It is a year to the day that I saw one of the finest Leeds games of all time. 20th November 2004 Leeds beat QPR 6-1 on a cold November’s day at Elland Road. Yesterday I travelled to Southampton and at half time, freezing cold, 3-0 down I thought it would be a reverse of fortunes from the previous year.
Leeds were woeful in the first half and were booed off at half time. The fans were furious, calling for manager Kevin Blackwell’s head and hoping chairman Ken Bates was getting the P45’s out.
The start of the second half the Leeds fans were superb. We stood in the stands and sang our hearts out while the Southampton fans sat in silence. “3-0 and you still can’t sing” was the taught towards the home supporters.
The Leeds players slightly improved but Southampton still looked dangerous. “Fuck it!” I thought, “If were going to lose, we’ll have a good time and lose”. I think this was the opinion of most fans who never gave up. Then David Healy came on as a substitute and it all changed.
Leeds won a corner and the skipper Paul Butler scored to make it 3-1. The fans went ecstatic even though they were still heavily trailing. It wasn’t long until Robbie Blake scored another for Leeds to bring the score to 3-2.
The fans sensed a comeback and drowned Saint Mary’s Stadium with famous Leeds songs and chants. The fans were right to sense a reply, Leeds were awarded a penalty which Healy took and converted. The Leeds fans went nuts, the Southampton supporters left the stadium.
Leeds were hungry for more. There may have only been 6 minutes remaining but a win looked inevitable. Leeds pushed and pushed a terribly demoralised Southampton side and were rewarded when on loan midfielder Liam Miller slammed home a winner.
The game ended, Leeds fans were overjoyed, in shock and jubilant. What few remaining Southampton fans had stayed fled the stands to chants of “3-0 and you fucked it up, 3-0 and you fucked it up!”
A fabulous game (if you forget about the first half!) and beats QPR 6-1 game easily. I was so pleased I was there, in the crowd, one of the 3,000 fans who arguably won the game for Leeds.
Chants of the day:
“3-0 and you still can’t sing”
“3-0 and you fucked it up”
“Easy! Easy! Easy!” – Normally hate that Soccer AM chant but Saints fans were singing it at half time. Had to sing it back
“We’re gonna win 4-3, we’re gonna win 4-3” – When we were 3-1 down
“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” – To the silent Southampton fans
“Let’s go fuckin’ mental!” – when we won
Took my digital camera to the game and was able to film Healy’s penalty. You can’t really see the goal but take a look at the fans reaction to the equaliser.
Also I made a mix of commentary for the game – enjoy!
One final note, please DO NOT directly link to these files on a forum or website. It’ll unfairly use my bandwidth and I will have no choice but to take them down and not upload this type of file again! If you do want to tell people about the clips on the internet send them direct to this page – http://www.sparkster.net – thanks!
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