[themaclad]

A welcome Merry Christmas to you all even to those from the wrong side of the Pennines, the first of four consectutive games against Yorkshire opposition as North End travel to the most expensive ground in the Championship to take on Leeds United at Elland Road. Given that Sky are managing to screw up the fixtures the game takes place on Sunday as United's game against Wolves takes place tonight.(Thursday)
In a way a slight advantage to North End as they will have two days extra rest although with the fitness programmes that they have these days that does not seem to be a major problem.
As usual with United over the last couple of season since the crazy Italian's take over things are as manic off the field at Leeds, with supporter unrest, managers coming and going at the rate of knots however on the pitch results are possibly starting to improve although understandibly the home form is very patchy.
The fat man is now in charge of football matter and as usual we can expect the usual Evans performance on the touch line and with his teams no nonsense approach. We have never beaten a Steve Evans side, having lost when he was at Crawley and have mainly drawn with him at Rotherham although we did lose once in a play off semi final.
Squad wise last time out Sivestri, Wootton, Bellusci, Coopr, Taylor, Bridcut, Dallas, Cook, Adeyemi, Mowatt and Wood with the likes of Murphy, Byram and Antenucci on the bench. Suspect similar line up although that depends on tonights game. A few Italians in there so could be a bit of a spicy Roses clash.
Second visit to Elland Road we played tennis that night and won the first set 6-4 with the Beast(Parkin scoring 3)
Be highly surprised if that is the score on Sunday.
Possibly changes for us for the side that got a lucky point against Birmingham. Finally joining Stevie May on the out for the rest of the season is Chris Humphrey, needs a second operation on his stress fracture.

[themaclad]

Apparently Leeds fans planning protest on Sunday they are going to throw their free pies onto the pitch

[St Charles Owl]

Apparently Leeds fans planning protest on Sunday they are going to throw their free pies onto the pitch

That will save Fat Boy Evans having to worry about lunch before the game!!!!

[themaclad]

Thought he was going to explode tonight looked even fatter with a coat on

[St Charles Owl]

Thought he was going to explode tonight looked even fatter with a coat on

Nah, its just an optical illusion, he really is that fat without his coat on!!!

[themaclad]

North End lost narrowly 1-0 at Elland Road in a game which had just a touch on controversy, a 30th minute sending off for North End's keeper left them with a mountain to climb especially as the reserve keeper was 17 year old youth keeper Matthew Hudson who replaced the ill Chris Kirkland.
North End started brightly with Silvestri making two excellent saves and two good blocks in the first 10 minutes as North End penned the home side back, Gallagher and Garner forced the saves.
After the initial flurry Leeds started to get the better of the exchanges using the wind blowing down the pitch to launch long balls behind the North End backline for Chris Wood to latch onto. He was denied by Pickford once and from the resulting corner Huntington made an excellent defensive header at the back post to clear the danger.
There then followed a passage of play were in quick succession four fifty fifty tackle were made in less than a minute the ball came away brused but it raised the atmosphere within the ground. Then came the sending off which was highly debateable, along ball from Wootton got Wood in on goal however Pickford came out of the area to clear the ball. The official on our side of the ground gave hand ball, Ref Ward was going to give a yellow however Mr Linesman claimed he was last man, he wasn't and out came the red.
Off went Welsh and on came Matthew Hudson a 17 year old youth team player. At this moment we were resigned to the hammering that was about to come our way. Leeds piled on the pressure hammering balls into the box to test the youngster he caught one cross but his defence and Leeds inability to hit the target meant we got to half time level.
Grayson's half time plan was in tatters within 30 seconds of the restart when Alan Browne got his headed clearance horribly wrong, if fired past the young keeper into his own net.
Leeds pushed and probed and used the wings to spread the play but failed to test the rookie keeper, and with the introduction of ex Leeds midfielder Kilkenny North End began to get into the game against a now jittery Leeds side. He twice forced Silvestri to make good saves, the keeper also cut out a header from Vermijl which was heading towards Keane and he made another good save to deny Keane's header. Try as they might North End just could not get the goal to give them a point which would probably have been deserved.
In the second half Hudson did not need to make a save and Silvestri was given the man of the match. North End are appealing the red card and ironically Pickford was sent off playing for Bradford last season by todays referee, he won that appeal as well.

Leeds United 1 Preston North End 0 Att 22641

Leeds head coach Steve Evans told BBC Radio Leeds:

"It was going to have to be a gritty performance.

"We got back from Wolves at 03:30 GMT after Thursday's game so it was always going to be tough.

"I think Marco Silvestri is just getting better and better and he made some big saves for us."

(On scoring eight goals at home this season): "We're making chances now but if you offered me a 1-0 home win every week then I would take it."

Preston boss Simon Grayson told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"The referee makes a decision that he deemed was the right one.

"My goalkeeper's said it hit him in the chest area. The assistant referee says the defenders weren't round on the cover, but I felt they were going to get round to it.

"It's a huge decision at an important part of the game. It's gone against us and ultimately cost us the game."

[Imre varadi]

Horrible scum !! thats all i have to say on the matter !!

[themaclad]

Sending off overturned on Appeal although the fat controller and his assistant were absolutely certain Pickford handled but as both of them are bellends it goes without saying they are utterly clueless