December 4th 2004 : Championship. Leeds United 0 Leicester City 2
As we live in York, this is a fixture that we had long looked forward to. We took in a visit to the White Rose centre that was just a couple of miles down the road from Leeds United’s Elland Road Stadium. As we approached the ground, the one large stand at the ground totally dwarfed the rest of the stadium. The stand I believe at one time was called the Lurpack Stand, which makes the Walkers Stadium sound very posh and dignified in comparison. The away fans were given the stand behind the right hand goal as you would look at the pitch on television. As I am 6 foot 5, I immediately realised that these seats would be fun as they gave enough leg room for somebody that was about 5 foot tall. Major cramp set in after a few minutes and I thought it was going to be a long afternoon. However, the getting up and down when things got exciting did help the blood flow and prevent deep vain thrombosis that a transatlantic jet could cause. You could tell that this stand , indeed all of the stadium apart from the new stand was now just a bit dated for the modern game. Where the Walkers is designed for seats, this part of the ground was terracing with seats on, not the same idea at all and definitely not good for tall people.
The wing stand to our left was a perfectly straight stand in the style of the old main stand at Filbert street. People at the very end of the stand had a view directly across the part of the ground where we were sitting, and to see the game must have involved sitting on the angle, or with a twisted neck all game !. It reminded me of a game at Filbert Street years before against Newcastle United which was sponsored by Scottish & Newcastle Breweries . The pre match entertainment was a Scottish piped band, which then proceeded to sit in the row in front of me, although they did have the decently to remove their big furry hats.
Before the Leeds Game started, the dancing girls came on in a throw back to the 1980’s and an American style influence to event. Their impact was lessened by them being surrounded by warming up footballers. The guy on the Public Address system tried to whim up a bit of enthusiasm from the Elland road crowd, “Lets have a cheer from the North stand ! “ sort of thing, but really the crowd couldn’t be bothered with them. They have had a very hard few years with their fall from the Champions League Semi Final’s to play us in the newly branded Championship, which we all really know is Division 2. They really didn’t have the heart to give a cheer when ordered.
The game itself was quite poor. In the first half, Leeds pressed us quite hard and passed well but didn’t really do much in the penalty area. They had the most of possession and on a number of occasions, Stuart Taylor in goal for us, he being on loan from Arsenal , showed what a fine keeper he was. We got to half time at 0-0 and hoped for better in the second half. We didn’t have to wait long, as soon after the restart, Lillian Nalis scored with a fine shot during a scramble in the penalty area from a corner.
The points were sealed later in the half as Leeds United’s Republic of Ireland full back headed a perfect diving header pas his goalkeeper. A really sweet and special own goal, and quite a rare thing in that we had not scored it. What made it even better was that he is a good player and we would sign him tomorrow if he wanted to join us. The final whistle, and we have won at Leeds, not a bad thing to do at any time. I liked the way that Joey Gudjonsson came close up to the crowd to applaud, excellent PR for a player that I think, when he makes the extra effort to applaud the away following. We got out of the ground quickly, and before I knew it, we were eating a Kentucky Chicken back at the White rose to celebrate our victory.
Not a bad way to end what had turned out to be a fine day, I can still see Gary Kelly aiming for the far corner with that diving header past Neil Sullivan, and will still do so for many years as I hear in my head the chant of the blue army “ One Gary Kelly, there’s only one Gary Kelly “ and “ Shoot ! “.