With Sky Sports adjusting the kick off to a shameful 16.30 on a Sunday afternoon, I spent most of Sunday morning scratching around trying to entertain myself. Such attempts led to me photographing my poor dog wearing an old Leeds shirt, which at least gave him a bit of fame on Twitter and Instagram. Eventually it was time to leave and after meeting Kez (@WhittakerKieran) and Matty (@mattyh47) we consumed a swift McDonalds before getting on the coach. First thing to go wrong; no room on the coach to sit together. Kez drew the short straw and ended up sitting in the front seat next to the woman in charge of the coach. We stopped at Leicester Forest services; an unpopular decision with the back of the coach who wanted to get to the ground and hit the pub. I couldn't blame them after a frankly awful journey; I've seen Luke Varney waddle faster than our coach, who's driver didn't seem to have a clue where he was going.
We arrived an hour and a half before kick off and set about finding an away friendly pub. Thankfully The Counting House is in easy walking distance - it is a good job we left Elland Road about two hours too early though as it took about that length of time to be served. Two pints of San Miguel joined the large Big Mac meal in what was shaping up to be yet another healthy Leeds United away day for my stomach.
It seemed that a failure to get a seat was going to be a recurring theme as for the first time at an away game I've been to, somebody was sat in our seat. I wasn't particularly bothered but the old timer's line of "there's spare seats everywhere go find out" made me think something along the lines of "if there's spare seats everywhere why don't you fuck off out of my seat and find your own". Feeling hard done by, the three of us picked up the Twitter famous Francesca (@francescalufc) and set off on a hunt for four seats. The view we eventually had was a belter; considerably better than the view we would have had without aforementioned dickhead.
Those that follow me on Twitter will have seen this morning that my last seven Leeds away days have yielded no points and no goals. Its hardly promotion winning material. But for fifteen minutes, Leeds looked likely to break that goal-less run. We got the ball down and tried to play a little but chances, for both sides, were few and far between. Varney headed a half chance miles over early on but apart from that, Leeds had to wait until the dying stages for another attempt on goal. I say goal, but Ross McCormack's half volley was closer to exiting the stadium. It was another dire opening from the Scot who does, no matter what the majority think, get a very easy ride from the Leeds faithful. The usually solid Paul Green was also having a bit of a shocker but the same could not be said for new club captain Rudy Austin who was the best player on the pitch all game. Leicester grew more into the game as the first half wore on, but Tom Lees and Jason Pearce held firm at the heart of the Leeds defence. Not a single shot on target was recorded throughout a scrappy forty five minutes, but as a Leeds fan, you almost had to be pleased. We were still in it.I don't even remember half time but I do remember making an appalling mistake in not going to the toilet as by full time I needed to go like I'd never needed to go in my life. Leicester went close first with Wes Morgan heading over from one of Liam Moore's dangerous long throws, but again, "close" was the subjective word. The difference in squad depth was exemplified with the substitutions; Leicester had it in their locker to throw on Lloyd Dyer, Anthony Knockaert and Chris Wood - undoubtedly all three would walk into our first team. McDermott had far less in his arsenal, but similarly to last week's game at Brighton, did throw on Dom Poleon and Matt Smith for the unimpressive Hunt and the hard-working Varney. In Poleon Leeds have a player with a lot of potential, but he will always remain a Championship impact player unless he learns when and went not to pass the ball. The latter is rarely a problem - he never passes the ball, but instantly his greed cost Leeds when he was easily dispossessed whilst in an excellent position to deliver a cross. This lack of creativity in the final third, a problem we've had since the days of Snodgrass and Gradel, continued to thwart a frustrated Leeds with another excellent opportunity squandered by McCormack who's crossed sailed out over the back post. Down the other end Leicester came close twice from distance, with Vardy sending Kenny sprawling low to his right before Chris Wood rattled the inside of the post. It was looking more and more like a Leicester win in a game that would have almost certainly ended 1-0 to the home side during the Neil Warnock era at Leeds. As it was, it finished all square, with Kasper Schmeichel pulling off a fine save in the last minute from Matt Smith, to prevent the away side stealing the points for themselves.
There's not many teams that would complain with going to the King Power stadium and taking a point and to give our team some praise, we did defend outstandingly. But Leicester were not great and I don't think there's many teams that wouldn't have had a chance of snatching the three points off them today. They were almost there for the taking. So were we though I guess and its undoubted that Nigel Pearson will be the unhappier of the two managers. His opposite number can do no wrong and the roar that greeted McDermott at the end rounded off a not so fantastic performance from the team, but yet another brilliant one from the travelling supporters. It is now eight games without an away goal with me in attendance, but hey, at least we didn't lose. Win the Yorkshire derby next week and we'll see what happens at Ipswich.
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