Currently:
Easter weekend approaches fast with Leeds United unbeaten in
four games going into the first of six cup finals. Last Friday's hard fought
win against Preston showed a fighting spirit and team bond not seen at Elland
Road for a while and certainly not often enough under Dennis Wise, so let's not
knock it and start believing! It has certainly got the masses believing again
and suddenly the great escape looks a realistic target. The worry is the defence with Matt Heath and Fraser Richardson never
destined to pick up defensive accolades but the welcome return of Mickey Gray
offered a bit of experience and commitment at a much needed time. Go on Wisey, get him signed up full time! Aside from that the
team can go into the game with a bit of confidence and with a settled look.
Gary Kelly may be available but probably won't feature as Wise looks to keep a
winning side. For me I would bring in Kelly for Fraser and Rui
for the awful Heath, but then again, if the team are
settled?
Argyle, on the other hand, go into the game on the back of a
poor run with boss Ian Holloway calling the 4-0 drubbing at Burnley
on Tuesday the "worst of my career!" and this followed a 3-0 defeat
at Ipswich. A 1-0 win at home to Palace was preceded by a two home defeat's - a
4-2 reverse against Barnsley and the FA Cup defeat
against Watford. With one win in five Leeds will hope that Holloway's claims his players
"are already on their holiday's" indeed
rings true!
Plymouth have hit
poor form at just the right time for Leeds and
look like they couldn't score in a Union
Street brothel! Hope not!
Last
game:
It was back in November that Dennis Wise enjoyed his first
away win as Leeds boss at Home Park with goals
from Blake and Lewis sealing a 2-1 win watched by 17,088 on a freezing cold
day. This was Leeds third consecutive win at Plymouth following the impressive 3-0 win in
2006 and the 1-0 win the season before on a balmy night in September 2004. Last
season at Elland Road
the points were shared with a 0-0 draw exactly a year ago on the 8th April -
let's hope that is the only similar detail and Leeds
score this season and collect the maximum.
Remember,
remember:
Leeds United 4 (Baird 3, Sheridan), Plymouth
0 - Saturday 28th March 1987: For Leeds the
1985-6 season had been an awful one and, until this season, probably the worst
in the last 40 or so years. Having started that season full of hope with Eddie
Gray's young team nearly promoted the year before, a poor run of results saw
Gray sacked and press reports linked Big Jack and even a return for Don Revie. But it was another old boy who came in as boss as
Billy Bremner was named Leeds Manager. Billy made his
mark by dropping many of the crowd favourites for a
number of lower league players, returning to Donny Rovers (from where he had
come) for Brian Caswell, Ronnie Robinson and David Harle
at the expense of Sellars, Irwin and Phelan. Billy
chose experience over youth shipping out a legion of young talent for aging
journeymen (thank god those days are over and we keep all our young talent
these days!)
In the summer of 1986 Billy signed Peter Haddock, Jack Ashurst, Keith Edwards, Ronnie Sinclair, Russell
Doig and returned to Doncaster again for John Buckley. This added
to the previous season acquisitions of Brendon Ormsby
and David Rennie. During the season Bremner would cash in on Ian Snodin
and bring in more players - John Pearson, Micky
Adams, Mark Aizlewood and Bobby McDonald.
For all our fears and regrets 1986-7 was a great season with
Leeds making the play-off's
and FA Cup semi-final missing out on both marginally. Two players - Baird and
Sheridan - stood head and shoulders above the rest and they featured heavily in
this great win over Argyle, a win that epitomised how
well Bremner's team could play when they wanted.
This game gave Baird his only Leeds hat-trick as United
routed Plymouth
on the day. The Plymouth based Western Morning
News hardly praises the opposition but they said of this game "forget the
time and remember the date as a bright star shone through the cold, dark West Yorkshire sky! That star is called John
Sheridan!" Well I thought it was quite nice!
Us &
them - they played for both clubs:
George Reed, who played for Leeds
in 1924, was the first player to play for both clubs followed by Harry Roberts
in 1925. Alan Peacock, who played for the great Don Revie, became the next in
the late 1960's when he left Elland
Road for Home Park.
Leeds legend Lee Chapman made his league debut as a Plymouth
player on loan from Stoke
City in 1978 before
winning both the 2nd and 1st Division's with United in the early 90's. Jim Beglin and Keith Edwards also played for Plymouth on loan as well as wearing the
famous white shirt. Leeds born Peter Swan joined United as a schoolboy and
played as a striker and centre-half before being farmed out to Hull City
who subsequently sold him to Port Vale. England
legend Peter Shilton signed Swan for Plymouth for a ridiculous £300,000 (was he
advised by Ridsdale?) and Swan remains one of the
worst signings in Argyle history. He is now one of the worst Football summarisers on the planet working for the very aggravating
team at BBC Radio Hull! Radio Dull more like!
Did you
know?:
Three players nearly played for both clubs! The unluckiest is Aussie goalkeeper Danny
Milosevic, who warmed the bench for Leeds many
times but never got to enter the field of play. He was loaned to Wolves in 1999
but got injured in training and returned to Elland Road immediately without playing
for them. He joined Argyle on loan in 2000 but got injured on his debut and
never played for Plymouth
again. His next loan was to Crewe where he
broke his hand, on his debut!
Nathan Lowndes was a United
youngster who also failed to attract the attention of David O'Leary. He played
59 games for Argyle scoring 12 goals as well as playing for Rotherham,
Watford, Port Vale and in Scotland.
When Leeds were 'defending' the League Championship in woeful fashion
in 1992-3, one of the problem areas was the right-back spot with Mel 'Zico Sterland injured for most
of the season. Howard Wilkinson did not want o spend money replacing Sterland so the likes of Batty, Strachan,
Speed and McAllister were all drafted in to cover while Zico
got better. Eventually Wilko decided a replacement
was needed and bid £750,000 for Plymouth's
Gary Poole. Argyle held out for £1million but Wilko
wouldn't budge and eventually signed Swindon's David Kerslake. Poole was
recently interviewed and remains bitter that Plymouth stopped his dream move. The
following season Wilko experimented pre-season by
playing a young, Irish striker at right-back. His name?
Gary Kelly, and for a while he was rather good!
Legend
for both:
Ian Baird was one of the few players to wear Leeds colours in the 1980's and still be fondly remembered by the
Leeds crowd. Born in Rotherham
but brought up in Southampton, Baird made the cross-over from being a 'soft
southerner' to being accepted as a converted Yorkshireman
by the Leeds faithful. That is simply because Bairdy could never be called a softie. Eddie Gray signed
Baird for £35,000 from Saints in 1985 and his aggression made him an instant favourite with the Leeds
crowd. He was the battering ram in Leeds
attack in a manner that would have seen him sent off every week these days.
When Bremner took over he made Baird his attacking
focus and Bairdy didn't disappoint.
When Leeds missed out on promotion after the play-off final
defeat against Charlton, Baird decided to head back south joining newly
promoted Portsmouth
for £285,000 and Bremner never replaced him
initially. Baird was missed and it was no surprise that Billy went back in for
him signing him back for £185,000. He made his second Leeds debut against Plymouth at Elland Road scoring
the only goal in a win for United.
He played for Leeds in the
2nd Division championship year but, by his own admission, spat his dummy out
and left when Lee Chapman was signed. Originally joining Middlesborough,
Baird also played for Hearts, Bristol City and Brighton as
well as Argyle. Maybe not a Plymouth
legend but he did play for them in their darkest days in the old 4th Division
but never have anything less than 100%, scoring 6 goals in 27 games.
Ian Baird was a Leeds United and one you would have in your
trench when you were being attacked from all sides.
Bairdy's Prediction:
Maybe the green shirts of Plymouth will inspire David Healy and his goalscoring streak will continue at the Pilgrims expense?
Someone's gonna get it big time soon so why not Plymouth in their bad
form? I'm going for a Leeds win with Healy and
Cresswell sharing 3 goals in 3-1 win! Come on Leeds!
