Mighty Leeds Weblog

Times 27/2/07 Bendtner’s stylish return puts Leeds in deeper strife Birmingham 1 Leeds 0 Adrian Milledge Birmingham City last night became the third team to lead the Coca-Cola Championship in four days with a victory that made Leeds United’s position at the other end of the table even more perilous. The game was one of two Steve Bruce’s team had in hand on West Bromwich Albion and the win restored them to the pole position they occupied when the scheduled meeting with Leeds was postponed. Bruce made four changes to the starting lineup that had lost away to Hull City on Saturday, including bringing in two different strikers. That meant a recall for Nicklas Bendtner and the on-loan Arsenal teenager responded by putting Birmingham ahead. It was a goal, however, that owed much to the input of Gary McSheffrey. A foul on him by Jonathan Douglas resulted in the Birmingham winger taking the subsequent free kick and putting the Leeds goal under its first real threat. David Healy prevented that...

Times 25/2/07 Resurgent Wolves back in hunt Wolves 1 Leeds 0: Resurgent Wolves are showing play-off form as Leeds fail to convince anyone they are a Championship side Paul Rowan at Molineux Wolves are as strapped for cash as any club in the top half of the Championship, but the bit of business that Mick McCarthy did in the January transfer window may just have transformed their season. Stephen Ward, the player signed from the Dublin side Bohemians has been grabbing the headines of late but it was an even more obscure figure, Michael Kightly, signed from Conference side Grays Athletic in Essex for £400,000, who converted dominance into victory yesterday, with a goal midway through the second half just when it looked like Leeds might hold out for an undeserved point. Kightly has now scored three times for Wolves in their past six league games and thoughts of a playoff place are now beginning to reemerge with the daffodils around Molineux. Sixteen points out of a possible 18 from their la...

BBC 23/2/07 Taxpayers boost Leeds Utd coffers Leeds United Football Club is to receive more than £33,000 of taxpayers' money this year to boost its finances. The club, which is currently bottom of the Championship, has been granted "hardship relief" against its business rates by the city council. It applied for help as it no longer received "parachute payments" given to clubs relegated from the Premiership. The city council said it granted rate relief worth £33,625 because of the club's importance to the community. The Elland Road business will benefit from a total business rate relief of £134,000 in 2006/2007 - the maximum allowed under European Union state aid regulations. The relief is 75%-funded by central government and 25% by Leeds City Council, which equates to £33,625. Leeds City Council leader Andrew Carter said: "There is an option to award relief from business rates to organisations which are important to the local community. "Leeds Unit...

18/2/07 Cardiff City 1 Leeds Utd 0: Chopra on target but sent off as Leeds sink By Amar Azam at Ninian Park A fine free-kick by the Cardiff City striker Michael Chopra, his 19th goal of the season, earned victory over bottom-of-the-table Leeds United in an ill-tempered match that saw the home side reduced to nine men. There was little between the sides in a frenetic first half full of full-blooded challenges and little else. Goalscoring opportunities were at a premium. After allegations last week that one of his players had given away team information, Leeds manager Dennis Wise would have wanted a strong performance but his side were poor throughout the first half. Neither goalkeeper was tested until the 36th minute when Leeds striker Ian Moore stabbed the ball goalwards from a headed knockdown by Matt Heath. The Cardiff goalkeeper, Neil Alexander, saved easily. The hosts responded well and scored moments before the interval. Simon Walton fell under an Ian Westlake challenge on the edg...

BBC 17/2/07 Cardiff 1-0 Leeds Cardiff survived two sendings-off and a missed penalty to keep Leeds nailed to the foot of the Championship. Leeds started well, but on the stroke of half-time Michael Chopra fired Cardiff ahead with a 20-yard free-kick. Chopra had already been booked when his 66th-minute challenge on Hayden Foxe earned a second yellow and sending off. Steve Thompson missed a penalty for Cardiff after Tresor Kandol handled in the area, then Simon Walton was harshly sent off for his second yellow late on. Cardiff manager Dave Jones:"The red and yellow cards handed out today were in the main for nothing challenges. "At one stage I didn't know how many players I would end up with, but my players were magnificent. "If you are not good enough for the Premiership then you shouldn't referee in the Championship." Leeds assistant manager Gus Poyet:"We have missed a great chance of getting something from this game but when you are down there at the b...

Independent 4/2/07 Norwich City 2 Leeds Utd 1: Huckerby hounds his former club By Patrick Johnston at Carrow Road Published: 04 February 2007 This should have been the game where an ailing Leeds United recorded back-to-back victories for the first time since March. But against a Norwich City side, themselves struggling and without Welsh international striker Robert Earnshaw, it proved too grand a task. This defeat, their 19th of the campaign, left the Yorkshire side with only 16 games to save themselves from dropping into the third tier of English football. "It's not over yet," said an upbeat Leeds manager Dennis Wise. "If we keep performing we will be OK. We will just have to move on to the next game and hope to get a result. I can't ask for any more from the lads, we just need to tidy up on a couple of things on the concentration side, marking for instance. We let a player free for a second and it has cost us and that hurts." After taking the lead against ...

Telegraph 2/2/07 Talking Football: Wise tackles Leeds plight head on By Tim Rich There are not many men who, having taken Leeds United to the foot of what in Yorkshire they still call the Second Division, would show their face in public, much less pose for photographs. Dennis Wise has been called many things but never a coward. He is presenting a cheque for £420,000 to the Hunslet Boys and Girls Club on behalf of the Barclays Spaces for Sport scheme. It will pay for an Astroturf pitch, changing facilities and much else beside in an area of Leeds cut off from the glass and steel of the city centre. It is appropriately close to Elland Road and was built in the days of Don Revie, when the club's horizons stretched to European Cup finals rather than a desperate scramble to finish fourth bottom of the game's second tier. "I learnt my football in places like these," said Wise. "Kicking against a wall or playing for my dad's team, not on Astroturf but on that red, ...