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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.

  The club are pushing tickets hard for the final home League One game of the season, stating that over 31000 have already been sold. The opposition is lowly Gillingham, currently residing in a relegation place however the attendance will be boosted by many Leeds fans who remember the fateful 4th round FA cup tie of 25 January 2003 and will, therefore, be pleased to witness the Gills take a final plunge into the bottom tier.

On that day then Premiership Leeds United were denied a win by a late Gills goal following the dismissal of Viduka after Gillingham player-manager, Hessentaler blatantly feigned injury - a deception caught on TV cameras. Under pressure Leeds United manager Terry Venables went on record saying he faked it. It was another nail in the coffin of El Tel’s short, ill-starred career at Elland Road.

So get down to Elland Road, see some cold revenge being exacted and take part in what will undoubtedly be the biggest Football League crowd of the season - in any division! Leeds United fans can be proud of the fact that they hold the current biggest crowd figure of 32501 (v Huddersfield Town) and hold another five positions in the top ten list of Football League attendances this season. A statistic made more remarkable when you consider that few of the opposition teams in League One naturally generate large crowds themselves, with the honorable exception of that other exiled giant of football, Nottingham Forest; thus the attendances achievement is largely one down to the enthusiastic support of Leeds United fans themselves.

Against Gillingham on 3 May, the upper tier of the East Stand will be open for the first time at a Leeds United match in two years and so a near 40,000 crowd is possible. In all likelihood the reason for the opening of the upper tier is not the Gills game but the near-certainty that the club will have one (and hopefully two) sell-out home legs of the play-off matches on the road to the Wembley Play-Off final in May. Those two games alone could be worth £1,600,000 even without the contribution from the Wembley final. The would be a huge deposit in McAllister’s war-chest for next season - in whatever division in which we end up.

If we do achieve promotion this season it would be nice to set a League One attendance record against Gillingham by which the rest of the division can remember us.

Goals from Huntington and Beckford gave McAllister’s men a deserved away victory against Leyton Orient this afternoon.

Tranmere Rovers lost and that allowed Leeds United to claim the final 2007/08 play-off position in League One. The question is can McAllister’s men hold onto that position and see off the likes of Brighton and Oldham Athletic?