My Leeds United Memories -Vol 1
My First Game
My first game at Elland Road was back in October 1989 when I was 12 years old. Leeds were then playing in the old English division 2 and were up against Wolves.
I remember before the game started the players were warming up when Vinnie Jones decided to playfully slide tackle the mascot. The moment got a mixed reaction but I think the majority knew he was just playing up to his hard man, tough tackling character.
The game finished with a 1-0 victory with the only goal coming from striker Bobby Davison. A headed goal following a corner from captain Gordon Strachan. I have fond memories of this win as we went on to gain promotion to division 1 that season, going up as champions.
Some of my favourite Leeds players are part of this team including captain Gordon Strachan, Chris Fairclough, David Batty and Gary Speed.
Another memory of this game is a track that was playing over the tannoy during the pre match warm up. It’s not even a particularly good song but I think it just reminds me of this day so is still part of my regular playlist now. The track in question is For America by 80’s group Red Box.
My Favourite Moment
I have may fond memories of my trips to watch Leeds over the years but one that sticks with me as it still makes me laugh, is the game away to Southampton back in 2005. I was going to the game with my dad and brother but we were unable to get tickets in the away end, although parts of the home end could have been mistaken for the away end on that day, so the 3 of us were sat quietly amongst the home fans.
We didn’t get off to a great start and were 3-0 down at the break. My dad, who is Leeds mad had a face like thunder and I thought for the first time he was going to say we were leaving, but we didn’t, thankfully!
With only 20mins of the game remaining it looked like it was going to be a bad day at the office when it all turned on it’s head. Goals from Paul Butler, Robbie Blake, David Healy and a 86th minute winner from the late Liam Miller saw Leeds win 3-4. There were sections around us going absolutely mental but we did our best to stay sat on our hands.
The final whistle went and the 3 of us had the biggest smiles on our faces amongst some very unhappy Saints fans. We were leaving the ground when my dad did his normal thing and ask to borrow my phone so he could ring our mum. My mum answered and completely forgetting what end we were just leaving he says in a loud voice “Janet, we did it, we won”. Luckily for us there was a lot of noise around us so nobody heard my dads announcement. It still makes me laugh that my dad was so happy with the result that he completely forgot about being in the wrong end.
There are many more memories I can think of but although it would have been amazing to be in amongst the Leeds fans that day it was a great family day out to watch the club we all follow and love.
My Favourite Player
Picking a favourite player for me is hard as I’ve had many favourites over the years, including Rod Wallace, Olivier Dacourt, Mark Viduka and more recently Raphinia…the list goes on. But, there is one player who I always enjoyed watching play for Leeds and that is Gary Speed.
I loved his directness and effort that he put in to playing for the club and he would have to go down as my all time favourite. The number 11 would be the shirt that I always wanted to go for playing local football myself back in the day as a nod to my favourite player.
