Burnley - 14th September - 24/25

September 15, 2024

Leeds United v Burnley

Saturday 14th September 2024 - Elland Road, Leeds

2024/25 Season


After the international break last week, my granddaughter and I headed to Elland Road for the lunchtime kick off. It took me a while to get going this morning as once again all the recent stresses caught up with me. My baby granddaughter came out of hospital for the third time last Saturday, but the Paediatricians informed her mum at the start of the week that she may have to go back in for further IV antibiotics. After more worries we found out that her latest samples were clear, but she may get ill again so we remain vigilant. In the meantime, in the middle of my middle daughter moving house on Wednesday, I came back home for a meeting at dinnertime which ended with another hospital visit and then admittance for my husband. He came back out of hospital yesterday after IV antibiotics and we are hoping the oral ones will clear his infection. It never rains but it pours.


We headed to Holbeck Working Men’s club before the game, and it was great to catch up with some friends from Wrexham who I haven’t seen for approx. 25 years.  As usual you catch up where you left off and I will have to share the photos from our trip to Wrexham to see Wales v Scotland in 1977 later. Friends for life though and one of the most important things of being a Leeds United fan, is the fantastic camaraderie from our worldwide fan base who get you through the tough times. Once again, thanks for all the support, hugs and kind words today as they mean a lot to me. With talking so much it meant we had to get a lift to the ground with the Shropshire Whites otherwise we may have missed kick off. Thanks for making me an honorary member for the day!


If anyone missed my appearance on the Clough Revie, The Damned Interview documentary by Chris Dawkes on ITV on Thursday, the link can be found here: https://www.itv.com/.../clough-vs-revie-50.../4x9f51x...


Going through the turnstile, I suddenly realised that it kept turning. I managed to scan the tickets (well I think I did) as it had clicked into place before the same thing happened again. After the club saying that you need to attend 80% of the games this season, this was very concerning as I couldn’t be sure that our tickets had been activated. Something I will pass on to my contact to take back to the club for their response. After catching up with my sister and friends we headed over to the opposite side of the Kop in readiness for the players coming out onto the pitch. After a minute’s applause for Sol Bamba (there will also be tributes at Cardiff next week), this was followed on six minutes for our young fan Bob as both died recently. Bob was a mascot at the start of the season, and it certainly brought a lump to the throat with the whole stadium joining in as well as both the teams stopping play.


Team: Meslier, Ampadu, Struijk, Rodon, Gnonto, Joseph, Gruev, Solomon, Firpo, Bogle, Aaronson

Subs: Rothwell for Ampadu (68), Piroe for Aaronson, (68), Byram for Firpo (78), Ramazani for Solomon (78), Tanaka for Rodon (87).

Subs not used: Darlow, Gelhardt, Schmidt, Debayo


Leeds lost the game 1-0


Attendance: 36,405, approx. 2,900 Burnley fans


Referee: James Bell

Booked: Firpo, Gnonto, Ampadu

Sent off: Humphreys (Burnley)


The game started with Leeds attacking the Kop in the first half having been turned around by Burnley. Leeds started off well with Joseph through on goal, but his shot went wide. Burnley took the lead against the run of play as Leeds lost the ball from an attacking position when Solomon slipped. The Burnley player ran the length of the pitch before putting the ball into the net as we had no answers. I always wondered why it is only our players that slip on wet pitches but also, why do we even wet them so much before the game starts? The atmosphere which had been good until then died a death for a while as the stuffing was knocked out of much of our support. We do need to get back to how we did it in the 80s, if the opposition scored, we were all there immediately chanting for Leeds. Honestly, it does make a difference. Gnonto had a shot saved by their keeper but with another chance not long before the break, Solomon was brought down in the penalty area. Not surprisingly, the linesman to our left had flagged continuously for us being offside yes neither him nor the referee saw the foul. With fans around us screaming for the penalty, it was proved by replays later that they were right. Sadly, for us, it was never given as we went in one down at the break.


The second half saw Leeds come out on the attack with Joseph seeing his shot saved by the keeper. Ampadu saw his great shot put over the bar by their keeper. With Burnley using professional fouls and time wasting, they started getting more bookings from the referee although in the first half it was us who got the first booking. Rodon got lengthy treatment alongside the Burnley player Brownhill after a clash of heads which left them both with bandaged heads. Rodon was subbed not long afterwards. We never looked like scoring to be honest and it felt like we had no one on the bench who could come on and take the game by the scruff of the neck. I do feel a draw would have been a fair result as Burnley made it hard for us to get through their defence, but we ended up with our first defeat of the season. The international break curse strikes again. It wasn’t to be, but we need to regroup as we head to Cardiff next week. Somehow, although I thought one of their players got a second booking which was the case, I failed to see their player sent off!!!


As the players applauded the crowd at the end, when Farke arrived there was a lot of loud booing on the Kop. It surprised me as I wasn’t sure if the booing was for him although, I know frustrations had already spilled over to some of the crowd during the second half. When Byram passed back to Meslier when we had been attacking, I had some sympathy for him as there was no one making room for him to pass to. My worries going forward after our sales was having a strong squad depth and whilst we have the personnel, that spark was missing once we went a goal behind. With decisions not going our way either, it was one of those days.


See you at Cardiff, LUFC – Marching on Together!

Leeds United, We'll Support you ever more, We've only got one song!

June 6, 2025
A selection of Leeds United Songs from 1960 to the present day, sung by Leeds United fans Friday 6th June 2025 On 2nd September 2023, I was lucky to be invited into the director’s box at Elland Road to watch the game against Sheffield Wednesday alongside Mick Hewitt, Gary Edwards and Tony Winstanley. We had finally achieved our ambition of recording Leeds United Chants and Songs from the terraces, that had to overcome the hurdles of being curtailed during the covid pandemic and many other challenges. Both the Leeds United Foundation and the Leeds United Academy received equal shares of the £6,605.16 proceeds of our CD sales after costs had been taken, and we were extremely proud to hand this amount over to officials at Leeds United. As always, none of us were gaining anything personally from sales, it was always going to be for the good of our club. The good news is that 99 of these songs and chants are now available on Spotify HERE for anyone who prefers to download their music. Again, any money raised will be shared between the Leeds United Foundation and the Leeds United Academy so please continue to support the club. Below is the introduction for the songs to give some context to the recordings plus the thank you to all those Leeds United fans who took part. Sadly, we have lost some of those who were there for the recordings since then.

Paris 1975 - 50th Anniversary

May 28, 2025
Paris 1975 – 50th Anniversary 28th May 2025 I cannot believe it is 50 years to the day that I set off for Paris for the European Cup Final. Initially I didn’t get one of the 8,000 tickets for the game despite it being my 70th game of the season but ended up with two. I was going with or without a ticket and got mine through my friend Carole’s season ticket as she got one with her programme tokens as well. By travelling with the club to the final it meant I got a further ticket as we’d travelled to Barcelona in the previous round with them. One lucky Leeds fan who I knew was the recipient of the second ticket for face value outside the ground. Sadly, when we finally got to our hotel, we had to wait to be allocated our rooms before heading to the ground which took ages. I always regretted not going with the Harrogate trip as we did to Anderlecht earlier in the competition as I felt we missed out on the build up to the game by getting there late. We did manage to walk around the ground to soak up the atmosphere once we arrived and it was good to get photos and have our photos taken by loads of Leeds and German fans before going into the ground. I had a fantastic view behind the goal on the front row of the upper tier next to the clock. The whole night was magical from the start, and it had been perfect, with Leeds fans singing na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, Leeds United for the first time. It was an incredible feeling being in the stadium and when Peter Lorimer smashed the ball into the net in front of us, I immediately looked at the linesman and referee only to see them both award a goal before celebrating. It was only when Beckenbauer went over to the referee that things started to change and we couldn’t believe it when the goal was disallowed. I’ll never forget being cheated out of our rightful trophy and we will always be Champions of Europe. WACCOE. My first book Follow Me and Leeds United includes all my recollections from this game and the previous rounds for those interested. Watch out for the Paris 75 documentary which I’ve been interviewed for with the official trailer released at 8.30pm, Wednesday night - PARIS 75 - Official Trailer  . The finished film is now coming out end of August/early Sept by independent filmmaker Harvey Marcus. PARIS 75 Official Trailer out May 28. My new independent documentary, PARIS 75 - the final football tried to forget. A film about a season, that match, and those fans that shaped the identity of what it means to be a Leeds supporter. Please join/share the PARIS 75 - The documentary FB group for more info and cinema dates and a chance to win a PARIS 75 print signed by Allan Clarke. WACCOE.

Elland Road - Redevelopment Plans Pt.1

May 22, 2025
Elland Road Redevelopment - 2025 Wednesday 21st May 2025 Now that things have settled down with our promotion to the Premier League, I’ve had a chance to look at the plans for the development of Elland Road into a 53,000/56,000 stadium. This has been a long time coming and it’s not before time. With Elland Road being sold out every week and I know personally that I haven’t been lucky in getting any extra tickets for family all last season despite trying online unsuccessfully, the capacity increase must be done. As well as the West Stand deteriorating every year and the facilities in the Kop leaving a lot to be desired, I‘m looking forward to what will be done to replace these stands. I was given the chance to look at the stadium video that was released and I can honestly say that it looks impressive. Although I would have liked a one stand Kop, I can understand why it was done the way they designed it as there will be disabled places available in front of more boxes. The lower part of the Kop remains the same size as it is now which I feel is a good thing. The one thing that is needed is space on the concourses which looks to have been taken into account plus improved toilet facilities. I would love to see the south stand seats put back in once the boxes can be relocated with the development. A stand like the Kop design would be a good way forward in future but obviously we need to concentrate on the West first then the Kop. It’s exciting times going forward and I’m looking forward to capturing the developments with my regular photos when attending games at Elland Road.  The one thing going forward is to ensure that the loyal every day fan is not priced out of attending games there. We have a fantastic loyal worldwide fanbase which needs to be nurtured. When things are good as they are now, you have no need to encourage fans to come back as they will always try to get there when they are able. I’ve been there through the good and bad times and only a few years ago, you couldn’t give a ticket away for love nor money so the club can never take anything for granted on that basis. I’m looking forward to seeing the development get off the ground and although there has been a fans’ representation group, I am look forward to the wider fan base given a chance to air their views. LUFC – Marching on Together!" LUFC – Marching on Together!
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