Wolves & Attendance& Warnock

ffs lancs, get it right

BYRAM

HW, Youv'e started something now revenge will be sweet

yeah, get him lancs

There will be between 37 and 40 thousand on Sat!

Be great to give the new team a taste of what Leeds Fans are all about
I reckon Austin will be gobsmacked by the support

Thats twice now Warnock has mentioned problems with throw ins.

Can anyone who went to the match recall what the issues were?

12.45pm Live On Sky- New team- Think crowd will be decent- Warnock wants the Fans on side for our first big test of the new season.

Get behind the Neil and his new team- MOT

im pretty sure this bunch will outperform the last batch,nw knows his stuff,knows his players and gets them to get the results he wants,as he starts to work with them more (a tight close nit group) it should reap the rewards,he has used the budget alot more wisely than grayson did and i cant wait for saturday to come round

So the season has technically started with a comfortable 4-0 win against League 1 Shrewsbury. More notably it saw the debut for a majority of our new signings and a perhaps surprise inclusion for the saliva happy odd ball El Hadji Diouf.

Diouf, labelled a sewer r at last year by our very own Neil Warnock, is fairly well travelled in British football, taking in the sights of Liverpool, Bolton & Glasgow amongst others en route to Elland Road and his inclusion in the match day squad came as a surprise to many, receiving a somewhat mixed reaction to say the least. My personal opinion is much like that of Neil Warnock…yes we may have thought he was a, and I'll try to avoid offensive words by using a Del Boy classic here, 24 carat plonnker before he joined Leeds, but he is now our 24 carat plonker so as we have done so well with the gaffer let's get behind the lad and give him our full support. I feel he deserves at least that until he does something which tarnishes the name of the club, which may not happen. Every single Leeds fan loves the fact we are called "Dirrty Leeds" by everyone who foolishly doesn't support our great club and Diouf could be the missing piece of that particular puzzle…we, as fans, are amongst the most hated in the country, our manager Neil Warnock is amongst the most hated in the country, our current chairman is without doubt the most hated in the country and now one of our players is amongst the most hated in the country. Surely that's a four pronged attack guaranteed to get under the skin of the majority along the way to our promotion party come May and isn't that exactly how we like to do things? I mean who doesn't smile to themselves every time they hear the chant "we all hate Leeds sccum" on the TV whether it be Huddersfield vs. Burnley, Sheffield Wednesday vs. Oldham or Sccum vs. Newcastle they all still love to prove that we're not famous anymore by singing about us for large chunks of the game!

Anyway back to football and looking back on the debuts aside from Diouf on Saturday and the signs are encouraging. From the back Paddy Kenny looked assured throughout and showed unbelievable tekkers when he delicately lifted the ball over an oncoming attacker to one of his defenders and soaked up the applause from the crowd. In front of him was Jason Pearce, a man amongst the pre season favourites to make the captains armband his own. Jason looked solid enough and it was refreshing to see one of our defenders willing to put their head where most wouldn't put their feet. He made an error or two but he was playing alongside his defensive partner for the first time so I don't think we should read too much in to that just yet. Moving on to Lee Peltier, originally brought in as a right back he moved in to the middle to cover for the injured Tom Lees and produced a display which would make you think it was his natural position. The lad also has some pace which will come in very handy as the season progresses. One of the reasons we didn't see Paddy Kisnorbo start the game is because Warnock has complete faith in young Sam Byram slotting in at right back with Peltier moving to the middle. Byram has shone in pre-season and was easily one of the contenders for man of the match on Saturday, he was quick, linked up well with those around him and produced a moment of Gazza-esque brilliance when he flicked the ball over a Shrewsbury players head not once but twice before being brought down for a free kick…again more unbelievable tekkers from a debutant. In the middle we had new cult hero Rudy Austin and David Norris who wore the captains armband, both put in extremely credible shifts and looked like they had played together for a lot longer than the 5 days previous. Austin is built like a tank, gets about the pitch extremely well, can pick out a pass and isn't afraid to put his foot in when needed. He sat in front of the back 4 for most of the game and mopped up most things which came his way thus allowing Norris the freedom to get forward. Norris got a debut goal and looked a threat throughout, he worked tirelessly and like Austin wasn't afraid to go in for a tackle. Next, either side of the central duo were the final two debutants in Luke Varney and Paul Green, the latter having a quieter, although still solid, game. Though in his defence he was being played out of position so I will save my judgement until I see him in the middle. Varney does look like he's got a little something extra about him and with his ability in the air I believe we will be a threat from crosses from open play as he gets in at the back post very well and I think won every header he went up for. Varney also got his name on the score sheet on his debut even if it was a simple tap in it will still have done his confidence the world of good.

Now I know all of the above positives were "only against Shrewsbury" (no disrespect to Shrewsbury there) but I firmly believe that this is a solid base to build from and if we can remain relatively injury free whilst adding a bit of flair to the squad then the coming season will be one hell of a ride for the Leeds United faithful.

On a separate note David "Chuck" Norris said after the game that he was "blown away" by the support the lads got on Saturday with 18,000 turning up for the season opener. It's nice to hear that the support is appreciated but I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that Chuck hasn't seen anything yet…bring on Wolves this Saturday and let's show him what Elland Road is all about!