The Battle of the Middle-East

My daily check of Twitter this morning threw up something different. Saturday mornings on Twitter usually consist of reading how "its illegal to be up this early on a Saturday", with some even blaming their parents, their dog and the next door neighbour cutting his grass for the early wake-up call. Sometimes I'm treated to tales of how somebody "enjoyed their lie-in" and in amongst all that excitement, is a bit of football talk. Well, a lot of football talk. The minority is fans of various clubs tweeting words of wisdom about their team's upcoming game, or maybe even kindly telling us they've set off to "insert club name here" away. But the overwhelming majority, is Leeds United talk.

Now normally, its quite depressing, particularly after a result and a performance like the one on Tuesday night. But one magical word reared its head for all the right reasons; takeover. At around 12pm, I read that an interview with Ken Bates was to be played on Yorkshire Radio around 1pm. One particular hint from Kirwin ensured that Leeds fans were drooling over their lunches at the possibility of what they were about to hear; an "investment update".

It turned out that Ken's "investment update" was a bloody exciting one, revealing that takeover talks were at an "advanced stage" and that four of the key members of the investors were in attendance at the game today. All I hoped for then, was a solid performance and that unbelievable Elland Road atmosphere that we all know and love.

It wasn't going to be easy though. Like us, Forest were linked with a take-over throughout the summer, with one key difference to the situation at Elland Road. The take-over actually happened, the Al-Hasawi family of Kuwait taking over the reigns and giving new manager Sean O'Driscoll some much needed spending money. The squad O'Driscoll has in front of him is an outstanding one and I counted a number of faces on their bench that would walk into Neil Warnock's first team. In my opinion, there were also faces on that bench that should have started for the visitors.

From the outset, Leeds looked impressive, with the mid-week defeat to Hull seemingly in the past. The late but successful fitness test of Luciano Becchio was critical; the in-form striker was always going to have to play an important role if the Whites were going to take the points. And he did. After Tom Lees went close through a header, it was Becchio who put Leeds 1-0 up. More outstanding work from the outstanding Diouf resulted in mayhem in the Forest box; the ball popping up to Becchio who volleyed home with aplomb from the edge of the six yard box. Close range it may have been, but the Argentinian made it look a lot easier than it actually was. Forest had had the ball in the back of the net a few minutes earlier but the goal was correctly ruled out for a foul on Paddy Kenny; potentially the only decision referee Andy D'Urso got right in a tough afternoon for the man in the middle.

Youngster Dominic Poleon started tentatively and was having some trouble using his pace to any great effect against much bigger and more experienced defenders. However, any previous nerves were washed away on 26 minutes. After Luciano Becchio stalled on the edge of the area, the ball rolled out to Poleon who was on hand to fire Leeds into a 2-0 lead. Who needs Ross McCormack?

If you look really close, you can see breasts.

O'Driscoll sent on McGugan and Lansbury at half time and I suddenly felt a little more nervous. Both men have serious quality, especially McGugan from set-pieces, something that could have caused us problems with the referee awarding Forest a free-kick every time Jason Pearce won a header. The banter was also over; famous chubster Andy Reid one of the men to be taken off.

As expected, Forest hit back in the second half but Leeds looked comfortable until another soft goal. The softest we've conceded all season. A long throw from Halford caused chaos, Paddy Kenny came and got nowhere near it and Dexter Blackstock flicked his header into an un-guarded goal. Ten thousand people put their hands in their head. The other ten thousand put their hands to their mouths as finger nails were consumed once more.

But similarly to the Wolves game, Leeds dug down deep and clung on for an unlikely win. Some last-ditch headers combined with a lot of time-wasting ensured a return to winning ways for Warnock's Whites and an end to Nottingham Forest's unbeaten league campaign. 

Afterwards I checked Twitter; the Forest fans were bitter. That wasn't meant to rhyme. Honest. Some fantastic tweets claimed that Leeds had "cheated", "paid the referee" and "time-wasted". In fairness, the referee had a shocker, but was equally poor to both teams. It was silly to accuse Leeds of paying a referee though...how could we afford him?

Aw cutie.

I certainly couldn't. After two accumulator successes on the trot, I frantically opened the Sky Sports Score Centre to reveal that this weekend's accumulator had gone tits-up. The bad luck was back. I also had on my weekly "Will Both Teams Score?" bet, where I carefully...okay randomly, select a few games where I hope both teams will score a goal. Today, I cleverly chose three of my seven games to be York City vs Cheltenham, Barnet vs Rotherham and Bristol Rovers vs Fleetwood...the only three goal-less draws in the whole of the football league. Smart.

I left Elland Road all proud to be a Leeds fan; a feeling that isn't rarely bettered on a Saturday afternoon. With Everton at home on Tuesday and my last game next weekend away at Bristol City, I'm looking forward to this week and aiming for three points and a penalty shoot-out.