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Full-time: Yeovil Town 0 v 1 Leeds United

Despite the second-half dismissal of left-back Alan Sheehan, Leeds United created history at Huish Park tonight in front of a record crowd.

Although the Football League colluded with the police and Yeovil Town to try and prevent Leeds United bringing its usual contingent of thousands of supporters, more than 9500 fans packed the ground to see the League One fixture and beat the previous record set in 2004 for an FA Cup tie against Liverpool.

The ten man victory was well deserved with Leeds missing a hat full of chances and Yeovil limited to a couple of good attempts on the night. The three points means that Brighton cannot catch Leeds and United are, therefore, in the League One play-offs. Leeds are the only team to escape relegation in a season where they have been deducted ten points - a fact that was not lost on the Football League or the fellow League clubs when they voted to impose a 15 point penalty on Leeds at the start of the season. Humble pie anyone?

Gary McAllister’s masterstroke, the signing of Dougie Freedman, paid an early dividend at Huish Park this evening when the Scottish striker gave Leeds an early goal. It took just four minutes for Leeds to go ahead of Yeovil.

The win guarantees Leeds United a play-off place, irrespective of the outcome of the arbitration hearing. It also means Swansea City cannot be certain of being League One Champions by winning tomorrow - in the unlikely event of Leeds getting all 15 points back Swansea would need to win all their final games to be Champions. Swansea have spent much of the week bleating about how unfair the 15 point arbitration hearing is and with their stuttering home form one begins to wonder whether their squad have bottled it and will have to rely on Leeds not getting the 15 points back to be crowned champions? No wonder the Football League chose not to present them with the League One trophy tomorrow - possibly the first thing Mawhinney has got right all season.

Now the Leeds players can deservedly look forward to a congratulatory final home game of the season against Gillingham in front of a sell-out 39,000 crowd at Elland Road. Gillingham have never played in front of a league crowd of over 35000 in their history - so they should enjoy their day with the Leeds fans in full hue and cry celebrating the achievements of their players on the pitch. I wonder if Mawhinney will be there to congratulate Leeds United on their remarkable season? 

David ‘Jesus’ Prutton has been speaking to the official Leeds United website this week about tonight’s match at Yeovil. Yes, seriously, the police moved the match to Friday night so that Leeds fans won’t travel - (see here the secret recording of the police planning meeting at which it was decided) - the 500 miles. No bias there then, Mawhinney?

Anyway, David Prutton focused on events on the pitch when he told the official website,

“The season has gone so quickly and to be in a position where we can get promoted is great.” 

“Mathematically, if you think about it, avoiding being in trouble is a result, but I don’t think with the quality of squad we have that was ever a question.

“It’d be fantastic if we could make sure of a top-six finish at Yeovil. It’s going to be a tough place, and the way we set out tactically and mentally is important.”

Mentally Prutton is going to be totally focused on revenge over Yeovil for his play-off, semi-final defeat at the hands of Yeovil last May. Prutton came on as substitute for Forest, who had entered the match with a 2-0 first leg lead, but his only contribution was to get two yellow cards and see his teamates struggle with ten men to an extra-time defeat at home!

David has already enjoyed a measure of revenge, playing in the Leeds team that beat Yeovil 1-0 in front of 27808 fans at Elland Road in October this season. But he know that guaranteeing Leeds United a play-off place by beating Yeovil Town, at Huish Park, is the best kind of revenge for his humiliation last year. He will be reminding himself and the triumphalist Yeovil fans that despite his red-card they remained in League One and that he, and Leeds United, have an excellent chance of getting out of League One this season.

  Not for Leeds United the lucrative Far Eastern pre-season tour! No, this summer we will once again be entertained by York City at Bootham… sorry, the KitKat Crescent. Some website appear to think this fixture was started last year but I recall watched Peter Reid’s Leeds United side struggle against York before the fateful 2003-04 season.

York took the lead through a guy called Fox and a late goal by sub Eirik Bakke equalised. The Leeds side featured the main players but it was a sign of things to come. It turned out to be Nigel Matryn’s last game for the club, he was given away for a song to Everton the following week. A decision that haunted us when he returned to Elland Road and turned in a bravura performance and earned Everton and undeserved 2-2 draw. Danny Mills played that night before disappearing to the Riverside in a huff (and winning a trophy while we were relegated). I recall he kicked a ball into the crowd during the warm-up which was gratefully kept by someone - later he was made to come over the the Leeds end to ask for it back by the coaching staff!

The game itself was frustating, we lost Mark Viduka early on when Reid gratefully subbed him after the referee choose not to send the petulant Australian off for clearly throwing the ball at a York defender after he had been fouled. Remembering his end of season double red-cards this game really was a foretaste of things to come for the fans. Alan Smith played but was frankly ineffectual. I remember little else except it was an impressive turnout from the Leeds fans and the York City fans really got behind their team during the game when they were, unexpectedly, the better side for much of the game and in the lead for a long time.
 

Both teams have fallen from grace since that game. We have both suffered double relegations and we perhaps epitomise the current poor state of Yorkshire football.

Still, I’m sure we’ll all be looking forward to seeing some football when the game comes around on Friday July 11, 7.30pm, even though it is just seven weeks after the play-off final!

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