It has been a Year
Our last game was the dominant derby day win over Huddersfield at EL.
https://youtu.be/7j0NsBBRsDI
That goal. That celebration, the euphoria at the end, the players saluting the fans at the end.
A packed Elland Road rose as one. " Going up, Going up WE AE GOING UP!
Then...................nothing, until finally it cranked up again after a long dull summer and despite a shaky Leeds went through the gears and we romped home. On TV. It may has well have happened on another planet.
Back to the so called promised land. Premier League
Since then it has been... what? I dont know.. Sterile at best. One leveller is that we all see the same thing at the same time, we all have the same collective memory of the games we all see it through the same lens all hear the same inane comments from the pundits, all read the same tweets, listen to the same podcasts, hear the some opinions.. all because the matchday experience isn't there. Even when I come on here and found a stream it was kind of match day experience. We all knew Leon was in his seat ( well standing in front of it ) and would be back on here later in one mood or another. It was kind of unique.
Now I am not a season ticket holder, living where I do I make three games a season my goal, last season I had great seats for the huge midweek game against Fulham. A febrile Elland Road under the floodlights in a top of the table clash, it doesn't get much better than that. Since the fixtures were released March 18 2020 was fixed well in my mind. That for me was going to be the BIG GAME. Huddersfield was a nice entree but Fulham would be the main dish. My last fix of the season I expected.
As it happened the Covid restrictions came, flights and car hire cancelled tickets left unused. But on the Monday of that week my best mate Patsy suffered a huge brain haemorrhage and died. Gutted. The early lockdown began. Later the next week at a surreal funeral service in a little graveyard in the foothills of the Sperrins with everyone stood six feet apart I spoke about my friend, about our our loss. He was Liverpool. I had been with him when Steve Gerrard broke West Hams hearts in 2006. With him when they made THAT COMEBACK against Milan, we sat in a bar together in Kusadasi when they won the battle of Britain the year before. Collective memories. Surely our day would come. Spring was in the air but we were going into hibernation. Just one loss in a time when we have all lost someone. The Leeds family felt that pain too. Cherry, Hunter, Charlton. Add in other names too. When it came we didn't get to share our moment of triumph last season.
But back to the football. Even though we see it all on TV having fans there makes so much difference. It isn't just the noise. You see things, in the crowd that wind you up or make you laugh, you see reactions from the players. It adds so much. Can you imagine Raphinha with that screamer at West Brom running to the Leeds fans behind the goal? Or what could have been once Rod equalised against City? The roof coming off the place, there was light blue blood in the water that night. Everyone takes something away from the game. You react to others reacting. Particles collide, there is fusion ( or is it fission my physics is ropey) in any case there is a release of energy.
That is what we miss.. The energy.
Luke Ayling would not have ran a mile after his goal, would not have released his hair clip and struck his guitar hero pose.
That is why we need it the fans back.
A whole year without the energy. Football played in a laboratory What have you missed the most?
I feel better for getting that out, thanks for reading.