Football before festivities for Tom Lees

leedsunited.com 24/12/13
Tom Lees on a busy Christmas...
There’ll be no complaints from Tom Lees or his Leeds United team-mates when they hit the training ground on Christmas Day in readiness for the Boxing Day trip to Blackpool.
The United squad were back in on Christmas Eve preparing for the Bloomfield Road outing, and they were due to train again on Christmas Day evening before heading across the Pennines ahead of the first of three games in the space of seven days.
“You can’t really moan being a footballer, but if you can have a moan it would be about the Christmas period,” said Tom. “We’ve got a good balance, we’ve got some time off but we will be preparing like we normally do.
“We’ll be in on Christmas Day making sure that we are right for Blackpool. It’s important. I’ve done both sides so I know what it is like to play on Boxing Day without training the day before.
“We are giving ourselves the best chance, we are doing it properly and hopefully that will reward us in terms of points.
“They will be up for the game, Sky Sports will be there and the place will be packed.
“It’s always a bit of a party atmosphere, especially for the Leeds fans so we need to try and give them something to cheer about on Boxing Day.”
United go into the Christmas period in fifth place in the Championship and have lost just one in eight.
“I think that we have realistically given ourselves a chance,” said Tom, who scored a rare goal at Blackpool last season.
“If we can get into mid-January in the position that we are in now, come out of the busy Christmas period, we will have a real chance. Who knows what could happen?
“It is that consistency that we are after and we are just starting to get that in the last few weeks and we have got to carry that on after the Christmas period. We are fully focused and preparing for every game to try and do that.”
With Elland Road crowds on the increase – the last home game before Christmas saw over 31,000 for the visit of Barnsley – and away ticket allocations selling out in a matter of hours, there is a real buzz developing within the city.
“Living in Leeds you sense that everywhere you go that there is a real buzz this season,” added Tom.
“It’s really nice because sometimes playing at home the team can feel under pressure, sometimes look a bit nervous. Now we have come together as one and we’ll be United going forward. We are making it a tough place to come.”

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