While it was business as usual on Tuesday night with Carlisle fans bouncing up and down chanting ‘We all hate Leeds scum’ something quite odd has been happening over the last few weeks. In recent times the FA Cup 2nd and 3rd rounds have been the time for everyone to support whichever team we are playing against and revel in our failure, take Histon for example. Even in the second round of this year competition everyone seemed to be a Kettering fan, tuning into ITV on a weekend just to watch us loose and our demise continue.

But something changed with our 3rd round victory over manchester united, it was hard to pick up a paper the next day without reading something complimentary about Leeds United, even the Mirror was vaguely nice about us. Football commentators and pundits across the land were talking about us, about how we took the game to Manchester united and how we would soon start ascending the divisions back to where we belong. Alex Ferguson even admitted we were the better side and said we would soon be back in the Premier league. People at work were being complimentary about Leeds, something very odd indeed was occurring.

The story may have ended there if we had drawn Forest Green Rovers in the fourth but we got another Premier League team, a trip away to the Spurs, and the build up to this game all seems to have been very complimentary again. Perhaps it is as the Express says, maybe we’ve found love in the romance of the FA Cup, but people are again being nice about us. Harry Redknapp has tipped us to return to the big time soon, but then he was being complimentary about Ken Bates this week as well so maybe we should take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

So does everyone love us all of a sudden? In the short term maybe. Perhaps it’s just because we beat manchester united, put a nail in their coffin during a time when their debts of 700 million pounds were being realised. Perhaps it’s because everyone has realised what they are missing, fed up of today’s stagnant Premier League with soulless crowds and teams link Wigan and Hull. They miss that edge, hostility and passion which was certainly evident in our games against Liverpool and manchester united.

When our FA Cup run is over I’m sure things will return to normal, and do you know what, I think I’d prefer it that way, can’t stand people being nice about us!

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Further Reading;
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/153599/Leeds-finding-love-in-romance-of-cup- http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/118606/Simon-Grayson-I-ve-made-Leeds-popular-again/