Leeds v Villa -a modern day rivalry
Sometimes football brings up rivalries that are difficult to explain. Last Monday came the strange Crystal Palace/ Brighton “derby” that I still don’t quite understand. There can be no gegographical or historical reason for a pair of teams to dislike each other but it happens! We’ve had it ourselves with Millwall in recent years and apparently with Oldham back in the 80’s. But when Patrick Bamford was asked about tonight’s game against Aston Villa he mentioned a sort of rivalry brewing between the two teams and with that coming from a player normally so conservative such as Pat it is telling.
I am one Leeds fan that can certainly vouch for that as I have took a particular dislike to the appropiately nicknamed Villans.
When Villa dropped into the Championship in 2016 I sensed somewhat of a sense of mutual respect between Leeds and Villa fans as easily the two biggest clubs in a league otherwise littered with tin pot teams whose biggest day of the season was when they faced our historic clubs.
The six league encounters we faced whilst our paths crossed in the second tier were the first meetings between the clubs for over 12 years and were very keenly contested. Kemar Roofe’s first Leeds goal in a 2-0 Elland Road win and Pontus Jansson putting us ahead later that same month at Villa park were memorable moments but couldn’t possibly compare to our astonishing comeback from 2-0 down at half time to win 3-2 in the last minute in 2018. Of those six games Leeds won two compared to Villa’s one victory and we drew the other three.
But the obvious ignition of this mini rivalry has to be that day in April 2019 where everyone knows what happened. I now claim myself to be very lucky to be in the crowd for what seemed to be the most talked about monent in football that week. However at the time it was a hostile affair and I, like any of the other 36,000 or so people in the ground had no idea about what was going on amid around 6 minutes of absolute chaos. Automatic promotion was realistically gone and Villa were already certain of a play-off place, but in my opinion there seemed little reason for Leeds not to continue playing and it seemed that Jonathan Kodja got injured in the process of almost fouling Liam Cooper in the first place. Villa’s reaction was one of massive over reaction and typical of their seemingly constant moaning. They demanded we let them score as opposed to Bielsa offering the goal and it was done with such a lack of class on their part. Picture John Terry clearing using the C word towards Bielsa. In addition, on this weekend two years ago Leeds were 19 points above Villa with 10 games to go. Guess what team got promoted? that still hurts.
You also have to laugh at the hypocrosy of them. Screaming as though Leeds have commited crime of the century for playing to the whistle wheras the only reason they remain a Premier League club by virtue of the goal line technology malfunctioning in the first game back after the post lockdown restart last June. Dean Smith admitted after the game that his team “got away with one”. If wrongfully scored goals should be levelled out by allowing the opposition to walk one in, why didn’t they follow that moral themselves??
Sure Manchester United and Chelsea (another similar non-geographical rivalry born from the brutal 1970 FA Cup finals) should provoke more emotions than any other but that day instilled a strong sense of nausea towards the club from the second city in me. Bamford’s hat-trick in the rout at Villa Park which Bielsa claimed as our best petformance of the season was sweet and I want more of it tonight. I can’t stand the arrogant Tyrone Mings who seems to do nothing but shout and point at players, John Terrry has a very punchable face and I still dislike Dean Smith and Ollie Watkins from that ill fated draw with Brentford at Elland Road in 2018.
The two big fishes in the Championship are now the two overachivers in the Premier League and it should be yet another good installment in the this unlikely rivalry. The question is whether any more fuel will be put on the fire as with both these two clubs still able to chase a return to Europe.
By Lawrence O’Sullivan