Leeds Utd v Huddersfield Town preview Nov 14th

Preview Track

What a week it's been! After our fantastic performance on Tuesday............I know we lost but that's a minor detail..........the world and his wife now believe Leeds are the best footballing team outside the Emirates Stadium, even the rotund Derby manager seemed to be making a case for Leeds to progress to the next round in his post match interview.  Further evidence surfaced the following day as I arrived for work at the Curry factory in that red county over the Pennines........"Your lot were unlucky last night....you played em off the park didn't you" a pie loving Wigan fan enquired.  Better still a Manure fan then offered his heartfelt condolences with "Your lad's were robbed weren't they"  I had to pinch myself........was I dreaming? No it seems overnight we've gone from Dirty Leeds to some sort of re-incarntion of the Dutch total football side of the 70's in the eyes of the football world.  Brilliant.

So I tackled the  dross and issues of day to day life with an extra spring in my step as the week has gone on.  Everything seems to be going too well though?  Yesterday I picked up some more project work in London..........kerching! Then I got a call from Adam Pope at Radio Leeds  "Andrew, It's Adam from Radio Leeds.....can you come and do a spot with Andy Ritchie and me on the build up to the Huddersfield game on Sat?"  hesitating for a nanosecond I confirmed I would be delighted and arranged to meet them in their "studio" at the back of the Peacock pub on Saturday morning.  Now I have rung their phone in an odd time and I had sent a request to meet them and do a bit of an interview for the blog but I was surprised when I got such a positive response.  So blog readers tune into Radio Leeds 92.4fm or online on http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/local_radio/ between 11 and 12 on Saturday am to hear Selby's version of Alan Hanson giving his views on the West Yorkshire derby.

So to the match............last year we eventually crucified them 4:0 after a wobbly opening and helped by a jittery performance in goal by the young Smithies (who happens to be LUFCFrance's sister's best friend's son).  In theory the form book suggests that Huddersfield are in for another hammering as their last outing saw them snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by losing three goals in the last 11 minutes to lose to Port vale in the cup. Derbies are one offs though and with a crowd of around 35,000, the largest in the Football League so far (more than the Steel City derby), packed into Elland Road the atmosphere will be white hot and the first 20 minutes will be crucial in setting the tone for the match.  Sooner or later though a team will feel the full blast of our attacking craft and we will get a hatful.........that could happen tomorrow if we get an early goal.  Due to the early kick off, grrrrrrrrr, we will be top of the league if we win for a couple of hours at least. So as ever with local derbies the anticipation and banter during the build up to the match adds a bit of extra spice to the game hopefully Leeds are inspired after Tuesday and carry on where they left off...........................one thing for sure boring it won't be.

Must go now I've got to practice a few cliches!

MOT