22. Elland Road-Leeds United

Leeds United 2-1 Crystal Palace
Football League Championship
4.12.10



Admission: Adults: £19-£35 Children: £11-£16
Programme: £3
Attendance: 25,476
Capacity: 39,460
Seated: 39,460
Covered: 39,460
Town: Leeds
Club Shop: Yes
Floodlights: Yes
Step: 2


Leeds United's glory days have certainly been and gone. The side saw a drop from the Premier League to League One in a matter of seasons.
With all non league games called off I was grateful that we had planned to go and see Palace away. It had been nearly 4 years since my last visit to Elland Road when Leeds beat Palace 2-1 in the Football League Championship. Leeds is the biggest city in West Yorkshire with a rich sporting history. It is of course home to United, Yorkshire CCC, Leeds Rhinos and Leeds Carnegie along with many amateur sides. The City is the second biggest district in England after Birmingham. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds was big in wool industry. In 1880 Louis le Prince recorded the first moving images with a Leeds back garden as his subject.
Leeds has existed since the 5th century when it was several settlements in the kingdom of
Elmet. Charles Dickens described the town as 'the beastliest place, one of the noisiest I know.'
Leeds United were founded in 1919. Their predecessors were Leeds City. The club has won 18 titles in its history including 3 First Division titles, 1 FA Cup and 2 UEFA Cups. Between 1920 and 1960 the clunb rose through the Football League. 1961-1975 were referred to as the glory years for the club. In 1964 the club were promoted to the First Division. They won two League Championships, the FA Cup, the League Cup and two Inter City Fairs Cups. In 1974 Brian Clough was made manager and 44 days later he was sacked and replaced by Jimmy Armfield.
In 2001 Leeds made it to the UEFA Champions League Semi final where they were knocked out by Valencia. In 2006 Leeds were in the Championship. They reached the Play offs final where they lost 3-0 to Watford. In 2007 the club were relegated to League One for the first time in their history. However in 2010 the club were promoted back to the Football League Championship. The club are now pushing for promotion back to the Premier League.
Elland Road is a 39,460 capacity ground. It is all two tiered especially in the Main Stand which partly overhangs the lower tier. The North Stand holds 7,000 seats. The East stand has 17,000. The South Stand has 5,000 while the West Stand has 10,000. The away supporters are located in the Southeast corner with 1,710 seats. The away seats are yellow, while the rest are blue. There are spacious concourses beneath the stands. We arrived late as usual and had to run to the North Stand to buy our tickets, then back to the Souith Stand where the turnstiles are automatic. We ran through the concourse and up a flight of steps. It was then that we noticed we were the only ones in the stand. We looked up to see the rest of the Palace fans in the upper tier. We had seven stewards watching 5 people overall. However this meant we had a bit more space.
Neil Danns gave Palace the lead just before half time. With 9 minutes to go Becchio equalised and scored a winner just 2 minutes later.
Leeds is certainly one of the charesmatic grounds in the Football League but only if you can afford it.
8/10