Telegraph 8/5/10
Leeds United 2 Bristol Rovers 1: match report
Read a full match reports of the League One game between Leeds United and Bristol Rovers at Elland Road on Saturday May 8th 2010.
By Rory Smith at Elland Road
After three long years, the ignominy is over. After six years of never-ending descent, Leeds United have escaped their purgatory in English
football’s third tier. They are not yet back, of course, where they feel they belong. At long last, though, the recovery has started.
In front of a febrile, nervous Elland Road, Jonny Howson and Jermaine Beckford helped Simon Grayson’s side overcome the sending off of Max Gradel and Darryl Duffy’s strike for a dogged Bristol Rovers and ensure they finished an emotional, emotive day where they started it, set fair for automatic promotion.
Grayson’s side seemed to mirror the mood of their fans. They started confidently, bullish about their promotion prospects, Gradel menacing down the right, Beckford lurking with intent in the shadows of the visitors’ defence.
But as half-chance after half-chance passed them by, the nerves set in, legs growing visibly heavy.
Luciano Becchio was an inch too slow to latch on to one Gradel cross, the Ivorian firing across the box when a gentle lay-off to Beckford would have given the striker, Leeds’s captain on what is likely to be his last appearance for the club before a summer move to Everton, the simplest of chances.
Even when Beckford could convert, calmly beating Mikkel Andersen from Neil Kilkenny’s through ball, he saw his effort ruled out for offside. Slowly, in the stands, unease gave way to unrest. And then Leeds exploded.
Gradel, seemingly seeking retribution for a heavy tackle a moment earlier, stamped on Rovers left-back Daniel Jones’ foot. Jones collapsed, clutching his face. A morass of players confronted each other before, amid the chaos, referee Graham Salisbury dismissed Gradel.
So incensed was the winger that first he required Beckford and Michael Doyle to subdue him and then two tunnel stewards - present to prevent a pitch invasion - to escort him from the field.
There are certain conventions in these situations, prime among them the idea that the offender must always rub salt into the wound.
Leeds should not have been surprised, immediately after the break, to see Jones’ deep cross kept in play by the livewire Joe Kuffor, his cut-back deceiving goalkeeper Shane Higgs and allowing Darryl Duffy to convert from close range.
Silence, and dismay, descended. Leeds have felt cursed by fate for years, and as news filtered through that Charlton were winning, a familiar feeling took hold of all 38,234 inside Elland Road. This is Leeds, though. Defiance, like drama, runs in their veins.
First, Howson curled home beautifully from the edge of the box, wrapping his foot round Becchio’s lay-off barely five minutes after he was introduced. Millwall, though, were winning. The job was not yet done.
Bradley Johnson thrashed wide, wildly, when well-placed. Fingernails were bitten to the quick. And then a poor clearance, a Johnson cross, a partial block and there was Beckford, pouncing on his 31st of the season. Bedlam.
There was no time to rest easy. Higgs was forced to deny Kuffor, Neill Collins hit the post. It did not matter. As Salisbury blew his whistle, thousands of fans ignored desperate please to stay off the pitch to celebrate. At last, it is over.
Leeds United's turbulent decade
March 2003: Chairman Peter Ridsdale quits, with Leeds saddled with £103 million debts. His replacement, Gerald Krasner, oversees a fire sale of playing assets. May 2004: Relegated after 13 years in top flight. Nov 2004: Forced to sell Elland Road and Thorp Arch training ground to raise funds. Former Chelsea owner Ken Bates completes a £10 million takeover. May 2006: Finish third in Championship but lose play-off final 3-0 to Watford. Manager Kevin Blackwell sacked in Sept and replaced by Dennis Wise. May 2007: Leeds – still struggling with £35 million debts – enter administration and are deducted 10 points, confirming first ever relegation to the third tier. July 2007: Deducted 15 points for the 2007-08 season after breaking Football League rules on administration. Wise quits in Jan. May 2008: Beaten 1-0 in the League One play-off final by Doncaster. Manager Gary McAllister sacked in Dec. May 2009: Lose play-off semi-final to Millwall under Simon Grayson.
Telegraph 7/5/10
Leeds United would be transformed by promotion, says manager Simon Grayson
Simon Grayson, the Leeds United manager, believes his players will have the chance to rectify a series of wrongs when they go out to secure automatic promotion at Elland Road on Saturday.
By Rob Stewart
Grayson's team will have the chance to propel themselves into the Championship when they face Bristol Rovers three years after Leeds United fell into the third tier of English football for the first time and went into administration following serious financial troubles.
"This is a massive game that can change the fortunes of the club and ultimately it's down to the players to show their desire to succeed and put right what has gone wrong at this club over the last few years," Grayson said.
"For three years we've been a massive club in the wrong division but we are in this division for a reason. Getting to that next level is huge for us and gives us a platform.
"There is pressure every day here. Bristol Rovers will be out to spoil the party but my players have had the expectancy levels on them all season.
"They've been to some big grounds and got results, playing at Old Trafford, playing Liverpool at home and Tottenham home and away this season and we will draw from the good experiences and bad experiences."
Had it not been for their FA Cup run, the Yorkshire club could have already been promoted because the team were threatening to run away from promotion rivals when they beat Manchester United at the turn of the year.
"The cup games gave us some kudos and that was a hindrance," Grayson said. "Coming off the back of United and Tottenham, other teams looked at us and raised their game even more. Maybe the players got distracted slightly."
Grayson, 40, who guided Blackpool into the Championship, said: "The cup games went well for us but it's all about getting this club out of this division. "I didn't come here to win cup games. I came here to win promotion and if we do it will be right up there in my career. It would give me immense pride and fulfilment because I'm a Leeds fan as well."
Daily Mail 7/5/10
Leeds: On their way back from curses and crisis... and a win away from League One promotion
By Michael Walker
Game 60 for Leeds United on Saturday: game 60, game on and, they hope, game over, mission accomplished.
If Leeds overcome Bristol Rovers at Elland Road, then this meandering marathon of a season, with its spectacular, diverting FA Cup high at Old Trafford, followed by its hiccupping League One trudge through a bleak winter, will have ended with its main objective achieved - promotion.
Leeds will not be back, not as a force in the land, but they can claim to have bottomed out. Three years after slipping into the third division for the first time, in administration and embarrassment, Leeds will be able to point to progress. Mild optimism will outweigh heavy pessimism.
As manager Simon Grayson said at the training ground on Thursday: 'It's a massive game. It can shape the destiny of this football club.'
Grayson is not given to unnecessary melodrama. But he is a Yorkshire-born Leeds fan who knows that even in the club's greatest days in the late 1960s and the 1970s there was the occasional epic anti-climax. In 1971 it was such that Don Revie produced a gypsy at Elland Road to lift a supposed curse.
If there has been a curse this season, it is rather more prosaic. Too many games: second-placed Leeds have played 11 more than fifth-placed rivals Charlton.
Success in the FA Cup and the Football League Trophy saw what appeared inevitable promotion in December downgraded to an aspiration four months later.
That momentous victory over Manchester United in January, decided by Jermaine Beckford's 19th-minute goal, was followed by a home draw with Wycombe and a defeat at Exeter. Both clubs are in the relegation zone and, if either had been beaten, Leeds would not be sweating on the last game.
When, after drawing admirably at White Hart Lane in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Leeds subsequently lost 3-0 at Swindon, some began to question the merit of their Cup heroics. In fact, had League One begun on January 1, Leeds would now be 12th.
'Everybody can point to reasons why we had a dip in form,' said Grayson, 'but ultimately we were always going to have a dip in form. You can't go through the season unbeaten.
'Hindsight's a wonderful thing. Nobody was complaining when we beat United and drew at Tottenham. It probably slightly hindered us, but, when you spoke to the players, they never wanted to be rested in those games and we felt the momentum would carry us forward.'
Leeds' raised profile in the FA Cup roused opponents, too.
Grayson added: 'That did hinder us a little. But you wouldn't swap the wins at Old Trafford and the performances against Tottenham.
'Maybe the players got slightly distracted but it's down to us to keep it normal. And they're only human. They were buzzing from beating Man United and, no disrespect, it's difficult to then go to Exeter.
'No, we didn't expect to have 60 games, but players are paid to play and, if you asked them at any time, they wanted to play every minute of every game. After 60 games, if we're promoted, and all the Cup games, then we'll look back and think of a tremendous season.'
Grayson smiled when he said chairman Ken Bates was back in the country at Elland Road on Thursday - 'kicking a***'.
Many fans don't smile when it comes to Bates. He will have enjoyed the windfalls from the FA Cup but Leeds need promotion more.
'You can't progress as a football club in League One, not us,' said Grayson.
'We want to get back into the Championship because of the revenue it brings. Everything at this club is geared to the next level, the training ground, the fan base. If we get back into the Championship then we'll try to be a force and then ultimately get back into the Premier League, where we were not so long ago.'
It has been three long years down the divisions and the fact that the last two seasons have ended in defeat in the play-offs, by Doncaster Rovers and Millwall, means that there is dread around the city that failure on Saturday will mean more heartbreak.
Grayson is paid not to think like that. He led Blackpool out of this division but feels that lifting Leeds would be a greater personal achievement, adding: 'There was no expectancy at Blackpool.' Aged 40, he was 'a kid on the staff' the last time Leeds required a promotion. That was at Bournemouth in 1990 under Howard Wilkinson.
John Giles is due at an Elland Road function on Friday night, and names like his and Revie's resonate.
Grayson understands that, allowing him to speak of destiny and Leeds. He knows on Saturday could be a beginning and an end. He said his last words will be: 'Go and enjoy yourselves. No regrets. And win the game.'
Leeds United 2 Bristol Rovers 1: match report
Read a full match reports of the League One game between Leeds United and Bristol Rovers at Elland Road on Saturday May 8th 2010.
By Rory Smith at Elland Road
After three long years, the ignominy is over. After six years of never-ending descent, Leeds United have escaped their purgatory in English
football’s third tier. They are not yet back, of course, where they feel they belong. At long last, though, the recovery has started.In front of a febrile, nervous Elland Road, Jonny Howson and Jermaine Beckford helped Simon Grayson’s side overcome the sending off of Max Gradel and Darryl Duffy’s strike for a dogged Bristol Rovers and ensure they finished an emotional, emotive day where they started it, set fair for automatic promotion.
Grayson’s side seemed to mirror the mood of their fans. They started confidently, bullish about their promotion prospects, Gradel menacing down the right, Beckford lurking with intent in the shadows of the visitors’ defence.
But as half-chance after half-chance passed them by, the nerves set in, legs growing visibly heavy.
Luciano Becchio was an inch too slow to latch on to one Gradel cross, the Ivorian firing across the box when a gentle lay-off to Beckford would have given the striker, Leeds’s captain on what is likely to be his last appearance for the club before a summer move to Everton, the simplest of chances.
Even when Beckford could convert, calmly beating Mikkel Andersen from Neil Kilkenny’s through ball, he saw his effort ruled out for offside. Slowly, in the stands, unease gave way to unrest. And then Leeds exploded.
Gradel, seemingly seeking retribution for a heavy tackle a moment earlier, stamped on Rovers left-back Daniel Jones’ foot. Jones collapsed, clutching his face. A morass of players confronted each other before, amid the chaos, referee Graham Salisbury dismissed Gradel.
So incensed was the winger that first he required Beckford and Michael Doyle to subdue him and then two tunnel stewards - present to prevent a pitch invasion - to escort him from the field.
There are certain conventions in these situations, prime among them the idea that the offender must always rub salt into the wound.
Leeds should not have been surprised, immediately after the break, to see Jones’ deep cross kept in play by the livewire Joe Kuffor, his cut-back deceiving goalkeeper Shane Higgs and allowing Darryl Duffy to convert from close range.
Silence, and dismay, descended. Leeds have felt cursed by fate for years, and as news filtered through that Charlton were winning, a familiar feeling took hold of all 38,234 inside Elland Road. This is Leeds, though. Defiance, like drama, runs in their veins.
First, Howson curled home beautifully from the edge of the box, wrapping his foot round Becchio’s lay-off barely five minutes after he was introduced. Millwall, though, were winning. The job was not yet done.
Bradley Johnson thrashed wide, wildly, when well-placed. Fingernails were bitten to the quick. And then a poor clearance, a Johnson cross, a partial block and there was Beckford, pouncing on his 31st of the season. Bedlam.
There was no time to rest easy. Higgs was forced to deny Kuffor, Neill Collins hit the post. It did not matter. As Salisbury blew his whistle, thousands of fans ignored desperate please to stay off the pitch to celebrate. At last, it is over.
Leeds United's turbulent decade
Telegraph 7/5/10
Leeds United would be transformed by promotion, says manager Simon Grayson
Simon Grayson, the Leeds United manager, believes his players will have the chance to rectify a series of wrongs when they go out to secure automatic promotion at Elland Road on Saturday.
By Rob Stewart
Grayson's team will have the chance to propel themselves into the Championship when they face Bristol Rovers three years after Leeds United fell into the third tier of English football for the first time and went into administration following serious financial troubles.
"This is a massive game that can change the fortunes of the club and ultimately it's down to the players to show their desire to succeed and put right what has gone wrong at this club over the last few years," Grayson said.
"For three years we've been a massive club in the wrong division but we are in this division for a reason. Getting to that next level is huge for us and gives us a platform.
"There is pressure every day here. Bristol Rovers will be out to spoil the party but my players have had the expectancy levels on them all season.
"They've been to some big grounds and got results, playing at Old Trafford, playing Liverpool at home and Tottenham home and away this season and we will draw from the good experiences and bad experiences."
Had it not been for their FA Cup run, the Yorkshire club could have already been promoted because the team were threatening to run away from promotion rivals when they beat Manchester United at the turn of the year.
"The cup games gave us some kudos and that was a hindrance," Grayson said. "Coming off the back of United and Tottenham, other teams looked at us and raised their game even more. Maybe the players got distracted slightly."
Grayson, 40, who guided Blackpool into the Championship, said: "The cup games went well for us but it's all about getting this club out of this division. "I didn't come here to win cup games. I came here to win promotion and if we do it will be right up there in my career. It would give me immense pride and fulfilment because I'm a Leeds fan as well."
Daily Mail 7/5/10
Leeds: On their way back from curses and crisis... and a win away from League One promotion
By Michael Walker
Game 60 for Leeds United on Saturday: game 60, game on and, they hope, game over, mission accomplished.
If Leeds overcome Bristol Rovers at Elland Road, then this meandering marathon of a season, with its spectacular, diverting FA Cup high at Old Trafford, followed by its hiccupping League One trudge through a bleak winter, will have ended with its main objective achieved - promotion.
Leeds will not be back, not as a force in the land, but they can claim to have bottomed out. Three years after slipping into the third division for the first time, in administration and embarrassment, Leeds will be able to point to progress. Mild optimism will outweigh heavy pessimism.
As manager Simon Grayson said at the training ground on Thursday: 'It's a massive game. It can shape the destiny of this football club.'
Grayson is not given to unnecessary melodrama. But he is a Yorkshire-born Leeds fan who knows that even in the club's greatest days in the late 1960s and the 1970s there was the occasional epic anti-climax. In 1971 it was such that Don Revie produced a gypsy at Elland Road to lift a supposed curse.
If there has been a curse this season, it is rather more prosaic. Too many games: second-placed Leeds have played 11 more than fifth-placed rivals Charlton.
Success in the FA Cup and the Football League Trophy saw what appeared inevitable promotion in December downgraded to an aspiration four months later.
That momentous victory over Manchester United in January, decided by Jermaine Beckford's 19th-minute goal, was followed by a home draw with Wycombe and a defeat at Exeter. Both clubs are in the relegation zone and, if either had been beaten, Leeds would not be sweating on the last game.
When, after drawing admirably at White Hart Lane in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Leeds subsequently lost 3-0 at Swindon, some began to question the merit of their Cup heroics. In fact, had League One begun on January 1, Leeds would now be 12th.
'Everybody can point to reasons why we had a dip in form,' said Grayson, 'but ultimately we were always going to have a dip in form. You can't go through the season unbeaten.
'Hindsight's a wonderful thing. Nobody was complaining when we beat United and drew at Tottenham. It probably slightly hindered us, but, when you spoke to the players, they never wanted to be rested in those games and we felt the momentum would carry us forward.'
Leeds' raised profile in the FA Cup roused opponents, too.
Grayson added: 'That did hinder us a little. But you wouldn't swap the wins at Old Trafford and the performances against Tottenham.
'Maybe the players got slightly distracted but it's down to us to keep it normal. And they're only human. They were buzzing from beating Man United and, no disrespect, it's difficult to then go to Exeter.
'No, we didn't expect to have 60 games, but players are paid to play and, if you asked them at any time, they wanted to play every minute of every game. After 60 games, if we're promoted, and all the Cup games, then we'll look back and think of a tremendous season.'
Grayson smiled when he said chairman Ken Bates was back in the country at Elland Road on Thursday - 'kicking a***'.
Many fans don't smile when it comes to Bates. He will have enjoyed the windfalls from the FA Cup but Leeds need promotion more.
'You can't progress as a football club in League One, not us,' said Grayson.
'We want to get back into the Championship because of the revenue it brings. Everything at this club is geared to the next level, the training ground, the fan base. If we get back into the Championship then we'll try to be a force and then ultimately get back into the Premier League, where we were not so long ago.'
It has been three long years down the divisions and the fact that the last two seasons have ended in defeat in the play-offs, by Doncaster Rovers and Millwall, means that there is dread around the city that failure on Saturday will mean more heartbreak.
Grayson is paid not to think like that. He led Blackpool out of this division but feels that lifting Leeds would be a greater personal achievement, adding: 'There was no expectancy at Blackpool.' Aged 40, he was 'a kid on the staff' the last time Leeds required a promotion. That was at Bournemouth in 1990 under Howard Wilkinson.
John Giles is due at an Elland Road function on Friday night, and names like his and Revie's resonate.
Grayson understands that, allowing him to speak of destiny and Leeds. He knows on Saturday could be a beginning and an end. He said his last words will be: 'Go and enjoy yourselves. No regrets. And win the game.'