Ben Scott ponders on how football chose him – or how he chose football. Whichever the case, the two are still very much in touch.
I lived within a mile of Elland Road until I was in my early 30s, and Leeds United was a love all my family had. It was in my blood and I was raised to be a Leeds fan.
My early football memories involve kicking a ball with my dad, watching him play on a Sunday morning and watching the big finals in May – the FA Cup and the European Cup. Although we were certainly not involved in competitions like that in the early 1980s, I’d heard the stories of Leeds’ successes domestically and abroad, and the gritty decade did nothing to dampen my passion for the Club.
After the hazy recollection of attending my first match aged 4 with my dad, my next memory is the pain of the Club suffering narrow defeats in 1987, first losing 3-2 in an FA Cup semi-final to Coventry, the first time they went ahead winning them the tie…. and then in the play-offs replay, when we fell in extra time to Charlton.
Three years later football finally showed me the ups after a decade of downs, as Leeds won promotion as champions of the old Second Division. England tried to balance that by losing in the semi at the World Cup, but I was 10-years old and football crazy by that point.
I was already fascinated by goalkeeping. Though sometimes erratic, I enjoyed watching former Arsenal goalie John Lukic making diving saves as Leeds won the top-flight in 1992, while Leeds fan David Seaman was setting the bar for English ‘keepers as he turned out for Arsenal and England.
North of the border, Seaman’s international deputy Chris Woods was racking up the trophies with my second team, Glasgow Rangers. That kept Lukic out of the picture when it came to representing his country. His replacement at Leeds, the superb Nigel Martyn, only earned 23 caps, also thwarted by Seaman’s experience and quality.
After winning the league, Leeds played in Europe for the first time in over a decade in the 1992/93 season. Oddly enough, it would be Chris Woods’ Rangers who knocked Leeds out – a memorable blunder from Lukic contributing to a 4-2 aggregate loss for the Whites.
It was an odd season – without a win on the road but scoring more goals at home than that season’s champions. Leeds then consolidated as a good Premier League side – finishing in 5th place in consecutive seasons and reaching the final of the League Cup.
Alongside watching Leeds, there were of course the endless hours playing at school and after school. I’d spend every hour possible playing in goal with my older brother or friends taking shots at me. Things like adverse weather, darkness or poor ball quality were not a deterrent; just part of the fun. If the weather did keep me indoors, I’d be looking at my collection of Pro Set cards or football stickers or getting beaten at Subbuteo by my brother – I never quite got the hang of that plastic goalie on a stick!
When I left school in 1996 I started to play 5-a-side regularly. The run up to 2000 was uneventful at Elland Road and for me, but things really kicked off this millennium. The now much-discussed semi-final appearances for Leeds in the UEFA Cup and Champions’ League were followed by disaster – within 6 years we were in the third tier of English football after relegations, administration and points deductions crippled the Club.
I wasn’t doing much better – I ripped 2 ankle ligaments in 2002 and then dislocated my shoulder! My football activity was reduced to watching England fail at the 2002 World Cup.
Fast forward to 2010, and Leeds finally escaped League One, but then spent several seasons on the periphery of the clubs challenging for promotion from the Championship. It’s been a frustrating period for Leeds fans, watching talent come through the academy, be lauded, then be sold to a middling Premier League team to sit on the bench.
Seeking football that’s less distorted by the wealth conveyed on a few clubs by television money, I’ve become a regular watching AFC Guiseley when fixtures permit. And I dipped back into playing 5-a-side (breaking 5 bones in my hand along the way!) and coached at grassroots level while watching my son play for the past 7 years.
I’m called a football snob and a football purist, but I don’t hide my feelings – I’d far rather watch Pep Guardiola’s Man City or any team coached by Pep on TV rather than a Neil Warnock team. But I also know in football you play the most effective way you can. I teach my son to play as a sweeper keeper and I believe in many of the modern tactical approaches: wing backs, false number 9s, press from the front, attack from the back.
As fate would have it, last season saw the man they say influenced Pep, a certain Mr Marcelo Alberto Bielsa, take charge at Leeds, and Leeds played football like many had never seen before as they finished 3rd and suffered defeat in the play-offs. Bielsa’s chosen another season at Leeds and for the rest of the division, I imagine that will strike fear but also respect into them – Bielsa and Leeds have some unfinished business.
