We Are Leeds

So, the day trip down to Leeds to watch my two Uniteds play (henceforth referred to as 'Leeds' and 'United'). Back late, hence the back blip. The journey down was going well until we hit a traffic jam on the motorway that delayed us for an hour which meant we had to press on without stopping for lunch and then once we got to the ground there wasn't time for the leisurely wander round before the game I had imagined.
We did manage to walk round the ground, past the site of the old players car park in front of the main stand where I had my photograph taken with Billy Bremner as a ten-year or eleven-year-old when we came through to Leeds one day to watch the players train.  I'm pretty sure the old First Division championship trophy was on display at the club shop so that would make it during the 1974-75 season, following the winning of the league in 1973-74. The more I think about it the less likely it was the summer of 1974, as Brian Clough would have been there then and I'm sure he wasn't around when we were there. Which probably meant it was Easter 1975. But the players did train on the pitches up the little slope opposite the main stand, like they do in the film The Damned United. The pitches are now scruffy car parks, the front of the main stand obscured by an ugly brick extension that houses a restaurant.
As we walked round we looked down the tunnel in the corner between main stand and the old Kop end that also features in TDU. (Anachronistically as no fancy effects were used to disguise the massive new East Stand  that wasn't built when the action portrayed in the film took place). The whole place had the ramshackle air of a place just getting by and none of the satisfying unity of the better modern stadia. Elland Road is a bit like Tannadice in that, albeit on a much larger scale - almost three times as big. Three quarters of the way round we got to the Billy Bremner statue and I took this blip, as well as getting L to take my picture, before we headed back to the south west corner of the ground and the away turnstiles. All was good natured and the United fans were in party mood - some clearly been enjoying the party from early morning. Our seats were close to the top of the section, more or less in line with the six yard box at one end of the pitch.
The game kicked off with the United fans in full voice. Hard to tell if it was the low roof amplifying the noise that made it seem like they were making more noise than the home support on the opposite side and at the far end. Obviously we were in the usual spot for away fans but it seemed a shame to push us into a corner when the more central sections of the stand were empty, along with the whole of the south stand behind the goal. Anyway, the noise didn't let up even when Leeds scored a disappointingly easy goal in the first few minutes. From then on it seemed that Leeds had the edge quite comfortably - showing the gulf between what is probably going to be a mid-table Championship team and a top-six (hopefully!) SPL team. As you'd expect given the resources of the clubs. Although Leeds did give an air of a club still struggling. No ball boys or girls to fetch the ball when it went out of play. In fact no extra balls waiting around the edge of the pitch to speed up the re-start of play.
It was still 1-0 at half-time, with Leeds having the better chances. As the second half was about to start, the familiar Leeds anthem came over the tannoys and I wasn't the only one in the United end singing along to "Marching On Together".
There was a big cheer at the start of the second half when ex-United player Noel Hunt came on for his current club Leeds . In usual friendly-game fashion there was a lot of substitutions and the game mostly lacked real passion. One to two slightly dodgy tackles but nothing much. United had a great chance to equalise after a mistaken back pass left a United player one-on-one with the Leeds goalie but the shot was saved. And then a clumsy/illegal challenge from the Leeds centre-forward took out the United centre-half leaving a Leeds striker to round the United keeper and score with a few minutes left. So another 0-2 defeat, same as my last United game. Noel Hunt further endeared himself to the United faithful by acknowledging their chanting of his name and then posing for photographs with a few United fans as he left the pitch.
Presumably there is no great hurry in getting away fans out of the ground after matches - there was a notice up that said there might be a deliberate delay for safety reasons to allow home fans to disperse. So I guess the bottlenecks on the way out are deliberate rather than simply bad organisation.
Despite the score it was a good day, and the long road trip, apart from the motorway traffic jam was fun, listening to selection of music that ran out just as we turned into our street back in Edinburgh.