Around 2pm we paid a visit to the on-site pitch and putt course, showing off our "skills" to the locals. My embarrassing score of +14 was testament to both the awful state of the course, as well as my lack of golfing ability but was still enough to win our very own "Cornish Open" by three shots. I felt proud, but Tiger Woods I am not, both in and out of the world of golf. I'm not very Tiger Woods like in and out of women either. Sadly.
Our journey to Tavistock began slightly after 4.30, with the Sat-Nav doing a fine job of leading us there. Music was blaring from the iPod and we were in fine spirits as we enjoyed the greatest drive of our life; we seriously do not get roads like that up North.
Tavistock is a small town in Devon, approximately an hour and a half from our caravan in Newquay. The football club is at Langsford Park, a cute little ground surrounded by trees and grass-land. By the time we park up, queue for a beer and a burger and enter the ground, it isn't quite so cute, instead being full with around 2,500 Leeds fans. After the long drive, James was really looking forward to his Diet Coke which I was happily obliged to buy him. Sadly for him, I dropped it and it fizzed all over the floor. If you were at the game and saw someone on the floor desperately trying to save a can of Coke, that was me. Hello, I'm here all week. Actually I'm not, but that line worked well there.
We met up with some friends, one of which has just had her eighteenth birthday and so I finally get rid of the pink birthday card that I've been carrying around for far too long. She likes it. I hope. As we settled behind one of the goals, we learn of the confirmed signings of both Andy Gray and Jamie Ashdown, as well as the agreed deals for Rodolph Austin and Luke Varney. Gray and Ashdown do little to excite me, despite the importance of a solid back-up goalkeeper. However, Austin does; we have cried out for a dogged, hard midfielder for years.
The first half was quite frankly poor, with Leeds struggling to break down a very determined Tavistock back four. The centre half partnership of "Number 4" and "Number 5", a fantastic Vin Diesel lookalike, was performing well and even when breached, Leeds spurned chances, the best falling to either Jason Pearce who headed over, or Ross McCormack who was denied by a good save. Eventually, Leeds got the break-through, with Aidy White applying the finish after a turn of pace signalled the end of the Tavistock's right back's chase. Another goal soon followed, new signing Paul Green getting off the mark in Leeds colours by arriving un-marked at the back post. The half time score of 2-0 was testament to some hard work by the home side, but also to some pretty poor Leeds play in the final third.
In the second half, Vin Diesel was replaced and goals followed fairly "fast and furiously". An unfortunate yet highly amusing own goal made it 3-0, Robbie Rogers scored his second in two games to make it four and Zak Thompson strolled through the now non-existent Tavistock defence to slot home a fifth. The movie hasn't yet been made but Vin Diesel could only look on from the substitutes bench as Dom Poleon stole the show and made it "fast and furious six" for Leeds after a fine finish completing an excellent run. The performance wasn't impressive, but it wasn't bad either.
Jason Pearce again was excellent, producing a determined display in the face of some large Tavistock attackers, further fuelling my belief that he could yet be the centre half we have craved for so long. Despite the large amount of space he was given, it was also nice to see Paul Green play the simple game; his ability to bring the ball down, look around and play a pass looks like it could be crucial to this season's successes.
Ultimately, it was another win and a clean-sheet. There's no need to read it back, we genuinely did win and keep a clean-sheet. And score six goals. If only it wasn't against Tavistock.
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