Undefeated and top of the league – The season so far TSS October 1, 2009 Leeds United Almost a quarter of a way into the 2009-10 League One season, I thought now would be a good time to look back on how we’ve done so far. Leeds United 2-1 Exeter City The season started at Elland Road against newly promoted Exeter City. Leeds United and Simon Grayson were looking to put the heartache of another failed attempt at promotion via the play-offs behind them and were focused solely on achieving automatic promotion. The good news was that Jermaine Beckford was still a Leeds United player and his brace earnt us all three points as we made hard work of the League One newcomers. His 89th minute winner was met with chants of “sign your contract for the lads” from the 27,000 fans inside Elland Road. Wycombe Wanderers 0-1 Leeds United The first away game of the season was also our first competitive match against another newly promoted side, Wycombe Wanderers. After a first half dominated by the hosts, Leeds re-grouped and returned a different team. Lucciano Becchio’s 61st minute goal was to be the winning goal as Leeds and Shane Higgs kept their first clean sheet of the campaign. Walsall 1-2 Leeds United It was another late show from Leeds United in Walsall as the hosts took the lead late on from the penalty spot. With eleven minutes to go, it looked like Leeds were set to drop their first points of the season but an 83rd minute equaliser from Bradley Johnson setup an Hollywood finish for Jermaine Beckford who secured all three points with a winner four minutes from time. Leeds United 3-0 Tranmere Rovers Back to Elland Road for a visit from the Scousers. After scraping victories in the first three games, Leeds will have been happy with a much more comfortable result. First half goals from Bradley Johnson and Jermaine Beckford gave us a two goal cushion at half time before Lucciano Becchio wrapped things up in the second half. Colchester United 1-2 Leeds United Spirits amongst Leeds United fans were the highest I’ve seen them in a long time before the Colchester game. The travelling fans were in full voice and more optimistic than ever after the 3-0 demolition of Tranmere. Bradley Johnson once again fired Leeds United into the lead as his impressive early season form continued. Colchester grabbed an equaliser from the penalty spot, but Jermaine Beckford secured all three points and kept our 100% record intact with a 64th minute winner. Leeds United 2-0 Stockport County Simon Grayson’s side broke records against Stockport as the club recorded it’s most successful start to the season and most consecutive league wins. Records that had previously stood since the days of Don Revie. Jermaine Beckford was out injured so Mike Grella made his first start of the campaign and within 9 minutes he’d opened the scoring and fired Leeds ahead. Lubomir Michalik made it 2-0 before half-time which turned out to be the final score after a goal-less second half. Southend United 0-0 Leeds United The away trip to Southend was moved to a Friday night at the request of the local Police, so anything other than a loss would see us go top of the table. Uptil this point both ourselves and Charlton had won every game, but Charlton currently had the superior goal difference. A scrappy and hard fought battle ended 0-0 as both teams struggled to create good chances. Shane Higgs was called into action as Southend had the best chance of the game when they were awarded a penalty. The spot kick was struck well enough, but Shane Higgs guessed right and earnt Leeds a point. Leeds United 4-1 Gillingham After dropping our first points of the season away to Southend, Leeds were looking to get back to winning ways at home to Gillingham. It took less than 15 minutes for Bradley Johnson to fire Leeds ahead and he netted his fifth of the season just before the half hour mark to give us a 2-0 lead at the break. Jonny Howson got his first of the season straight from the restart before Barcham pulled one back for Gillingham. It proved to be nothing less than a consolation goal though as Jermaine Beckford rounded things up in the final minute to make it 4-1 to the Whites. Milton Keynes Dons 0-1 Leeds United MK Don’s were being hyped as our toughest test of the season so far and they didn’t disappoint as Paul Ince’s side battled well with the Whites. The teams cancelled one another out for much of the game and neither side looked like they’d make a breakthrough. When MK Dons were reduced to ten men though, Leeds had the advantage and for once managed to capitalise on it. It took 45 minutes but Robert Snodgrass’ late goal earnt Leeds an unexpected three points. Leeds United 1-1 Carlisle United A tired looking Leeds side lacked the spark they’d had at home so far and struggled to kill Carlisle off after Jermaine Beckford missed a penalty and fired us into the lead from the rebound. Leeds had won fifteen consecutive games at Elland Road by this point, but the last team to beat us put an end to that record. A freekick was met by Scott Dobie who equalised with fifteen minutes left on the clock. Despite a late flurry from Leeds, they couldn’t find a winner. Although the Elland Road winning streak is now at an end, Leeds remain the only undefeated side in the country as we head into this weekends top of the table clash against Charlton. Another 36 games like these and come May there’s no doubt we’ll be heading back to the Championship.