Mighty Leeds Weblog

Leeds were knocked out of the Papa John’s Trophy on Tuesday night after failing to secure a result against Crewe Alexandra By Joe Donnohue Leeds United Under-21s head coach Michael Skubala named a strong starting XI for his side's final Northern Section Group B fixture in this season's Papa John's Trophy as the youngsters took on Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road. Leeds were held to a 0-0 draw in normal time, despite fielding two full internationals in Mateusz Klich and Willy Gnonto, an England U21 defender, England U20 forward, two England U19s, a Norway U21 defender and a former Spain U21 international. Skubala included Klich, Junior Firpo and Joe Gelhardt in his starting line-up away to the Cheshire club, who had made eight changes from their 3-0 defeat to Barrow last weekend, currently sitting mid-table in League Two. And it was to be the fourth tier side who were victorious on penalties after a calamitous shootout in which seven of the ten spot-kicks were missed. ...

ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS? Written by Rob Conlon Praising Dennis Wise’s wit makes me uncomfortable, but I have to applaud his response to Derby’s interest in Jermaine Beckford in January 2008. “If I am being totally honest, why would you go from Leeds to Derby?” he asked. “You wouldn’t. This is a much bigger club than Derby.” Leeds were trying to earn promotion back to the Championship, and were winning more games and scoring more goals than any other side in League One, but their fifteen point deduction was restricting them to play-off places. Derby, meanwhile, were stinking out the Premier League on their way to a record low points total. Billy ‘Job Done’ Davies had been replaced by Paul Jewell, who was caught hook, line and sinker by Wise’s fishing. “I think it’s pretty disrespectful,” Jewell told the BBC. “I’ve got no interest in Jermaine. We’re looking at a better quality player than that.” Which sounded pretty disingenuous when he was turning up at Gresty Road for Leeds’ next...