Varney Army

What could be better than ending the year with this memory?

Luke Varney; Deadly from 2 yards. Unfortunately this was 1.

Waltzing Masinga

Past Meetings: Forest

Not the best video quality, but a reminder of a significant visit to The City Ground in Leeds' past.

Leeds Legends No.10

Leeds/Blackpool XI

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Could anything bring more festive cheer than this picture?!

Paul Shepherd

Cos you have shepherds in the nativity innit. With Teatowels on their heads. TROLOLOLOLOLOLOL

I'm so sorry.

All I want for Christmas...

...is PUUUUUUGH!

Dickens' finest...

Following on from yesterday's post...

The little Lord Jesus...

Asleep on the Hay!

The Stars in the bright sky...

...look down where HEALY! HEALY! HEALY

"Deck the Hall...

... with boughs of holly!"

Let the Christmas posts begin!

Crap Loanees as Pro Wrestlers #17

Giant Hay-Stack

Stack was pretty awful at Leeds.

Don't get me wrong; I'm well aware that the whole team was, but he did little of merit that I can recall.

He played 12 games, conceding 21, and was dropped for Tony Warner. Surely that's telling enough.

Stack now plays for Barnet.

Players defined: Sharp

Major Leeds Soccer: O'Dea

Out of touch?

So, it's not exactly news that people try to make a quick buck by selling things they don't know much about on ebay... but really?!

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If a 'Radabe' shirt doesn't take your fancy, how about one printed with the name of a Leeds legend like Palmer, or Kewell. 

Do me a favour.

2 legends

Club Football

Mark Viduka celebrates that memorable winning goal.

Against Barcelona.

In our relegation season.

Leeds Legends No.9

Salem

Keep calm and...

Leeds/Blackburn XI

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While researching this (well, having a quick google after I'd thought of the XI to check for glaring omissions!) I came across another goalkeeper that had played for Leeds (City) and Blackburn, in the early 1900s: also called Robinson!

The goalie I'd selected is, of course, Paul Robinson, but I just found it to be a strange coincidence. Here's some info on Alf Robinson.

A couple of other players also occurred to me, so Nathan Blake, and Jason Brown can both go on the subs bench.

Movember: Bridges

Movember: Giles

Joke

Some of you may know that I quite like the website Sporcle. Great for trivia and full of quizzes, including LUFC ones.

The other day I was looking for a sports quiz to do, when I noticed this:

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Surely a joke quiz, I thought! Some people do make quizzes on a wind up- a mate of a Bradford fan, perhaps, purposely putting up a quiz where there are no answers, just to irritate his friend.

I couldn't help but click on it:

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As you can see, this is actually far funnier than a quiz with zero answers.

(If you want to have a go at this epic quiz, you can find it here)

Nice Pitch

Movember: David Wilson

OK, so Mos were pretty common back when Wilson was playing, but when I was searching for pics for this feature, I came across his story.

I won't try to re-write it here, as it has been ably done on mightyleeds.

Remarkable, and tragic.

RIP David 'Soldier' Wilson.

Speed Tribute at ER today.

As you may have gathered, this isn't a blog of many words. Sensible words even less so, but I thought it would be amiss not to type something about Gary Speed, with tributes planned at ER today.

To put it simply, Gary Speed was my first ever favourite player. He had it all; he could pass, dribble, head, score... but perhaps more importantly to an 8 year old watching football for the first time, he was just cool!

Unfortunately, I wasn't really a Leeds fan when he was at his absolute best; my first season ticket coincided with the time when people, with hindsight, started saying 'He did need a move'. Even then, he was still massively popular, and I was gutted when he left for Everton.

Skip forward to that day in 2011 when I heard what had happened, and I was shocked. I was also shocked at the affect it had on me. 

I would never have expected to feel as gutted as I did. Don't get me wrong- I can see that it's sad when anyone dies, but the way I actually had to stop what I was doing really took me by surprise.

I couldn't go to the Nottingham forest game, but there was no way I was missing the Millwall one. Not ashamed to say I cried inside Elland Road that day.

Don't really know how to finish this up, so I'll leave it with a video. Not the tribute one from the big screen, but a simple youtube tribute of Speed's goals.

Get one yourself son.

 

Players Defined: Dennis Wise

Movember: Rush

Corinthians: Deane

Tonight's Ireland MOTM

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Movember: Martyn

UK Trend: Bradley Johnson

So, when I saw that Bradley Johnson was trending yesterday, I thought I'd better check it out.

The results were as follows:

#lol

Norman Hunter

Norman's reaction, after realising he's playing for England this weekend, and not Leeds.

Michael Tonge: England's super sub.

As it's an international break...

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The kind of article that inevitably bites on the arse anyone brave enough to write it.

England's real Euro 2008 campaign wasn't exactly glorious... maybe we would have qualified if Michael Tonge had been available as an impact sub.

Movember: Carl Harris

Dirty Leeds vs Arsenal

New Jobs for Ken: Black Eyed Peas member.

Movember: Burns

Lest we Forget

Leeds/Charlton XI

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Realised after making this that John Pearson could have been a centre forward that was a bit more of a regular, but, tbh, couldn't be bothered doing the image again.

Badge Kissers: Smith

Movember: Harvey

13 Years ago...

Lookalikes: Jason Crowe

Crap Loanees as pro wrestlers #16

'Matt' Heath Slater: 

Matt Heath; arrived on loan from Coventry (where he couldn't get a game) and went straight into our starting line-up. 

He played nine times as a loanee, before signing a permanent deal.

Tbh, I wasn't going to every home game at this stage, and can't really remember how good or bad he was. But with him in the side, we were relegated.

Fast forward to league 1, and I'll certainly defend Matt, where a lot of fans gave him stick. 

His partnership with Rui Marques gave us the basis of that remarkable start to the season, including overturning those 15 points. 

Sock Tags

Jason Pearce: Wingback extraordinaire!

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Confirmation from... ahem... Football Manager 2009 (the newest version I own) that Jason Pearce is, in fact, 'awkward' as a wingback. 

Fine at right back, apparently.