Yorkshire Post 31/3/07 Leeds lifted by Healy's header By Richard Sutcliffe at Elland Road Leeds United 2 Preston North End 1 "WE'RE going to Liverpool, you're going to Blackpool," mocked the small band of Preston North End fans in the corner of Elland Road ahead of kick-off last night.On the evidence of the absorbing action that followed, the first half of such a bold claim is about as likely to happen as Steve McClaren suddenly becoming the darling of English football. The sentiment about Leeds facing a trip to the seaside next season could also prove wide of the mark after a pulsating United victory was sealed in thrilling fashion by David Healy in the final minute.Fresh from his heroics with Northern Ireland, the Leeds striker delivered just when his side needed it most to deliver three points. Elland Road erupted with the joy of players, coaching staff and fans speaking volumes for the potential value of this victory.Not only does it lift United off the bottom...
Posts
Sky 30/3/07 Healy heroics boost Leeds By Peter ORourke David Healy's last-gasp goal gave Leeds a dramatic 2-1 win over Preston at Elland Road. The Northern Ireland international continued his recent rich vein of form in front of goal with the winner in the final minute against his former club. Brett Ormerod gave Preston an early lead, but Robbie Blake cancelled out the opener early in the second half before Healy struck the winner for Leeds in the dying seconds. Preston started brightly and could have taken the lead after just two minutes, but England new boy David Nugent drove his volley wide. The visitors broke the deadlock on five minutes when Danny Pugh sent Ormerod clear on goal past and the former Leeds loanee clipped his shot past Casper Ankergren. Leeds tried to rally after the goal and Lubomir Michalik saw a goal-bound deflected wide before Blake drove just side from the edge of the box. Ormerod was denied his second goal of the night on 23 minutes when he again sprung the...
Sunday Times 25/3/07 Caught in time Leeds win the Second Division, 1964 Greg Struthers So how can the current Leeds United side avoid relegation to League One? One way would be to find a Bobby Collins. Don Revie, the manager in 1962, pulled off the coup and never looked back. Collins was 5ft 3in tall, weighed 10 stone and wore size four boots, but the diminutive Scotland midfielder saved his club in crisis. He was 31 years old and believed to be past his sell-by-date at Everton when a desperate Revie got word that he might be available. After initial talks, the manager waited five hours in his car for Collins and then chatted to him until 2.30am, persuading him to join the struggling Second Division side. The £24,000 deal was sealed and, on March 3, 1962, Collins moved across the Pennines. His first task was to stop Leeds from sinking into the Third Division. They went nine games unbeaten and secured their safety. Then followed a season of rebuilding and by late 1963 they were ready to...
Yorkshire Post 24/3/07 Gray returns to help Leeds beat the drop By Richard Sutcliffe and Ian Appleyard MICHAEL GRAY has revealed he turned down a move to another Championship side to help Leeds United in their fight to avoid relegation. The former England left-back joined United for a second time on loan yesterday from Blackburn Rovers just a few hours before the transfer deadline elapsed. Gray spent the final three months of the 2004-05 campaign at Elland Road and admits to being surprised at Leeds' current position at the foot of the Championship. He said: "I really enjoyed it here last time so I jumped at the chance. It is a challenge but a challenge I am looking forward to. "I could have gone to a mid-table Championship side who had nothing to play for, but this is Leeds isn't it? We have got to get out of this mess we are in. "It surprises me where Leeds are but I have only seen them from afar. A lot has changed since the last time I was here, but there are ...
Sky 22/3/07 Gray makes Leeds return By Chris Stanton Blackburn defender Michael Gray has rejoined Leeds on a month's loan. The former England international, 32, could extend his stay at Elland Road until the end of the season should all parties be in agreement. Gray spent the second half of the 2004/05 campaign at Leeds before fighting his way back into first team contention at Blackburn the following season. Gray was Mark Hughes's first choice left-back as Rovers finished the season in sixth last time out but he has found first team football harder to come by this term. Loss of form and injury have restricted Gray to just 11 appearances and he will now bolster The Whites' fight against relegation from the Championship.
Yorkshire Evening Post 17/3/07 United back from the brink By Phil Hay Southend 1 Leeds United 1 ON a day when so much seemed to be at stake, controversy was bound to reign at Roots Hall. Leeds United relied on the latest of strikes from David Healy to prevent a relegation-inducing defeat in Essex today, but the drama of the striker's 89th-minute intervention was lost in the events that followed.United were in the middle of a frantic attack when, with injury-time close to completion and the scores level at 1-1, a cross from Radostin Kishishev struck the arm of a Southend United defender inside their box.Referee Nigel Miller pointed immediately to the penalty spot but, in the blink of an eye, reversed his decision and awarded Southend a free-kick.The reason for his change of heart was unclear, and the County Durham official refused the opportunity to explain his reasoning afterwards.But the damage had been inflicted, and the true cost to Leeds will be clearer when the Championship se...
Yorkshire Post 16/3/07 United by the fight, says Wise By Richard Sutcliffe DENNIS WISE has insisted the job of reviving Leeds United's fortunes is not too big for him and Gus Poyet as their side prepare for tomorrow's crunch relegation showdown with Southend United. The Elland Road club are at their lowest ebb on the field and in grave danger of dropping out of the top two divisions for the first time. Defeat tomorrow at fourth bottom Southend would leave Leeds six points, or seven if their shockingly bad goal difference is taken into account, adrift of safety with just seven games remaining. Despite that, Wise remains in defiant mood as United prepare for their first ever visit to Roots Hall with the former England international stressing all is not lost for the Championship's bottom side. Reflecting on his first four-and-a-half months in charge, he said: "It has been a bit mad, really, in terms of some of the situations. "I have never known some of the things th...
Sporting Life 14/3/07 LEEDS LOOK FOR COUNCIL LOAN Leeds want to buy back Elland Road and their Thorp Arch training complex with the help of a loan from Leeds City Council. Club chairman Ken Bates made the reacquisition of both assets one of his main objectives when he took control of Leeds in January 2003. The club hold a buy-back option of around £13million on the stadium and £5million on Thorp Arch. Both sites were sold to Manchester businessman Jacob Adler in Leeds' battle to avoid administration before Bates arrived. Adler later sold Elland Road to Teak Commercial Ltd, a mystery company based in the British Virgin Islands who are currently charging the club £1.15million annual rent. Leeds chief executive Shaun Harvey told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "We have approached the council with a request that they assist the club by providing a mortgage so we are able to re-purchase both the stadium and Thorp Arch. "The mortgage sought from the council would be comfortably cov...
Sunday Times 11/3/07 Leeds grab lifeline Leeds 1 Luton 0 Rob Hughes at Elland Road There remains the faintest, nervous chance of Leeds United clawing their way out of the pit of despair. Both these clubs remain in peril of the drop to the third tier of English football this morning, but courtesy of a coolly taken goal by Richard Cresswell and by a penalty save from Casper Ankergren near the end, Leeds were able to claim their first win since February 10 and ignite the first inkling of belief that they will yet survive this nervous end to the season. There remains something remarkable about Leeds, the only club in this Yorkshire city. A hardcore of 27,000 still come on a moody, windswept afternoon to Elland Road, appearing to believe in the miracle of survival. And from all that’s around the club, from its descent from what once was a force in Europe, there remain frighteningly familiar panics. In the match programme, Ken Bates, now two years in the chair, is still accusing others of be...
Daily Mail 3/3/07 Wise on the warpath By DEREK HUNTER Leeds United 2 Sheff Wed 3 The crisis at Leeds United plumbed new depths yesterday after Dennis Wise’s side crashed at home against 10-man Sheffield Wednesday 48 hours after skipper Kevin Nicholls demanded a return to his former club Luton. Nicholls was immediately stripped of the captaincy, with Wise claiming he was "gobsmacked" by Nicholls’s attitude. Luton are one of the clubs struggling for survival whom Leeds are desperate to overhaul and who visit Elland Road for an important Championship head-to-head next Saturday. Furious Wise said: "Kevin Nicholls came in to see me on Thursday and I had a call from Luton’s manager Mike Newell, who said he was interested in signing Kevin. I said I was not interested in letting him go to Luton. I told Kevin he needed to think about it but he said he had made up his mind, that he made the wrong decision to come to Leeds and wanted to join Luton straight away." Wise said the...