Having just got in after an 18-hour round trip to Brighton, I’m happy to say that the Leeds United earring I’d “lost” on the way home, dropped out of my jumper when I took it off. I can forget the manner of the defeat, knowing that I still have this in my possession. As the saying goes “little things please little minds” but in the grand scheme of things, this means it’s easy for me to forget how bad the game was for us travelling fans. The good thing is that despite such a long journey there and back, it was a smooth run, and I got plenty of sleep on the coach.

I’d gone in early to collect the next batch of Billy Bremner badges and with over 100 already spoken for and those sold today, there will be limited availability again. Hopefully I will see those who have their names down at either the Forest or Villa games.

It has been a busy week once again as I’d had an unexpected visit to the Thorp Arch Training Centre on Wednesday, with two of my grandchildren Alexis and Freddie thanks to the Leeds United Supporters Club. It wasn’t just the kids who had a great time and thank you to everyone who enabled us to be there plus Leeds United staff for their hospitality.

Thursday, I headed back to the Showcase in Leeds to see the Paris 75 documentary for the third time. As Paul Reaney and the producer Harvey Marcus had a Q&A session, I wanted to be there to listen to it. I still ended up with tears streaming down my face as the emotions got to me once again at the end. The blatant cheating and us being robbed of our rightful trophy means that 50 years later, we are right in feeling the way we do. I will never forgive or forget but we will always be Champions of Europe! WACCOE.

Team: Perri, Bogle, Gudmundsson, Ampadu, Rodon, Aaronson, Calvert-Lewin, Okafor, Tanaka, Longstaff, Bijol.

Subs: James for Tanaka (60), Stach for Longstaff (60), Nmecha for Calvert-Lewin (68), Justin for Bogle (77), Harrison for Okafor (77).

Subs not used: Darlow, Piroe, Gruev, Struijk.

Leeds lost the game 3-0.

Attendance: 31,512, 3001 Leeds fans.

Referee: Michael Oliver.

Booked: Ampadu.

Everyone came together at the start of the game with a silence to pay their respects to our fallen soldiers as the Last Post was played. Hopes of coming here to get a result were dashed when Brighton took the lead within 10 minutes. As they got the better of Gudmundsson, the ball was lifted over him and as Perri came out to narrow the angle, the ball was passed into the middle for them to score through our players into the net. We weren’t closing Brighton down giving them chance after chance to run through us, which I felt made them look better than they were. We had an opportunity at the far end with a low cross from Bogle, but Calvert-Lewin wasn’t able to get on the end of it. They came close with a shot that luckily went past the wrong side of the post and Longstaff saw his shot go way over the top with a deflection.

The second half saw Leeds up their game for a very short while and from our attack their player made a run down the wing. Once again, a cross into the middle gave them an easy chance to score a second goal. There was no coming back from this now as Rutter got to the bye line and passed the ball into the middle for them to get a third with Perri out of position. Perri made a good save to stop a fourth goal, and it was in the last few minutes of the game we actually had a shot on target. It was a very poor performance from Leeds altogether as we never looked like scoring.

It's always been a bad ground for us since Brighton moved here but we still should have been able to play better than we did. I also wish the players would come nearer to the fans than the 18yard line when they clapped us at the end, rather than keeping their distance. All we can do is move on and get ready for our trip to Forest next week. In one sense, I’m one of the lucky ones as I can sleep on things then move on, forgetting how bad things have been, which is a good coping mechanism.



See you next week, LUFC – Marching on Together!