Not long back from my trip to the big city and what a trip ! I missed the scum game last season with being in Australia so was desperate to watch the lads in action today, but like most Leeds fans we did not expect a repeat. How wrong we (nearly)were. I knew it was going to be a special day when I arrived at Manchester Piccadilly and saw around 10 other Leeds fans waiting for the train.I met my mates in the Angel pub outside the Angel tube stop and it was packed full of Leeds fans (the only red shirt was a lad drinking coffee and he soon left)/ The pub was so full we were even served by Tim Martin himself (founder and owner of Wetherspoons) The Emirates is an impressive stadium and although no beer was on sale ( a restriction only applied to us and Spurs) we could have bought 'oodles of noodles' or hand crafted pies ! Leeds fans were crammed in behind the goal - the biggest away following at the stadium according to some Gooners we spoke to after the game and certainly the noisiest ! My mates and me had all agreed that a 3-0 defeat would be Ok as long as we stayed level long enough to enjoy ourselves ! Instead we put on a perfomance and result that will live long in the memory. Not much to say about the game -you will have all seen it on TV but they were all heroes today with an extra specail mention to Bruce, who was absolutley outstanding - if he and we can defend like this in the league we soon won't need to score 2 to ensure a draw ! We rode our luck in the first half with Arshavin missing a one on one and a corner being headed over. Second half we really were on the back foot till Max skipped into the box and went past the defender and then went over his trailing leg - 100% penalty even if he did play for it - up stepped Snoddy and in it went - we all went mental and the noise went up a few decibels. Still 35 long minutes to go - could we hang on ? Well, even better we almost got the crucial second with Becchio being denied by a top rate save and a geat bit of defending , a Snoddy free kick also went very close. At the other end, we defended like lions and Arsenal had to send on the really big guns. We came so very very close to hanging on but then the ref pointed to the spot for the second time against us and this time there was no flag to save us - and so the dream of a win at Arsenal and lightenting striking twice was lost but the lads had done us proud and deserved the acclaim they got at the end OK so we might well get hammered in the replay - a la Spurs- but today was a day to savour Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
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