Not So Super Leeds I took Mrs YS to watch LUFC last night, oh dear, we're not very good anymore, actually, we're not the same team at all. We spent the first half hour playing "Who's he then ?", Mrs YS got most excited when she saw Gary Kelly, just because it was someone she actually recognized. "He's had a haircut," she said, why is it women notice these things in the middle of a game ? Perhaps because there was little else of interest to distract her. Kelly and one of the numerous new boys, Frazer Richardson, linked up well in the first half on the right, delivering the ball forwards regularly, the defence looked alright, the midfield of Sean Gregan, Jermaine Wright and Danny Pugh were a bit workaday and uninspired, but managed fairly well. New boy striker Brett Ormerod went off after 18 minutes with a head wound but was to re-appear later on. We are not scoring any goals from strikers, only one in nine matches, part of the problem is Brian Deane. Deano first played at Leeds United when my father was a small boy, just after WW2, then he was quite nippy for a big man, scored quite a few goals and made the lives of the opposition defence fairly unpleasant. Now he's just, well, fucking useless to be honest. He's lazy, despite being seven foot five he lost every challenge for a header that came near him, as soon as the ball gets more than a couple of feet away he gives up, and even when he gets the ball, well sadly, he plays like I do, give him three seconds on the ball and he'll pass it to the opposition. He was on the pitch for 79 minutes before he completed a pass, then he was promptly substituted. I propose a permanent substitution for Deano, if a large lump of wood was installed a few feet out from the penalty area it would serve about the same job, it wouldn't run around, it would be quite large, and it would have the added advantage that the Leeds players could volley balls at it really hard and hope that a lucky deflection would send it past the keeper. Anyway, Sunderland scored a good goal, we had what seemed a good goal (lucky bounce off Deano's head, see, see I'm right, get the lump of wood in there) disallowed, and then we had a penalty given, new boy Brett Ormerod took it, and he took it like my four year old nephew would, with much childlike enthusiasm but no real hope that it would ever get past the keeper, and it didn't. To cap the night, I got a "go on the mackems" text from bitter brother in law mk.2. His beloved Sheffield Wednesday are currently half way down League One, that's the Third Division for those still working in Imperial. He suffers from the footballing version of penis envy, LUFC have been a big club, even if the aren't at the moment, whereas as SWFC have just about found their true level, half way down the Third Division. Looking at the LUFC site this morning, I'm amused to see that the Leeds fans voted Michael Ricketts as their man of the match, he was on the pitch for 11 minutes after replacing the hapless Brian Deane. Strangely, 3% of those who voted for the man of the match, voted for Michael Duberry, who didn't actually play. If the management at LUFC are wondering why 10,000+ seats are unoccupied at home games, I'll tell them, two seats last night for 90mins of mostly average, and sometimes dreadful football, cost me £62. That's right, sixty two quid, thirty per seat and then a one pound booking charge. I hate booking fees, my industry has an equivalent in charging you £15 for a main course and then charging extra for potatoes and vegetables, in both cases it's a rip off. LUFC are selling their own tickets, how on earth can they justify a booking fee?