A Season For Giving And Receiving

One minute you think you must have been a naughty boy this year as yet another Leeds United defender hobbles off with a long term injury, and then you think Christmas has come early as the opposition goalkeeper gifts you three points in a big Yorkshire Derby against promotion rivals. The last few days have certainly put us through the rollercoaster of emotions that football can bring, and at this time of year, we’d quite like things to be a little more stable and predictable, so we can settle down and enjoy the upcoming festive period. But life as a Leeds United fan is never going to be like that.

Barring a very dramatic capitulation in form, Leeds should see out the remainder of 2018 in the top six and be well placed to turn around in January and face the home straight with a clear view of what’s needed. Despite signs that the wheels might be falling of Marcelo Bielsa’s promotion wagon, Leeds have somehow kept it on course. In the face of dodgy form, horrific refereeing decisions and a frankly ridiculous injury situation, Leeds have chipped away at the division and maintained a top six spot, and they opened December with perhaps a season-defining win at Sheffield United that could really give the season the lift-off it needed.

Every week and every game appears to be presenting new challenges at the moment, with every stone at Thorp Arch upturned to ensure anyone that has ever played in defence is made available. Three clean sheets from the three games played since the 4-1 trouncing at West Brom suggests that Leeds have been solid as a rock, but while there was little to fear in the two recent home games versus Bristol City and Reading, Saturday’s feisty encounter with Sheffield United was a different prospect altogether. 

November was navigated with almost a month between home games, and we had to wait until Saturday 24^thfor the visit of Bristol City. At least it was a 3pm Kick-Off, although three days later we returned to the unaccommodating 7.45pm starts as Reading swiftly came to town in the pouring rain. Leeds had to win both games, and while never quite firing on all cylinders, they did so with relative ease. That made the 1-0 win at Bramall Lane something of an unexpected bonus, and certainly Pablo Hernandez gobbled up the generous gift he was presented with.

It solidified Leeds’s position in second place, and offered a feint opportunity of opening up a gap over the rest of the play-off places before Christmas. In a sequence of three games, Leeds now face Queen’s Park Rangers at home, Bolton away and Aston Villa away. To close out the year we then face Hull City at home and Blackburn Rovers at home.

On paper it certainly looks a quite obliging run of games, with only Villa away being one you wouldn’t automatically expect Leeds to win. But then having already won at Derby County, Norwich City and Sheffield United, there’s no reason to go to Villa Park feeling daunted. And suddenly from the depths of despair in the sorry aftermath of the chastening defeat at the Hawthorns, you have to believe that Leeds have a genuine claim on a top two spot.

Nothing is certain in football, of course, and certainly not in the Championship. Optimism is not just based on Leeds somehow managing to deal with every form of upset, though, but also in the knowledge that key players such as Luke Ayling, Gaetano Berardi and Patrick Bamford are expected to return from injury, while Chelsea loanee Izzy Brown is expected to make his first appearance in a Leeds shirt in the run-up to Christmas.

Barring any further injuries, that should put the Leeds squad back at full strength just at the right time, and while it guarantees nothing, it does make the recent passage of three consecutive wins all the more important. 

So in December we can look forward to three absolutely bumper home games at Elland Road. Two of these are Saturday 3pm Kick-Offs and the other is a Boxing Day 3pm Kick-Off. So the random fixture generator *sideways glance to camera* has been very kind in offering us Lancashire and Yorkshire Derbies versus Blackburn and Hull over Christmas, but before that we are expecting another 30,000-plus crowd for this weekend’s visit of Queen’s Park Rangers.

You can be certain that we will be well prepared at the Old Peacock. The regular influx of huge crowds is nothing new to us and this time of year is when our matchday operation truly comes into its own. The pre-match atmosphere hardly needs cranking up, but the festive period certainly brings a bit more cheer, and if Leeds are still in the top two over Christmas, get ready for some pretty vintage occasions.

This year is a little different for us at the Old Peacock, as our restaurant partnership with the Spiced Mango brings something new to Christmas. The guys have decided to open on Christmas Day and have put together a fantastic deal to tempt you out of the house after Santa has been. For just £29.95 you can have a starter, main, two side dishes, sundries and a dessert. For children under 10, the price is just £16.95. The restaurant is only open between 12 noon and 3pm, so book early to secure an alternative Christmas Day that ticks all the boxes.

Until then, we look forward to welcoming you all to the pub in the run-up to Christmas, as the party season kicks off in earnest. We hope to see plenty of you for the Leeds United home games also, and of course we would like to wish all our customers and Leeds United fans everywhere a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Big Indecision

We’re currently in that difficult void between Summer and Winter where we don’t quite know what to do. One day you need the heating on and opt for the ‘big coat’ when taking the dog out, the next day you’ve got a bit of a sweat on when you automatically do the same, and actually “it’s quite mild for this time of year isn’t it?” When a population is as obsessed with the weather as we are it can cause mild panic when the weather is indecisive, and there are days when we’d much rather the temperatures plummeted for good and we knew exactly where we were.


Indecision is pretty much how we feel about Leeds United too. Most fans are in that difficult void wondering whether we are a good side or not. The league table suggests we are, but some performances indicate otherwise, and of course there is always that nagging paranoia digging away at our expectations and forcing us to presume that Leeds will fade away to mid-table as always.

However, while we might want the weather to make its mind up, I’m certainly not suggesting it would be better to know for certain that Leeds United are in fact rubbish, as we watch them plummet to their rightful position of 15^thand feel content that we know our place. The flipside is that Leeds could go on a ten-match winning streak and blow the division apart, but the reality is that this season in the Championship looks like a pretty even playing field, and it appears that Leeds might just do enough to stay in and around the top two until the business end. That doesn’t help us with our indecision but it does suggest that Leeds are no better or worse than a huge chunk of the division.

What we can definitely say is that Marcelo Bielsa has made this team a much more organised, committed and technically-adept unit than it was last season, and that’s why I think we’ll chisel away and pick up enough points over the course of the season to stay in the pack. So far it doesn’t look like anyone is going to run away and build up an impressive points gap at the top, so there is certainly an opportunity there for Leeds.

The search for consistency over the last month has been a frustrating one, but all the teams at the top can say the same thing. Leeds have salvaged points they richly deserved in some games, but also dropped points they really shouldn’t have, so it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. And certainly at Elland Road we’ve been left disappointed with some results and have witnessed a whole season’s worth of controversy in just two games.

October started with the visit of Brentford and one of the most inept refereeing displays you are ever likely to see. The argument goes that referees are only human and you can understand how some decisions go against you, but then the authorities haven’t helped Leeds either when given the opportunity to take retrospective action with the aid of video footage. Naturally, Brentford’s Sergi Canos got away with a blatant head butt clearly caught on camera, while Pontus Jansson was fined and suspended for his post-match comments about the referee. In fairness, Jansson was always going to face some form of punishment, but it is the consistency that baffles.

There is no doubting that Leeds benefitted from the incompetency of the officials against Nottingham Forest, however, and we can maybe agree that there isn’t a huge EFL conspiracy against Leeds after all. Kemar Roofe clearly scored the late equaliser with his arm and this wasn’t spotted by the officials, so we salvaged a point. Both games ended 1-1 and Leeds could make a legitimate claim that they should have won each of them, and the harsh truth is that we just didn’t have the firepower.

Unfortunately, that’s probably the main factor that prevents us calling Leeds a genuinely good side. There were moments against Ipswich Town, in the other home game we saw last month, where Leeds looked sublime, but Ipswich were a really poor side, and against better opposition Leeds have struggled. We really are missing injured players and a bit more creativity where it matters.

Still, Leeds are second in the table as I write, so we don’t have too much to moan about, except for the fact that our next home game is still three weeks away. Thanks to the fixture list sending us to Wigan Athletic and West Brom, and then yet another international break, we have to wait until Saturday 24^thfor the visit of Bristol City. Then, like buses, Reading come to Elland Road on the following Tuesday, 27^th.

The Peacock has certainly enjoyed some busy times this season, and it looks like crowds are going to remain at 30,000 or more. The 5.30pm Kick-Off against Forest made for a lively afternoon and the atmosphere built-up before everyone headed over the road to the ground was something pretty special, and as we head towards Christmas and the big games come thick and fast, we fully expect more raucous occasions like that.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on the new matchday food menu courtesy of the Spiced Mango, and also on the new matchday bars in the beer garden. We always try to fine tune things to make the experience better for everyone, so please let staff know if you have spotted something that can be improved.

Our restaurant partnership with the Spiced Mango continues to be the huge success we expected it to be. We even received an award recently when the restaurant was voted as one of the top ten curry houses in Yorkshire by Yorkshire Life and Living North magazines. The standards are fantastic and if you haven’t tried it out yet, make sure you pay us a visit and enjoy some amazing flavours of the east.

In the meantime, I’m pretty sure that the next time we meet the weather will definitely be cold enough to put the heating on, the big coat will be out when you venture down to Elland Road, and I’m even confident that Leeds United will still be in the mix for promotion, and because of the nature of the Championship, that’s regardless of whether we’re a good team or not.  

Near-misses, new beginnings and progress: a look back at 2017

Happy New Year and a big welcome to 2018 from everyone at the Old Peacock and Ossett Brewery. What a year 2017 was. For anybody in the pub trade the busy days and nights can seem relentless, and obviously the festive period can be intense and seemingly lasts forever. When you factor in that we are also a football pub that could not be any closer to the football club that we serve, and that club regularly attracts crowds of over 30,000, then you can imagine that life at the Old Peacock is something of a whirlwind.

Depending on how our staff want to look at it, 2017 couldn’t have gone any better. From a Leeds United perspective it has been the usual rollercoaster of emotions. The year started with Garry Monk’s team looking certainties to reach the end of season play-offs, and the attendances at Elland Road reflected that. By April, however, all was not well and Leeds dropped out of the top six at the very last.

It is inevitable with Leeds United that there is always interest in whatever they do, good or bad. It comes with the territory, and even as it looked like the wheels were coming off, the attendances didn’t drop, we were still seeing hordes of fans swarming all over the pub and making matchdays a unique and very special experience.

Typically with Leeds United, it wasn’t particularly quiet over the summer either. Andrea Radrizzani completed his 100% takeover of the club as soon as the season had ended, Garry Monk resigned and Thomas Christiansen was appointed, plus a tidal wave of backroom staff, executive staff and playing staff came into the club. But undoubtedly the most significant event of the summer and the one that felt most poignant to us at the Old Peacock, was when the club bought back Elland Road from private ownership.

Many people might not know this, but the Old Peacock pre-dates Elland Road by many years. For a long time the various guardians and staff of the pub looked out only on open fields and a dirt track. The pub can be traced back as far as 1826, but there is no evidence of a sports field where Elland Road now stands until 1878, and of course the ground didn’t start to develop properly until Leeds City took it over in 1904 and then Leeds United in 1919.

This shows that the pub has always been a central part of the community and has always served the various industries around it. The football club and the numerous local businesses, and even the motorway network, have all arrived since the Peacock first opened its doors. So we only became a football pub when Leeds United grew and grew throughout the 20^th century. However, we know how special Elland Road is and we know our place in serving its customers. We like to think we are just as much a part of the fabric, and as important to some fans, as the ground itself.

So when the ground was bought back by the club is was a very special night, and we did find that the pub was busier than usual, on a filthy night shrouded by biblical rain, with fans just wanting to be at the ground and wanting to be part of such a historic occasion.

Talking of historic occasions, Leeds United were top of the league just a couple of months later as we started the 2017/18 season like one of those greyhounds that used to race down the road. It was an amazingly exciting time, and while it didn’t last of course, we do feel that there is something special happening at the club now. There is a different feeling about the place and an air of optimism and pride that has been notably absent for a few years. On the pitch, maybe we won’t necessarily achieve everything we want to straight away, but fans can at least see the club moving in the right direction. Off the pitch, the external areas of the ground look so much better and we are really looking forward to the Bremner Square development starting soon.

In between matchdays we continue to serve our regulars, plus staff from neighbouring businesses, including Leeds United, and of course fans who just love to make a midweek pilgrimage, and our food nights continue to be a great success, we also sold out our Christmas Day menu weeks in advance. In 2017 we established live music in the beer garden on matchdays, to really maximise the atmosphere that is created. The reaction has been fantastic. We have also introduced new bars, barbecue food on midweek nights when maybe you haven’t had chance to grab something at home in your haste to get to the game, and to help relieve the big queues on matchdays we have introduced two-pint pots, which have also been gratefully received.

So we are all geared up for another blockbuster of a year in 2018. We ended 2017 with a run of home fixtures, as Norwich City and Hull City visited Elland Road on consecutive Saturdays, while we have already chalked off our first big game of the new year as over 32,000 came along to watch Nottingham Forest on January 1^st. The outlook from now is decidedly more low key, however, with only a visit from our friends at Millwall to look forward to on January 20^th. The only certainty is that life will never be dull around here, and even if Leeds United are largely responsible for that, we know that their fans can also bring something to the party.

In closing we would like to thank all our fantastic staff for their hard work and patience throughout 2017, they really are the best in the business. They play an absolutely vital role in what we do and until you have worked an Old Peacock matchday I don’t think you can appreciate what a truly unique experience that is, and what a brilliant job they do. So thanks to all the staff and we know they are prepared for another year of fun, laughter and pulling pints. See you soon.

Doing The Right Things

As soon as Halloween is over and done with, thoughts very quickly turn to Bonfire Night and the very real desire to set fire to anything and everything. The temptation right now for Leeds United fans is to burn everything they own that even vaguely reminds them of football, such is the rapid descent in form that is currently being experienced. There is a strange sense of satisfaction in watching something crackle and burn and disappear into the air, unless it’s Leeds United’s promotion hopes for yet another season, and that’s the vivid prospect we are watching unfold before our very eyes.

October ended with a shattering late defeat to Derby County, and Elland Road emptied rapidly in a foggy murmur of discontent. It was a night that started so promisingly with an early goal and a sixty minute performance that belied the lack of confidence that had engulfed the team in recent games. But in familiar fashion, and in fairness as a result of some dubious refereeing decisions, it all came crashing down, and somehow we trudged home on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline and thank God there were no more trick or treaters knocking on the door because patience had well and truly worn thin.

Six defeats out of eight games tell its own story, and if it wasn’t for the extremely welcome 3-0 win at Bristol City last month, then the calls for Thomas Christiansen’s head would be gathering a lot more pace.  It is clear that whatever propelled Leeds to an unbeaten opening seven games to the season has long since disappeared, the key now is whether the management at Elland Road can work out what it was, and more importantly, rediscover it. There can be no doubt that Christiansen needs some help now, and the nagging feeling is that there is a lack of nous and experience of this division, on the pitch, in the dugout and in the backroom staff.

Christiansen announced himself with assurance and dignity in the early stages, his footballing principles were there for all to see and his ethos gathered some quick momentum. Now it is evident that he needs to learn very quickly how to adapt that for different games. It is almost like his team’s development has missed out two key stages; he has the flair and the pretty passing, but he has missed out the mental strength and the character. Every team in the Championship needs that, you need to battle and earn the right to play football first and foremost, and sadly it appears that Leeds United lack that at this moment. We need leaders, people to organise a team when the pressure is on, people to be vocal and get players’ heads up when things are going wrong. Right now, if Leeds United concede you know what is going to happen next, and Christiansen needs to learn how to affect games better and make sure his players can have an influence.

Of course we need to remember that this is a new team, with new management and a new footballing ethos. There is new structure at the club and a completely new outlook. Things like that take time to operate exactly how you want them to. In many ways it was a miracle that the season started as it did, and certainly we were lulled into a false sense of security, but it also shows that perhaps we are not too far away. Games are only being lost by fine margins, and in time, knowing how to manage games, how to change formation to make a difference and knowing who to rely on when, will become easier. The key is whether Christiansen will get that time.

For me, I think it is imperative that we continue to break the mould at Leeds United. I say ‘continue’ because already we have seen a raft of positive measures implemented by the club, which add up to a ship clearly sailing in the right direction. The club is progressing, it has its eyes open and has a vivid sense of what is needed and how those things can be achieved. We are not used to seeing that, rather a blurred vision of lawless and rudderless chaos. Change and instability has done us no good. Breaking the mould would be to stick with the courage of our convictions and believe that the people in certain positions will learn and grow as the club grows, and along the way they will improve. Given the right tools of course, and perhaps if Andrea Radrizzani and Victor Orta have learnt anything from the past month, it’s that the January transfer window is something they need to take an active interest in, with opportunities to ship players out as well as in.

So we come to November and the run up to Christmas. At the Old Peacock we have enjoyed some big days and nights in October, particularly the Friday night of the Sheffield United game, where we felt the occasion warranted a live performance from The Snapp – usually just reserved for Saturday games – and a big attendance brought a very special atmosphere to the pub and the beer garden. November on the other hand offers just one home game, and thanks to Sky TV that comes on a Sunday lunchtime, when Middlesbrough visit on November 19^th.  However, we will be sure to expect a healthy attendance again for the return of Garry Monk and our doors will be wide open for everyone to enjoy a Sunday afternoon drink prior to the game and afterwards.

Talk of Christmas brings us to our regular festive menus at the Old Peacock. We have our Christmas Fayre Menu (two courses for £13.50 or three courses for £15.50) which is perfect for those office parties and for friends and families planning a special Christmas get together. This starts in December and runs all the way up to the big day. On Christmas Day itself we have a special menu (four courses for £49.95 per person, or £14.95 for under 12s) but this traditionally sells out quickly, so please contact us on 0113 2715962 or call in personally to secure your place.

We also want to bring your attention to the Ossett Brewery Open Day, which takes place at the Kings Yard brewery in Ossett on Saturday November 18^th, from 12 noon until 7.00pm. There will be live bands, bouncy castles, BBQ food and of course lots of beer and the chance to view the new extensions to the brewery.

So all in all, there is plenty going on and plenty of work to do. It never stops at this time of year, but we get through it and we are confident that Leeds United will too. Like the Old Peacock, it is an organisation that survives through teamwork, hard work and staying strong when the chips are down. Now is the time to keep together, keep cool and keep on doing the right things, and eventually things will turn around.