The Scratching Shed

After the dust had settled on our famous victory at Old Trafford, I returned to work head held high to torment the Manchester United fans that I have had to cope with through the last six years of hell.

The victory inside Old Trafford was one thing, but the satisfaction of silencing the glory-hunting scum fans I work with is another. Sure I’d sent them messages after the game as I made the best of a rare opportunity to brag. None of them replied of course, they were far too busy sulking and avoiding us Leeds fans that had waited for this moment for the past 29 years. Much like inside Old Trafford, Manchester United fans have a funny habit of going silent when they’ve lost.

After retiring to their dark corners to sulk and dream up a list of injustices that had cost them the game, they entered the workplace, clearly expecting abuse from us proud Leeds United fans; and we weren’t about to disappoint them.

The funny thing was though, none of the Manchester United fans could actually think of an excuse. There were no injustices, no dodgy refereeing decisions in our favour (some even admitted Wes Brown should have been sent off), no cheating Leeds United players, nothing! This was Manchester United fans as I’ve never seen them, they were worried.

For over a decade now we’ve had to put up with the Manchester United fans arrogance. Even in defeat, they always have an excuse, and usually bounce back stronger. As much as I hate to admit it, they’ve been largely untouchable.

The fans always know best

I’ve read the stories in the Times, Guardian and other papers that claim Manchester United’s reign of dominance may be finally at an end, but that’s exactly the kind of knee-jerk reaction I expect from newspapers after a team with Manchester United’s legacy are so resoundingly beaten by a side forty odd places below them in the footballing pyramid.

The papers stories are easy to ignore, but they say the fans are the ones that really know the truth in football. It’s usually pretty true as well. Whilst people outside Leeds United can look at our success this season and accredit it to Ken Bates bringing stability to the club, the rest of us know he’s a crook and it’s a lucky appointment in Simon Grayson that has changed our fortunes. Managers that can bring success without any money are a rare commodity and Bates landed on his feet when he appointed an unheard of manager from Blackpool. 

With that in mind, it was hard to ignore the doom and gloom coming from my Manchester United supporting work-mates. Aside from Wayne Rooney, they see very little light in their clubs future. How can they compete with Man City and Chelsea when they’re burdened by a crippling debt that leaves them no money to buy the big names that have brought them success in the past? The next generation of players didn’t show the fight that their predecessors did; had that been a young team featuring Giggs, Neville, Scholes and Beckham on Sunday, you can be sure they’d have given us a much better fight.

Personally, I don’t think this is the end of Manchester United’s success, but I do think we may look back on our victory as the moment when the Manchester United era began to fade out. I’m not saying they’ll never win anything again, but they’ll certainly have a much harder time in doing so over the next few years. Maybe they’ll win the League Cup this year and go on to win a fourth successive League title. They might even get lucky in Europe, but if the Glaziers don’t find some answer to Man United’s debts, then the next few years will gradually see them fade away. They’ll be like the 90’s Liverpool after the reign of dominance they experienced in the 80’s – competitive, but always chasing someone else’s coat tails.

Here’s hoping that in ten years time we look back on the 3rd of January 2010 as the moment the fortunes of Manchester United and Leeds United began to change. Hopefully, we’ll be looking back at a moment where Leeds United began to rise again, whilst Manchester United showed the first signs of collapse.

Doesn’t the result make Manchester United’s taunting all the more enjoyable? When I first read the headline of ‘Manchester United draw FA Cup minnows’ on their official site, I couldn’t help but laugh. Clearly they still held a soft spot for us and felt us worthy of such taunts. Had it not been Leeds United they drew, I imagine the official site would have been much more respectful of their opposition but this is one of those rivalries where there’s no love lost, so what would be the point building bridges?

On the approach to Old Trafford I came across a man with a masterplan to make money by selling those cup game scarves you see baring the colours of both teams with a 50/50 divide. Clearly he’d underestimated how much we both hated one another as I can’t see many Leeds United fans buying a scarf with Manchester United’s name and colours on it (and vice versa). He didn’t look to be having much success as I passed that’s for sure.

By this point there was Police everywhere as you may well expect. Apparently there’d already been some trouble between the fans in the station and a couple of fights outside the ground, but on the whole and considering the occasion, it wasn’t as bad as may have been expected. I didn’t encounter any problems with the opposition fans anyway and all the Leeds fans I saw were being their usual charming selves. I guess if anything was to kick off, it’d have likely happened after the game but there’s a funny thing about winning that makes our naughtier few better behaved.

The security element of the tie was doing their best to treat us all like animals. As the Police warned some fans to calm their passions “or else” I moved by swiftly before another unjustified altercation with the law that I could do without. Travelling away often presents itself with instances where the Police decide you have less rights than a terrorist and very little right to complain thereafter – regardless of whether you’d done anything wrong or not!

The temptation of asking the steward who searched me on the way into the ground if he’d at least buy me dinner first was hard to resist, such was the mans thoroughness and clear love of his job. I did resist however as there were more law enforcement officers around and they didn’t look like they’d need much of an excuse to arrest any fan they felt was being problematic, so it was through the turnstyles and in to Sold Trafford for the first time in almost six years.

You have to give credit to Man United’s manager for his approach to this game. As big a distaste for the bloke as we all may have, he rarely makes a mistake in his preperation for media frenzy matches like these and he wasn’t about to start now. All week he’d been stressing publically how big a match this would be for Leeds and the supporters of both teams. He’d told of how we shouldn’t be underestimated and warned his team for a battle and that’s exactly what they got.

From the off Leeds looked to take the game to ManU and it was clear we were in for a two-way battle. Most minnow teams like ourselves go to Old Trafford and look to leave with a respectable scoreline, but Simon Grayson was having none of that. If we’re going to play, we’re playing to win.

Chances fell both ways with Darren Gibson firing wide for ManU and Jermaine Beckford heading over the bar for Leeds. Danny Welbeck quickly settled into the game for Manchester United and was making a real nuisance of himself down the right. Andy Hughes was left wondering what had happened as Welbeck burst down the flank with pace and sent a good cross straight across goal, with no Man United player able to make a connection. Meanwhile, the older Donkey Brother was getting his usual reception from the Leeds faithful and was booed everytime he touched the ball.

Becchio had a good chance for Leeds with a headed attempt from Kilkenny’s cross but headed well over the top of goal. It was the best chance so far and Becchio knew he should have done better. Meanwhile, the crowd was in full voice as the Man United fans repeated “We all hate Leeds scum” again which they mixed with a song about Cantona and some nonsense about Rooney. Hard to hear them whilst munching Prawn sandwiches in all honesty. Leeds on the other hand had no time to snack and were busy working there way through a much wider range of songs. This was probably around the ‘we’re not famous anymore’ stage of proceedings.

On the pitch the exchanges were just as lively. Leeds were fighting for every ball and attacking at every available opportunity. Simon Grayson’s tactics of pushing men forward when in possession made for a brilliant end to end battle, but there were several nervy moments when the Reds countered and their pacey players like Welbeck broke free.

Beckford celebrates the goal of his career

It was roughly twenty minutes in to an action packed first half when Leeds countered quickly and took the lead. Jonny Howson picked out Jermaine Beckford who had been busy giving the over-rated Wes Brown the run around with an excellent long-range pass that landed nicely for Beckford. His first touch took him wide of the goalkeeper and his second was a tame shot that beat the goalkeeper and slowly but surely crossed the line! Cue crazy celebrations in Old Trafford and silence in the home stands. “1-0 in your cup final!” Wes Brown meanwhile may as well have been sat in the stands.

Man United quickly tried to get back on level terms and had it not been for a Jason Crowe goal-line clearence, Wayne Rooney would have done so almost immediately. That was about the best Man United could offer in terms of a reply in the first half and as tempers began to flair, the horrible Wes Brown got himself booked for a foul on Lucciano Becchio. One of several poor challenges he made in a game where it was a miracle he didn’t get sent off.

After a cheerful half-time for Leeds United fans, we returned for the second half and rather unsurprisingly, Man United were throwing bodies forward. Their whinging players futile appeals for a penalty were dismissed by the ref after Howson dispossessed Welbeck and just minutes later, the tempers flaired again as Micky Doyle was brought down for a free-kick. Jonny Howson – who played an absolute blinder - decided he could take on Gibson and Brown and as tempers flaired, the ref had to intervene and calm matters down before normal service was resumed.

The ref - who despite his reluctance to send Wes Brown off for a series of challenges where he never got anywhere near the ball - had to issue some more yellow cards as the tackles started to fly in all over the place. Both Naylor and Gibson found their way into the book, but in truth, both teams could have received a lot more yellow cards but a very good ref allowed the game to flow throughout and tried to keep his cards in his pocket.

Nayl’s was solid and hungry throughout, as was Kisnorbo. Even the usually criticised Hughes and Crowe were sticking the tackles in and making life hard for Manchester United. The midfield were closing down and challenging players whenever Man U were in possession and Becchio seemed to play the majority of the match back there with them. When we had possession, we were never afraid to pass it about and run with the ball, particulary Johnson and Howson who deserve a special mention. The whole team as one were performing brilliantly and you have to give full credit to Grayson who was tactically spot on.

Man United, who had started strongly enough with a good defence and near-on £60m in strikers decided to make some more changes to try and win the battle of the midfield. Giggs and Valencia came on, but surprisingly Welbeck was removed which was a bit of a relief as the lad’s pace had caused us problems throughout. Strange move, but I’m sure there was motive to the madness.

Owen joined proceedings not long after but despite so many attacking options, Man U were still struggling in defence and Jermaine Beckford once again broke free to narrowly fire wide when one on one with the keeper. Hearts in mouths by now, as Rooney prowled and Owen looked to get in on the action.

Leeds would get another chance however, by which point Snoddy had joined proceedings in replace of the outstanding Jonny Howson. A free-kick in a good position had his name written all over and he struck beautifully, only to be denied by the bar. Despite leading, one more would have settled some nerves as we approached the end of the game and the inevitable five minutes of added time came. As the crowd mocked the officals with chants of ‘Fergy time,’ Man United looked for one final chance, but Casper, Nayl’s, Kis and whoever else could get their body in the way kept the Champions at bay.

The final whistle blew and Leeds celebrated a result we’ve not managed in 29 years. Victory at Old Trafford for the FA Cup minnows and third tier team. Every Man United fan you taunt over the coming days will inevitably claim it was a weak team or that the referee didn’t give them 29 minutes of ET and three penalties, but there’s no taking away from what Simon Grayson’s lads achieved today. They did us proud and thoroughly deserved their victory. A special day for Leeds United that I expect we’ll look back on in years to come as the first sign of our resurrection.

TSS man of the match
Jonny Howson for me. I could hazard a guess that ITV went for Becks and it wouldn’t be undeserved. He made Wes Brown look second rate throughout and was always a threat, but Jonny rose to the occasion like the Leeds lad he is. He knew what the rivalry meant and gave it absolutely everything. All the team played their part and all of them deserve the praise they’ll receive but Jonny grew today for me. He was like Leeds’ answer to Stevie G.

The draw for the fourth round gave us another trip down memory lane as we head for Tottenham Hotspur. Ken Bates will no doubt be delighted too at another obvious money spinner, which will once again undoubtedly be on TV.

A great start to 2010 I’m sure you’ll agree. Happy new decade for Leeds? Let’s hope we’re celebrating just as much in May! One things for sure now though. If Beckford does leave in the coming days, he’ll leave Leeds United a hero, in the meantime though, I’m sure you’ll enjoy his goal again!

I was recently featured on The Republik of Mancunia blog answering questions in the build-up to our FA Cup clash at Old Trafford. The author of the site and lad who was putting the questions to me also agreed to do the same in return, the results of which are below.

Obviously, the temptation to try and wind him up was hard to resist, but I think he countered well throughout. 

1 ) Hi RoM, it’s been a while since we last played one another. I hear your fans have been enjoying themselves with choruses of ‘we all hate Leeds scum,’ so I take it you’re happy with the draw?

Made up about the draw. As all the teams were being picked out it became like a countdown with us two still left in it. Felt a bit like a Football Factory moment lol. I hate Liverpool more than your lot but we get to play them twice a year already, so it’ll be great for us to meet again, and hopefully, absolutely batter you.

2 ) When Ronaldo was sold for an extortionate sum of money in the summer, everyone expected Manchester United to be big spenders thereafter, but it never really happened, did it? Do you think the money was used to pay off the debt the Glaziers have burdened your club with and what are you feelings on the owners these days?

The official reason given by the manager was that the transfer market was crazy so we’d never get value for money that summer. You have to consider when Lescott is being bought for £24m, Tevez for £47m and Ribery is being quoted at £60m, it’s probably not the best time to buy! We had agreed a deal worth £30m for Benzema but then Real Madrid came in at the last minute and offered £5m more. If we matched that, they would have offered £10m more. You can’t get in to a bidding war with them. We’ll see what happens next summer I guess but of course I won’t rule out the possibility of the money being absorbed by the debt. Since the Glazers have been here, we’ve enjoyed one of our most successful eras, but that has been in spite of them, rather than because of them. The sooner they f**k off the better. The money we pay for our seasons tickets and the transfer money that come in should be for the improvement of the club, not to pay off some debt that shouldn’t belong to us. There are always rumours that someone else is ready to buy, but realistically, they would have to pay around £1billion for the Glazers to get anything out of the deal, which isn’t going to happen.

3 ) If it’s any consolation, you cheered us lot up by making our debts look pathetic in comparison. Anyway, you hit a bit of a rough patch lately with defeats at home to Villa and a battering away to Fulham. Surely a team of your stature should be able to deal with a few injuries a bit better than that?

I suppose that’s the brilliant thing about football, isn’t it? If it was all won on paper, with which team should beat another, then there would be no point playing. We’ve put ten goals past Wigan this season, whilst Chelsea lost to them 3-1. That’s why football is great because it’s so unpredictable. I’d argue that having just one fit defender, left back Evra, is more than “a few injuries”. I’ve never known anything like it. Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Jonny Evans, John O’Shea, Gary Neville, Rafael and Fabio all being injured. I can’t recall a club ever being hit so badly in one position like that. One of the biggest problems with the injuries, when playing our second choice keeper and three midfielders in defence, was the issue of other players being out of position. For example, Fletcher has been one of our best performing players this season in the centre of the park, bossing the midfield, but he can’t have much of an impact on the game from right back! Carrick plays a big role with his creativity in feeding the wingers/strikers, again, something he can’t do from defence. We lost 4-1 to Liverpool at home last season with our strongest team and beat Chelsea 3-0 with a weaker team. You’ve got to make the best of what you’ve got and on your days things can go your way. Against Fulham it just wasn’t our day. You move on. We’ve scored eight goals in our two games since and conceded one (a penalty). That’s football.

4 ) Yeah, you certainly seem to be back on form now, which is a bit of worry for us with Sunday in mind. Surely it’s not just me that thought Jenson Button deserved Sports Personality of the Year? Ryan Giggs hasn’t even got a personality!

I’d argue Michael Owen and Kelly Holmes are more void of personality, if I’m honest! Didn’t stop them winning it though. It is awarded to the sportsperson “whose actions have most captured the public’s imagination”. Winning eleven league titles (three more than any other player in the history of English football), playing in his third European Cup final and being voted as the PFA Player of the Year by his peers is pretty good going. I feel bad for Button because it was the best year of his career, but did he achieve as much in 2009 as Ryan Giggs? Depends where you rank an individual sport against a team game I suppose. I couldn’t give a f**k about F1 and have worshipped Giggsy for years, so you’re asking the wrong person!

5 ) What happened to Smith being the new Roy Keane?

Whatever happened to Alan Smith being a Leeds legend who kissed your badge? Things change. He had some great games in the centre of midfield for us, namely our 1-0 victory over Chelsea who had gone 30 games unbeaten (and we had just lost 4-1 to Boro the week before!). That was some midfield too – Lampard, Essien, Makelele, Joe Cole. Essien got subbed off at half time because he didn’t get a sniff, which Mourinho commented on after the game. But he just wasn’t good enough. Worked hard and we loved him for it, but he just wasn’t good enough for United, sadly. We still haven’t found the new Keane, or the new Cantona… maybe some players just can’t be replaced.

6 ) No, we never quite replaced Cantona either (ARGH!!!) On a more personal note, I have a friend who comes from the outskirts of Liverpool and now lives in Leeds. In his entire life I don’t think he’s ever set foot in Manchester and he’s certainly never seen Manchester United play, but still calls himself a fan! That’s not a fan, is it!?

I honestly find the idea of supporting a team from someone else’s city, who you never go and see play, as weird. I can’t imagine doing that. But it’s very easy for me to say that, as a lad born and bred in Manchester. If I lived in the middle of nowhere and if my local team was sh*t, would I support them? I hope so. But I can’t preach about glory fans because my local team is Manchester United, so it’s not like it’s hard work to support them. Would you support Leeds if they had been in Division Three when you first started getting interested in football? I think it’s pretty sad for people who are glory supporters, because I don’t think they’ll ever connect with the club the way locals do with their clubs, but as for whether it makes them fans or not, I think it is more difficult to define.

7 ) Glad you agree he’s a glory hunter! I can’t see you or Arsenal overcoming Chelsea this season. Their squads enormous and full of talented players that could get a place in anyones team. They’re champions in waiting surely?   

Champions in waiting? Hardly. United have been playing without any defenders, yet Chelsea are only two points ahead of us with a goal difference better by two. I think that is shocking and if the situations were reversed I would be wondering why the f**k we hadn’t raced ahead of Chelsea. What excuse do they have for dropping so many points? No key injuries, no particularly difficult fixtures, yet their advantage is tiny. Add to that they’ve yet to come to Old Trafford, they beat us in the most ridiculous of circumstances at Stamford Bridge, we are always much stronger in the second half of the season and they are about to lose their two best players to the ACoN. Nothing is in the bag yet but I’d rather our situation than anyone elses.

8 ) Alex Ferguson is knocking on a bit now and has nothing left to achieve really. Is retirement looming, and who would you like as his successor?

Laurent Blanc and Pep Guardiola seem to be front runners at the moment. I’ve long tipped Blanc to the throne though and with every season does more to make himself a good shout. But Fergie’s got plenty of years left in him yet. Premiership managers seem to be having operations left, right and centre, but Sir Alex is fit as a fiddle and will continue to manage until his health changes. You say he has nothing left to achieve, but I think he’s always gagging for more trophies. Who wouldn’t want to win the European Cup three times? Who would want to win a twelve league titles? Thirteen? Fourteen? If you’re still capable of creating teams that will compete for honours, why on earth would you walk away from it?

9 ) Personally think Jose Mourinho will be your man. He wants to return to the Prem and I think Alex will view him as his natural successor. Moving on to the FA Cup clash. What kind of team should we expect on Sunday from Man United? Will Fergy give the youngsters and reserves a game, or will he field a full-strength side to try and avoid the kind of upset that would be a massive embarrassment for himself and your club? If he does field some reserve players or youngsters, who are the ones to watch?

We’re all hoping he fields as strong a side as possible, that will dish out a huge thrashing, but that might be wishful thinking. We’ve got a semi-final three days later and a Premiership game three days after that, so we can’t afford to be playing our strongest teams. Hopefully the Da Silva twins will get a game – proper feisty pair of Brazilians who really like getting stuck in. Darron Gibson will most likely start and he tends to score screamers (LINK). Danny Welbeck and Macheda might play up front, although I wouldnt be too surprised to see Owen start up front and maybe Welbeck on the wing. Gabriel Obertan is a really pacey winger who has won the fans over straight away, it would be good to see him play. I imagine we’ll have a strong bench though, with players like Rooney and Scholes who can come on and change a game if necessary. To be truthful though, there’s no way in predicting Ferguson’s lineups anymore.

10) Why on earth did you smash little old Barnsley up and are you worried about the potential for trouble as Leeds and Manchester United renew their rivalry?

I don’t know what it’s like in Division Three, but we have some horrible scrotes who want to get in the action on away days. Getting tickets for aways in almost impossible these days but Barnsley midweek was easy enough. So a load of them showed up, the kiosks decided it would be sensible to pull down the shutters and not serve beer to the people that had been waiting, and so stuff kicked off a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not nice, but we’ve all seen a lot worse. A bit of ketchup getting flung about and the till robbed? Hardly murder is it.

Who’s worried about what Leeds are going to do though? Have the club said something? I have no doubt your lot will run riot in the away stand, this is the biggest game you’ve played for years, so of course people will get overexcited. Then we’ll send you and the FA the bill to clean it up, just like we did after the dippers got giddy with their Munich and Shipman graffiti in their FA Cup semi in 2006.

11) I think the Police will be worried for a start. I don’t envy the task they have ahead of them! Finally, what’s your prediction for the game?

I predict Leeds players to kick us about the pitch, maybe even score, but for United to come good. It will be a good test for our younger players and I honestly hope the scoreline gets embarrassing – that is probably wishful thinking though.

Leeds can’t lose either way in my opinion. In all honesty, you should beat us given that you’re two divisions higher and have a squad full of internationals. No ones expecting us to win, so it’s no major loss if we don’t. On the other hand, if we do pull off an upset, we’ll be hailed as heroes and you’ll suffer a massive embarrassment. Should be a great occasion either way. Cheers Scott.