvert-Lewin (85).

Subs not used: Perri, Tanaka, Byram, Bornauw.

Leeds lost the game 4-0.

Attendance: 36,858, approx. 3,000 Arsenal fans.

Referee: Stuart Atwell.

Booked: Gudmundsson.

We started off brightly and Ampadu saw his shot sail over the bar although it wasn’t too far away. Arsenal eventually forced their way into the game as they could play football when they weren’t time wasting. As we cleared the ball out of the area Ampadu went down in the box, but the referee played on and as the ball came back in their player headed it into the net. I’ve no idea who sets us up the way we did at corners today, but we need that sorting out and quickly by man marking and not zonal marking. I was astounded to see us leave one person with five of their players at the back of the box before they swarmed like locusts in our area. The thing is we didn’t learn from that as we did that for every corner they had. The killer goal saw Darlow palm the ball into the net from their corner with just our defenders in front of him so obviously the way we were set up didn’t work.

We did make changes at half time, and I hadn’t given up hope at that time. Rodon made a great challenge with their player through on goal. Arsenal had an attack and with their player on the touchline I shouted not to let them score again only for the ball to be whipped into the middle and their player get in front of our defence and score a third. There was no coming back now, although Darlow made a point blank save from another header, they ran rings around our defence to get another. A bad day at the office but competing with millionaire squads it shows how miles apart, we really are.

We are back at Elland Road on Friday night for the game against Forest so forget about this one and move on.

See you there, LUFC – Marching on Together!