Leeds United vs Sheffield Wednesday - Sky Bet Championship Preview

Leeds host Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday at Elland Road tomorrow. Leeds go into the game after a goalless draw with Leicester at the weekend, meaning they are currently 8th in the League (W1 D1 L0)  whilst Sheffield Wednesday have lost both of their games this season to QPR and Burnley, both by a score line a 2-1 which is why you can't blame them if they believe they should have got something. They are 20th in the league (W0 D0 L2) However tomorrow all league form flies out of the window due to the rivalry between the two sides.

 

Looking at the team news for tomorrow's game. For Leeds El-Hadji Diouf could play after an infected shin made him  miss the first three

games. There are no new problems for the whites but Byram is still side lined.

For Sheffield Wednesday, Johnson (tendonitis) and Buxton (shin splints) both returned to full training this week and are expected to be involved for the Owls. Midfielder Giles Coke could also return to contention after missing last week's home defeat to Burnley through illness, but defender Joe Mattock is not expected to play for another three weeks due to a knee injury. The Owls will also be without winger Jermaine Johnson, who sits out the second game of a three-match ban following his dismissal in the recent Capital One Cup defeat to Rotherham.

My Prediction for the match is a 2-1 win for Leeds, Leeds are the stronger going into the match but don't expect Wednesday to roll over.

 

That's all for this blog, you can watch the game live on Sky Sports 1 HD a post match review will be up tomorrow night. You can keep up to date with this blog @LUFCWorld or follow me personally @AJWoodward29.



Leicester vs Leeds - Sky Bet Championship Preview

 

After a win against Chesterfield in the Capital One Cup, Leeds travel to Leicester in the first of many televised games this month for the whites. Leicester were just able to overcome Wycombe in a 2-1 encounter away from home. It's still hard to judge any form but after just one game, Leeds are 4th in the league and Leicester 5th both after winning their opening games.

Looking at the team news for tomorrows game and Leicester now have a fully fit squad to pick from as Zak Whitbread and Ben Marshall are now fit to play after missing out on the Capital One Cup game against Wycombe through injury. For Leeds Rudolph Austin could return after his two match suspension ended against Brighton. No new injury concerns have come up for the whites and McDermott could call on El-Hadji Diouf after he was able to play 75 minutes of a friendly against Burnley.

Leeds have only won once in their last eight visits to Leicester, a 1-0 win in November 2011 being the only one, however the foxes have only managed a clean sheet in one of the last twelve against Leeds and since competing in the 2003-04 Premier League with each other, these two sides have been in the same league on seven occasions out of the last nine seasons including being in League 1 in 2008-09, the only seasons these sides haven't been in the same league after 2003-04 was in 2007-08 and 2009-10 when Leicester were in the Championship and Leeds were in League 1.

For Leicester, Nigel Person's men are trying to be the first side since Micky Adam's side of 2002-03 to win their first two opening games of the season. The last time they were able to do that, they won promotion to the Premier League. The last time Leeds won their first two games of the season was 2009-10 when they won promotion out of League 1. Leeds have only won away once so far in 2013, that was to Watford on the last day of the season. Ross McCormack is set to make his 100th appearance tomorrow.

That's all for this blog, this game is on Sky Sports 1 HD from 4:15pm. A post match review will be up either tomorrow or Monday (it will be announced on Twitter and Google+) you can follow us and keep up to date with this blog on Twitter @LUFCWorld or me personally @AJWoodward29.

Leeds 2-1 Chesterfield - Capital One Cup Review

Leeds hosted Chesterfield in the first round of the Capital One Cup earlier with the championship side being the obvious favourites to go through to the next round of the competition, but Brian McDermott might not be the luckiest manager when it comes to the cup as in the same competition last year his Reading side lost 7-5 to Arsenal whilst we were going on our cup run under Warnock.

It was a fast start for the whites with Leeds having a few attacks in the opening minutes, it however after the direction of play completely changed Chesterfield who took the lead with new signing Eoin Doyle proving why Chesterfield signed him in the summer, netting his first goal for the club, it was still Chesterfield who dominated after the goal but in another switch of the direction of play, Michael Brown was told to shoot by the Leeds fans and he did, scoring a screamer and getting the whites back level. Just four minutes after that and Poleon shoot went into the bottom left corner and Leeds were celebrating a second.  This didn't change the flow of play afterwards as it was still Chesterfield dominating, you can't blame any of their fans if they feel like they had a good chance of causing a cup upset tonight. Into the second half and Leeds seem to finally be taking control of the match with a few good chances. Chesterfield still had their chances though in the second half but Leeds were able to make them earlier four minutes of the game matter the most as they went on to win 2-1.

Brown celebrates his 25 yard screamer

So who do we want in the next round of the cup. For me it would be nice to have a fixture against one of the big clubs. Liverpool and Newcastle spring to mind as big clubs who we haven't faced recently in the cup. Last facing Liverpool four years ago in the Carling Cup (now the Capital One Cup) and Newcastle in a friendly 3 years ago)

The draw for the next round of the Capital One Cup is on tomorrow at 12:30 on Sky Sports News. Details for the draw will be announced on this blogs Twitter page @LUFCWorld were you can also keep up with what's happening on this blog. You can also follow me personally @AJWoodward29.

Leeds vs Chesterfield - Capital One Cup Preview

The Capital One Cup is back tomorrow night as Leeds take on league 2 side Chesterfield with hopes of progressing as far as they did last year and hoping to take on some of the big teams once again. Last year we were able to face teams like Everton, Southampton and Chelsea. It all starts tomorrow at Elland Road with like last year lower league opposition.

 

Both teams come into tomorrow's match after opening day victories in their respective leagues. Leeds got a late winner from Luke Murphy to give them a 2-1 win against Brighton, whilst Chesterfield beat relegated Bury 2-0 with goals from O'Shea and Richards. Leaving Leeds in 4th in the Championship and Chesterfield 5th in League 2, though we can't draw any conclusions as to where the sides are going to finish just yet.  

 

Looking at the team news, for the whites El-Hadji Diouf returns from suspension but Rodolph Austin still has one game left on his ban. Both players were sent off in the penultimate game of last season against Brighton. Leeds will asses Stephen Warnock after he was side lined part way through the Brighton match and Sam Byram still remains out with hip problems. For Chesterfield everyone is OK except for ex Blackpool defender Ian Evatt who lacks match fitness and is unlikely to feature.

 

 

Looking at the teams stats in the Capital One Cup, Leeds reach the last eight of the competition for the first time since reaching that level in 1996, that year they went on to the final but lost to Aston Villa. It is the seventh consecutive home tie for the whites in the competition. A sequence started in 2011 against Manchester United. Leeds have not been knocked out of the Capital One Cup by a team outside the top two tiers since 1994 when Mansfield, then of the 4th tier knocked the whites out over two legs.

 

Chesterfield have been knocked out in the first round for the last six times on the bounce and have not kept a clean sheet in the last ten.

 

My prediction is going to have to be a 3-0 win for the whites, because of Leeds and Chesterfield's performances in this cup in recent years, this should be a easy victory for the whites.

 

That's it for this blog, a post match review will be up on Thursday, you can keep up to date with this blog on twitter @LUFCWorld and follow me @AJWoodward29

Diaries of a Leeds Fan - Leeds 2-1 Brighton

When I got into Leeds this morning, you could feel the optimism for the new season. It had been falling recently but since Bates left, the atmosphere has slowly risen once again. The people who were driving the club down (e.g. Bates and Harvey) have gone and now the club is looking up, hopefully up into the Premier League.

A bumper crowd went to Elland Road to watch the first match of the post Bates era and it was against the last team to visit Elland Road in the Bates era as we took on Brighton, under new management with the ex Barca youth coach Oscar Garcia. 

If you remember the last game when the two clubs came together, cheating and controversy was high, diving, a poor ref, and red cards left Brighton winning the most players on the pitch battle at 9-10 and the game 2-1. 

Nothing much seemed to change apart from the atmosphere inside Elland Road, everyone in a good mood since the Bates departure. But Brighton's and the refs characteristics remain the same, diving, cheating and trying to get our players sent off all seemed to feature in this match. The first major piece of action came after 13 minutes when Ulloa scored. I've always been very critical of Ulloa because he has never impressed me. This stunned all the Leeds crowd who were expecting a great start to the new campaign. It wasn't long until we were celebrating though when McCormack scored from a Tonge cross. The final goal of the game came in the final minutes of added time when Luke Murphy completed a dream debut by giving the whites their second opening day victory since returning to the championship. This reminds me of the opening day of the 2009/10 League One season where when it looked like we would draw a last minute goal by Jermaine Beckford meant we won and got our season off to a flying start. That year we won promotion, lets hope this season pans out like that one. 

Now I feel like I need to moan about another poor performance by the ref. There were instances where there was clear diving by the Brighton lads and yet the ref either fell for it all received a back hander. Leeds kept getting players carded. It was even to the point where the diving got unbelievable. If you get the chance to see the Bruno dive on the touch line you will be stunned that he thought he could get away with it. He dived approximately 7-10 seconds after any contact with anything but air. 

This game leaves Leeds 4th in the league and Brighton down in 16th. 

That's all for this blog, the next blog will be up on Tuesday when Leeds face League Two opposition Chesterfield in the Capital One Cup first round. You can keep up to date with this blog on twitter @LUFCWorld and follow my personal account @AJWoodward29