29th September 2005 - 23:21 BST
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Had a gift left on my doorstep yesterday from Leeds United and what a gift it was! It must have been worth anything up to £2! They have really exceeded themselves!
I was sent the gift as I became a “Leeds United Club Member” back in the summer for £30. Club members are able to purchase tickets for away games which is why I signed and paid up, hoping to go to Reading, Southampton and Plymouth this year (hopefully amongst others). The gift from Leeds was a bonus and probably the only way they could possibly justify the £30 membership fee.
Needless to say the gift wasn’t great, a box of crap probably made in China, Taiwan or somewhere similar in a factory where the workers get paid a dollar a day…. “allegedly” (for legal reasons!).
The pack included -
A drinks bottle – more like a hip flask. Leeds fans may find this useful for sneaking alcohol into the ground.
A cap – cheap and nasty, will be appreciated by the chav fans.
A card holder – supposed to hold your credit and debit cards. I think mine is faulty as there is no slot in it!
Mobile phone holder – My Nokia 6230 falls over when placed inside. Holds the Sky+ remote well though.
Sticker – similar to one you would get from the dentist as a kid. Stick it on your lunch box.
Tri-Wrist Band – 3 rubber wrist bands consisting of Leeds colours looped together. Not great but not awful.
Key Ring & Badge – decent enough, probably the only thing of value.
All were in a chocolate box style container, surprised that the club didn’t try promoting this as one of the gifts, certainly better than the crap cap. Basically all a load of tack. I’ll enjoy the away games though!
Most importantly though Super Leeds won yesterday, Rob Hulse first half hat trick against Derby. 6th in the league with a game in hand. C’mon!
25th September 2005 - 20:51 BST
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Been a while since the last update so a fair bit to cover today…
Not a great weekend for Leeds United who lost 2-0 at home to Ipswich, their first home defeat of the season. Leeds dominated the game although their strikers were unable to reach the back of the net. In a similar fashion to what happened at the Brighton game Leeds were caught on the break and conceded two sloppy goals. This issue seriously needs to be addressed and fast, while I am not calling for manager Kevin Blackwell’s head I would not object if he was replaced with a proven manager, not another Peter Reid or Terry Venables. Problem is that there doesn’t seem to be anybody suitable and available at the moment, one thing’s for sure, chairman Ken Bates will not stand for defeats for much longer.
The only thing that made Saturday’s football anything but terrible was the fact that Blackburn Rovers beat Manchester United 2-1. Hahaha – always funny to see them lose. Unfortunately Arsenal failed to beat West Ham so this greatly increases Chelsea’s lead at the top of the Premiership, it appears this year it really is a “One Horse Race” and the only thing to speculate is what month Chelsea will win it.
May as well award it to Chelsea now
Still on the topic of football my pre-order of Fifa 2006 arrived a week early. Been playing it a lot today, getting used to the new feel and controls. Very different to Fifa 2005, it appears the “Off the ball control” (where you could move a second player to pass the ball to) is gone. In my opinion this is a good thing, in Fifa 2005 it was all too easy just to use this system to hoof the ball from one end of the field to the other and score, totally unrealistic. In Fifa 2006 you really have to work and produce skilful play to win matches.
Finally I watched the first episode of the new series of Lost the other day, a very impressive start to the second series.
Without giving too much away a new location and character were introduced to the series, both should give much more scope for storylines for the future. In typical Lost fashion, by the end of the episode I was left with even more questions than I had before I watched it.
20th September 2005 - 23:09 BST
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Another win for Leeds United this evening and best of all against a Yorkshire club! As I was moaning about last week Leeds haven’t had the greatest record with Yorkshire clubs of late, hopefully the 2-0 win over Rotherham is a sign of things to change.
The win sees Leeds move into the third round of The Carling Cup, the draw which will decide the team Leeds will play is to be made at Saturday lunchtime. Tonight’s cup games threw up a number of surprises, mainly Tottenham Hotspur losing to the League Two outfit Grimsby Town.
The game was aired on Sky who showed the usual shots of the crowd, what’s the bet the football fan in the middle of this picture is a Spurs fan who has snuck into the Grimsby fan stand? I also thought the man in the bottom left looks the spitting image of Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock and is the lady centre bottom Marjorie Doors from Little Britain? :o)
18th September 2005 - 22:43 BST
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I went out to Nandos and then the cinema to see 40 Year Old Virgin last night. It was a good evening, chicken from Nandos was as tasty as always and the film was enjoyable.
40 Year Old Virgin stars Steve Carell who was in the hilarious Anchorman amongst other films. He plays an eccentric, middle aged man who has never slept with a woman.
When his colleagues find out his secret they set out to find him a woman, with predictable results… basically they find some women, he finds a woman he prefers, they fall in love, something goes wrong, they get back together and live happily ever after. Sorry if I’ve spoiled this for anybody but if you weren’t able to see that coming there’s something wrong with you! :o)
There was one strange aspect about the film that my friend pointed out to me. The issue of possible subliminal messages, the film could have been written by the Roman Catholic Church! The film puts across that sex before marriage is totally wrong and lands you in a lot of trouble if you attempt it. Also if you use contraceptives there is something wrong with you and that’ll they’ll explode on your testicles. Just light hearted fun but probably the film probably gets thumbs up from The Vatican.
Was also very pleased yesterday to see Leeds United beat QPR at Loftus Road. A scrappy 1-0 win but it is what I have come to expect in this division. At least it’s not like the Premiership, a boring 1 horse race. David Healy got himself sent off for a stupid scrap so will miss 3 games, he could do with a rest but will be missed. Hopefully Leeds will fine him for his stupidity.
14th September 2005 - 23:05 BST
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Silly boy Rooney! Another typical performance by the thug today. He fouls a Villarreal player, gets booked, abuses the referee and rightly so gets sent off. Many congrats to the referee for having the guts for taking the appropriate action and ordering the dirty scouse chav off the pitch.
This isn’t the first time Rooney has behaved like this and it certainly will not be the last. Both Alex Ferguson and Sven Goran Eriksson need to punish Rooney when he misbehaves. A financial punishment is not good enough either. Rooney has enough money to buy all the tracksuits in Liverpool. The only punishment Rooney will respond to is if he is dropped from both Man United and England games. For the sake of his career this must be done.
The behaviour of Rooney and other dirty footballers has wound me up even more this week following the fabulous cricket result. Throughout the summer the English cricketers have conducted themselves in a highly honourable fashion and have come away victorious. When I see footballer misbehaving themselves and not giving a shit it really annoys me.
Some honourable sportsmen
I don’t care about Man United but Rooney could behave like this in an important England game and when he puts the national team in jeopardy it is totally unacceptable.
13th September 2005 - 22:19 BST
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Rubbish! Leeds have lost to Sheffield Wednesday 1-0. It’s sad because of the great start Leeds had to the season. The kind of results against Wednesday and Brighton on Saturday after predictable though. Leeds simply don’t play well against weaker teams but perform great against better teams like Wolves and Norwich.
Leeds United - Champions of Europe
but not so impressive in Yorkshire
What is the post depressing factor about this game is that it is yet another Yorkshire club Leeds have failed to beat. It has been years since Leeds beat a Yorkshire rival, even scored against! Before today the poor results included….
May 2005 - Rotherham - Drew 0-0
April 2005 – Sheffield United – Lost 4-0
November 2004 – Rotherham – Lost 1-0
August 2004 – Sheffield United – Lost 2-0
March 2003 – Sheffield United – Lost 1-0 (FA Cup)
November 2002 – Sheffield United – Lost 1-2 (League Cup) The Leeds goal was an o.g.!
Not to mention numerous losses to teams like Hull City in pre-season friendlies!
OK, Leeds did beat Huddersfield 1-0 in a dire Carling Cup game in August 2004, which I attended but that is all in recent years. They go to Rotherham next Tuesday in a Carling Cup game, hopefully the awful Yorkshire Derby record can be put right then.
12th September 2005 - 22:37 BST
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It’s a proud day to be English as the national cricket team wins The Ashes for the first time since 1987. Like most of Britain I have been following the series across the summer and was getting frequent updates today from both the radio and BBC Website while at work – well at least I turned up, I bet a lot of sickies were pulled today!
Even though there was always the slight concern The Aussies would pull off a miracle and win the match (and therefore the series) England seemed to boss the game throughout with the exception of late morning when that pesky Shane Warne got a handful of wickets in quick succession. Kevin Pietersen put all that right though by grabbing 158 runs!
Every Englishman should be proud of the team who have performed wonders. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and cricket continues to be interesting, who knows I may even watch England play again! The English football team should take note of this glory and start to play with the pride and dignity their game has been lacking lately.
11th September 2005 - 22:55 BST
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I’m back home in Bath now after my weekend in Leeds and am off to work tomorrow. While there, like most of the nation, I will be keeping a close eye on the cricket as England and Australia enter the final day of the final test of the Ashes Series.
England are on the verge of winning The Ashes
Which probably don't look like this!
I was listening to most of the game on the journey back, exciting stuff especially when the Aussie wickets started to fall. I was also very pleased when the game was called off for poor light shortly after England went in for 2nd innings and annoyingly lost a wicket.
Still, while England may not win this match, with only 1 day left it is looking highly inevitable that it’ll end a draw with England winning the series 2-1 overall and taking back the Ashes from those medalling Aussies!
Slightly worryingly though, in the few months I’ve watched cricket I have learnt you can never rule out the Aussies, especially Shane Warne and if he gets going it could end in tears for us English. Of course that’s not going to happen is it – C’MON ENGLAND!
10th September 2005 - 18:50 BST
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Went to see Leeds play Brighton today, a very up and down game with some great moments and some terrible ones. The game finished 3-3, Leeds equalised after being 2-0 down although conceded a 3rd sloppy goal, luckily they got a later, late equaliser to leave the fans happy(ish).
The Leeds defence was dire, which is a surprise as until now it has been relatively solid. Leeds midfielder Shaun Derry was superb and his determination along with the wonderful skills of David Healy (scoring twice) earned Leeds a point.
Other highlights for me included Sean Gregan smacking some cheeky Brighton player around the head (luckily no officials noticed!) and the very well-fed and round Brighton physio running at great speed to aid an injured player. At first I thought there must have been a pie on the pitch but then realised that if there had been there would have been a mass pitch invasion by Leeds fans :o)
7th September 2005 - 22:52 BST
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I have just watched the worst performance by the English National Team that I have ever seen! They have lost 1-0 to Northern Ireland, a team of Championship and League One players.
The England players (of so called “Premiership quality”) did not have clue what they were doing and were all over the place. There are many people to blame for this and need to be addressed NOW!
David Beckham - Useless nancy boy
Firstly David Beckham. Beckham is past it. He is not a leader of men, he is a pathetic, self-obsessed feeble man. Not only should his captaincy be revoked but he should be dropped from the English side altogether. Since he scored the penalty against Argentina in the 2002 World Cup something inside Beckham’s brain snapped and he became a shadow of his former self. Beckham should give up football and become a house husband allowing Posh Spice to revive her music career. Posh may be a bad singer but Beckham is a terrible England Captain.
Frank Lampard - Totally overpaid and useless
Frank Lampard. I used to like Lampard but this season he has been awful for both England and Chelsea. It appears over the summer that Lampard has turned into a greedy, lazy waste of space. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich keeps injecting sickening amounts of money into Lampard’s bank account. In a sad tale of greed Lampard has been ruined. Steven Gerrard is going the same way and has nothing to be pleased about following today’s performance.
Wayne Rooney - A thug who belongs in prison
Wayne Rooney. What can I say apart from the fact that his player is a despicable human being. He is a rude, arrogant and totally disrespectful young man who in my opinion does not deserve to play for England. This thugs uncontrollable temper which lead to a yellow card being issued means he will miss the next game against Austria – good and how dare Rooney swear at Beckham for warning him for his behaviour! Rooney’s behaviour makes me feel sick and I will be pleased to see his name absent from the next team sheet.
Jack Straw - please revoke this mans work permit and send him back to Sweden
Sven the manager. If any time was right for him to leave it is now. I simply cannot see how The FA can justify keeping the man in a job. The fans hate him, the media hates him and ex-England players hate him. Any remaining supporters Sven had earlier today have surely had enough. I still believe England will get into the World Cup but what is the point in going with Sven as manager? If we can’t beat Northern Ireland how the hell can we beat the likes of Brazil? I really can’t see what Sven is thinking? Has he been taking drugs? Has he had an accident suffering brain damage? Why the hell did Sven decide to play Rooney, who although a disgusting human being, is one of England’s best strikers in midfield – it’s madness, absolute madness!
David Healy - Scored the winner today, he plays for Leeds you know!!!
Many congratulations to the Northern Ireland team, they fully deserved it! Special congratulations to David Healy, the LEEDS UNITED striker who scored the winner for his side. Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell must play Healy on Saturday, I’m going to the game and will certainly join in the inevitable standing ovation he will receive. HEALY! HEALY! HEALY! I was so proud as a Leeds fan to see him run past the likes of Rio Ferdinand and stick a blinder past Paul Robinson.
At least there's one decent English team
One last point, I even thought about removing the “Three Lions” badge from the left hand column of the site in disgust. I have decided to keep it but not for the football players. It is being displayed for the cricket players who begin the fifth and final Ashes test tomorrow. Lets bring them home boys! Show those pathetic footballers how it’s done!
5th September 2005 - 21:06 BST
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While taking one of my frequent visits to the popular Leeds United forum WACCOE I was informed about a great punk cover of the classic Leeds song “Marching on Together” (also known as “Leeds, Leeds, Leeds”).
It is performed by some band called Bodyjar, never heard of them myself and not being a big punk rock fan probably won’t bother looking into their work any further.
Their cover however is very good, it can be downloaded, legally and for free from their official website (on the Multimedia page). Leeds fans should check it out, it has received mixed reactions on the forums ( Leeds fans can never agree though!), seems to be a track you either love or hate. As the Neil Buchanan from Art Attack would say “Try it yourself!”
4th September 2005 - 13:55 BST
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Well I’ve had the DVD boxset for just over a week but during which time I have managed to watch all 24 episodes of Lost – Season 1. I really enjoyed it, all the positive praise the show has been receiving is fully deserved, makes me think what I missed out on earlier when I failed to really get into it.
If you haven’t heard about Lost yet you have probably been lost somewhere yourself. The show follows a group of plane crash survivors living on a mysterious island. As strange events take place we also learn about the survivors pasts and how they managed to get onto the ill-fated plane.
Without wanting to ruin the show for anybody by the end of the season the survivors didn’t actually achieve a great deal. You would have thought that 40-odd people on a desert island for months with nothing to do would accomplish a little more than they did. Also in a similar trend to that of X-Files by the end of the season you are left with more questions to ask than answered.
Still I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anybody. Season 2 is aired from 21st September but unless you live in "The U S of A" you have a long time to wait…. unless you know where to look on the internet for it.
3rd September 2005 - 17:36 BST
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Watched the England-Wales game this afternoon, what a load of crap! OK England won (in my opinion luckily) and kept a clean sheet but the game left an awful lot to be desired. The players didn’t seem to give a toss, they were unorganised and at times I didn’t know what formation we were playing and from the look of things neither did the players!
Wales played well but without giving them any disrespect they are not the strongest team in the world. If we played like this against a tough team we would be hammered.
Just because you win it doesn't mean you played well
Sven doesn’t have a clue, his golden boy Michael Owen couldn’t play so what does Sven do? The sensible manager would bring in the next best striker, in England’s case Jermaine Defoe. Instead of this rational approach Sven changes the whole formation to one the players are inexperienced in.
They’ll need to sort themselves out by Wednesday when we play Northern Ireland who will be full of confidence after beating Azerbaijan 2-0 today.
August blog entries have been moved to the archive
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