Leeds United: Just Football League Team of the Week

Eight years ago yesterday, David O’Leary released a book called ‘Leeds United: On Trial.’ The book was based, in title at least, on the trial of Leeds United players Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, who went to court accused of a vicious attack outside a nightclub that left Sarfraz Najeib in hospital.

At the time O’Leary was Leeds manager and, quite strangely, chose to publish a book on the inner workings of his own football club during one of the most sensitive and stressful periods of his stay at Elland Road. At the time Leeds United were a force in the Premier League, boasting a number of the best young players in England and a squad that looked destined to win trophies.

If the publishing of ‘Leeds United: On Trial’ marked the beginning of the end of this heady period of hope and optimism for Leeds (the perceived betrayal of trust caused by the book profoundly damaged dressing room morale before O’Leary was sacked that summer; the following season Leeds finished 15th) and the start of a demise all the way down to League One, then we might soon be looking back and saying that exactly eight years on came the day when Leeds United rose again.

It is 26 years since Manchester United last lost in the FA Cup 3rd Round, and 29 years since Leeds won at Old Trafford. But records are there to be broken, and Simon Grayson’s Leeds United smashed two of them in one go on a memorable day for the League One outfit and their 9,000 travelling supporters. Jermaine Beckford’s 19th minute goal not only handed Leeds a famous 1-0 victory over champions Manchester United, their bitter rivals from across the Pennines; it also served as a reminder to the rest of the country.

A reminder that Leeds United are a sleeping giant of English football. The West Yorkshire club have waited a long time for a day like this, through the dark tunnels of financial strife, playoff defeats and trips to places like Yeovil and Wycombe, who they play in their next league fixture. This FA Cup win, the numbers they took to Old Trafford and the noise their supporters made are all reminders of the stature of the club, on a weekend in which an all-Premier League FA Cup tie couldn’t even muster an attendance of up to 6,000.

Apart from fans of Wigan and Hull, if anyone else should be going on trial right now it is not Leeds United but their illustrious opponents. This was Manchester United’s third home defeat of the season and their seventh loss in all competitions. Admittedly even the best teams are susceptible to the odd blip here and there, but United’s recent shoddy performances now raise serious questions about the squad’s ability to fight for major honours, even allowing sympathy for a quite desperate defensive injury crisis.

But enough about the champions. This was Leeds’ day, and a demonstration of all the qualities that have seen Grayson’s battling side power their way to an eight point lead at the top of League One. “We’ve got a lot in our team – firepower, a good defence and lots of leaders,” Leeds forward Robert Snodgrass told BBC Sport before the game, and all three were on show at Old Trafford. Beckford was a handful for Wes Brown and Jonny Evans all day with Luciano Becchio also working hard for the team, while the defence stood up to the £60 million combined threat of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov and emerged with a clean sheet. On a day like this, all eleven men in white had to be leaders and were.

Whether Leeds can now gone and use this superb shock result as a springboard to greater successes remains to be seen. “We knew we could hurt them today and this signalled how well we’ve been playing all season,” Grayson said after the game, and Leeds’ transformation into what is for all intents and purposes a Championship side in quality (and a Premier League side in terms of fanbase and infrastructure) is largely down to the discipline and immense confidence the manager has instilled in his players.

Simon Grayson has been in charge for just over a year now and becomes the first manager since Allan Clarke in 1981 to mastermind a Leeds win at Old Trafford. The last Leeds player to score a winning goal on United’s own ground was Brian Flynn almost three decades on.

“In all my years of supporting Leeds (1975 to present day and a current season ticket holder) i cannot remember a goal so wildly or more celebrated, it was mayhem and exstacy (sic) all rolled into one,” reminisced one Leeds fan in the Yorkshire Evening Post prior to Sunday’s game. After Sunday’s heroics a new generation of Leeds now have their own memories of victory in the enemy’s backyard. For in this latest instalment of the War of the Roses, the red half brought a chihuahua to fight a pitbull.

England, FA Cup, Football League Team of the Week, Leeds United, Manchester United