[themaclad]

Three weeks after winning at Elland Road in the League cup we go back again to take them on in the league, there is a slight gap between the sides in the league 22 clubs to be precise. On a positive they will more than likely be with Roofe, Bamford and Hernandez whilst we will be without confidence.
Tough ask this to repeat the win of three weeks ago but hope springs eternal for the travelling few who will pay Leeds exorbitant prices given it's being shown on Sky and I player for cheaper prices.

What do Wiki say about Leeds

Leeds United F.C.
Chairman Andrea Radrizzani
Head coach Marcelo Bielsa
League Championship
2017–18 Championship, 13th of 24

Leeds United Football Club is a professional association football club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1919 following the disbanding of Leeds City F.C. by the Football League and took over their Elland Road stadium. They play in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.[3]

Leeds United have won three English league titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two Charity Shield/Community Shield and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups. The club reached the 1975 European Cup Final losing to Bayern Munich. Leeds also reached the semi-finals of the tournament's successor, the Champions League in 2001.[3] The club were runners-up in the European Cup Winners Cup final in 1973. The majority of the honours were won under the management of Don Revie in the 1960s and 1970s.

Leeds play in all-white kits. The club's badge features the White Rose of York together with the monogram "LUFC".[4] The club's anthem is "Marching On Together". Leeds share rivalries with Manchester United, Chelsea and Millwall.

They also have their own Channel on Sky and can be regularly seen on 401 and 403 as they are a big club although not having been in the top league for years.
Fair play to them though they are still unbeaten in the league however they have lost one game to us.



Neil will no doubt make changes however he is starting to get into Westleyesque proportions in respects of team changes, we have not scored a league goal away from home this season need to start doing so and quickly with games against the Blunts, Albion and Villa coming up could be stuck on five points before the next International break

The man in't middle

fter refereeing the Lilywhites five times in 2017/18, Geoff Eltringham takes charge of his first PNE game of the new season at Elland Road on Tuesday night.

Having officiated our early season game at Derby County, Geoff also took charge of the Boxing Day trip to Barnsley, our January win at Nottingham Forest, March’s victory over Bristol City at Deepdale and finally our goalless draw with Norwich City in mid-April.

He also refereed one North End game in 2016/17, the home clash with our Barnsley, having also done one the previous season, the 1-0 home win over Reading.

The year prior to that he took charge of three PNE games, including the 2-0 home win over Peterborough United in March. The previous season he also took charge of North End twice, both of those at Deepdale - the 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers back in November 2013 and then the goalless draw with Sheffield United in March.

The County Durham official is an experienced referee who had taken charge of North End a number of other times in the past including the very first game after the departure of Graham Westley, when John Dreyer took the team against an in-form Bournemouth side and ran out 2-0 winners.

He also looked after a thriller back in 2010, when North End overcame Crystal Palace 4-3 at Deepdale.

Geoff also refereed Leeds three times last season, all at Elland Road, whilst this year he has so far officiated seven games, issuing 24 yellow cards, but no red cards.

For the game, the referee will be assisted by Billy Smallwood and Philip Dermott, whilst Steve Martin will act as the fourth official.

It's good we have a strong referee for his one however they gave us Geoff

Mac's memories

Both victories I've seen at Helland Road were on a Toosday night(Yorkshire pronunciation) three weeks ago and when we won the first set 6-4. A standout night if ever there was, even at 4-1 down that night thought we would win and trying not to laugh going out of the ground after the game was difficult.

Manager Alex Neil is still without suspended midfield pair Ben Pearson and Ryan Ledson for the second trip to Elland Road in a matter of weeks.

Ledson misses the last of his three-match suspension for the red card he received on the club’s last visit to face Marcelo Bielsa’s side, whilst Pearson is serving the second of his three game ban.

In their absence Paul Gallagher and Daniel Johnson started the weekend’s clash with Reading, with Alan Browne also missing from the side due to the calf strain that he picked up whilst on international duty with Ireland and the No.8 is unlikely to be risked to face the Whites.

Calum Woods is still absent from training after picking up a hamstring strain in the first round Carabao Cup win over Morecambe a month ago, whilst Sean Maguire is back running, but is still a couple of weeks away from joining in training.

Once the Irishman joins back in with training that will only leave Billy Bodin (knee) on the sidelines and give the manager plenty more options heading into the winter months.

Like the Lilywhites, Leeds boss Bielsa has injury problems of his own. Patrick Bamford picked up a knee injury and is out for four months; Gaetano Berardi’s knee injury is likely to see him missing for approximately three more weeks; Jamie Shackleton (ankle injury) will return to training at the end of this week; Kemar Roofe has a calf injury and will miss the game and Pablo Hernandez has a hamstring injury and is also sidelined.

[themaclad]

Leeds United line-up: Peacock-Farrell, Ayling, Douglas, Cooper ©, Alioski, Roberts (Dallas, 85), Saiz (Baker, 90), Jansson, Harrison, Phillips, Klich (Forshaw, 85). Subs not used: Blackman, Pearce, Edmondson, J Clarke.

PNE line-up: Rudd, Fisher, Earl, Browne (Gallagher, 79), T Clarke ©, Davies, Barkhuizen, Johnson, Moult (Nmecha, 79), Harrop (Barker, 71), Robinson. Subs not used: Maxwell, Hughes, Burke, Huntington.

Attendance: 27,729 (288 PNE fans)

Referee: Mr G Eltringham

Another away game, another defeat and no goals, not many positives last night although we managed to avoid the usual red card at Elland Road.
As per norm we didn't play an unchanged side think it was two last night. Started brightly with Robinson had an effort well saved by Peacock- Farrell but after 10 minutes Leeds upped their game and from then on in it was a struggle. Saiz in midfield ran the game and they always seemed to have players in acres of space. Personal view think that they wanted to make a statement after we beat them in the cup.
Pinned back for long periods we seemed to have weathered the storm especially after Klich had missed a chance after having a clear run on goal but as is the way Leeds took the lead with a soft goal.
Cross from the right Cooper's header bounced just in front of Rudd, he palmed the ball backwards towards the goal wrong footing Johnson on the line, he tried desperately to get to it but the ball dribbled over the line.
We then were all over the place and again Klich missed a more than easy chance. Managed to get to half time one down a bonus
Harrop shot wide from distance but normal service was resumed Leeds pressed forward a second goal looked like it would come at any time, a header from close range went narrowly wide and Harrison who gave Earl a torrid night hit the post when he should have scored.
Again just seemed to be getting into the game when a lofted ball over the defence left Robertrs in on goal, Rudd slightly slipped Roberts lobbed him, game over.
Heads dropped on and off the pitch and a third wasn't long in coming, nice play down the right cross into the box, Roberts heads home.
On this game think Leeds may be going one division higher, looked non too shabby. As for us confidence seems to be low the 16th century wasteland of Bramall Lane next and on the how many changes will Alex make on Saturday reckon it could be as many as seven.




North End boss Alex Neil was left frustrated by his side's attacking play at Elland Road, after a positive start to the game ultimately ended in defeat for the Lilywhites.

The hosts’ first goal came after a fairly even opening 37 minutes at Elland Road with North End starting the brighter with Callum Robinson notably going close early on.

However, the manager thought Liam Cooper’s goal eight minutes from half-time was a real blow for North End, with Cooper managing to squeeze the ball into the net from a corner.

In his post-match interview with iFollow PNE, Alex said: We were a bit unfortunate with one or two opportunities we did have early on but we gave the ball away sloppily a couple of times in the 20 minute mark and from that point of view it encouraged Leeds a bit and the game became stretched.

“The disappointing thing is, for the first goal I thought Callum was fouled on the edge of the box but to then concede from a set play is really frustrating. We know how important the first goal is, certainly for us at the moment, and to get done with one goal in the box is extremely frustrating because at that point we’ve got to go for it even more because the game is running away from us at that point.

“We came here and adopted a high risk strategy and pressed like we did in the Cup where we won, purely because when opportunities came along we made good use of the ball and scored vital goals, but tonight we didn’t do that.
"I thought we started the game really well and for the first 18 minutes of the match I thought we were the better side. We nicked the ball in good areas which allowed us to go and counter.”

North End began the second half just as they started the first half but the manager again pointed to a lack of creativity in the build up which he felt gave Leeds the upper hand.

“Second half we started the game really well,” the Scotsman continued.

“We had a couple of opportunities to break but the use of our ball in terms of build up play was poor at times, and what ends up happening is when they nick it in front of you it puts pressure on us and the second goal killed the game.”

On the second goal which saw Tyler Roberts score, Alex said, “It’s a straight ball into the channel, we get done with it and the boy scores the goal.

“We broke five or six times from them but we just didn’t really do enough of it and if you don’t carry that threat to hurt them, that allows them to try and punish you going the other way.

“It’s disappointing but the reality is, is that we need to snap out of it, and snap out of it fast."
“If that does go in, it gives us a real lift for the remainder of the game. Up until the 74th minute there wasn’t much in it but once the second goal goes in, it takes the wind out of our sails and it’s then a case of making sure we keep ourselves in tact for Saturday.”
https://youtu.be/B9UDC_SqltQ