The second game of the season away to Arsenal sees us take the points against all the odds. The game is marred for Leeds as Mills and Bowyer see red and face misconduct charges from the FA for using foul and abusive language. On reflection the decisions to book both players on all four occasions are seen to be very poor.
Into September and the match away to Charlton sees Robbie Keane booked for diving, Action replays prove beyond doubt that a penalty should have been awarded. The yellow is not rescinded.

Into October and a 0-0 draw with Chelsea sees Le-Saux not walk after the worst tackle ever seen on a football pitch. The decision was crucial as the major part of the game remained.
November sees Lee Bowyer go off injured against Spurs. He will not play again for 9 games.
Kewell and Viduka jet off for World Cup qualifiers, supposedly only missing two games. They both end up missing four.

Early November sees the start of the re-trial, which will last for six weeks.
As Leeds loose 2-0 away at Sunderland Robbie Keane is booked for diving. Again action replays show that a penalty should have been given. The card is not rescinded. In the same game Smith is stamped on, but the FA decide not to review the incident.
In Leeds' next game against Villa Alan Smith gets a straight red for an elbowing offence that was no more than a dig in the ribs. In the same game Lee Hendry gets away with pushing Danny Mills in the face, which is technically a straight red. After the game Robbie Keane is found to need ankle surgery. This will see him out of action for at least a month. He hasn't actually started a game since.

At the end of November Leeds play Chelsea at home in the Worthington cup. They loose Matteo, Kelly and McPhail to injuries. A disgraceful challenge on McPhail goes unpunished. Smith will later receive a misconduct charge for a collision with Le-Saux. Matteo and Kelly will miss 4 and 2 games respectively. McPhail will not play again until the end of the year. It is later discovered that Eric Bakke is also injured in the game. He will not play again until the end of the year.

Early December sees Leeds win 2-1 away to Blackburn. During the game Olivier Dacourt, our most influential midfielder dislocates his shoulder and will not play again until February 2002. Robbie Fowler is booked for diving. Again an action replay shows clearly that a penalty should have been given. The card is not rescinded.

Robbie Fowler is wrongly arrested after falling asleep in a taxi after the club Christmas party. The local constabulary grass LUFC to the press…….not for the first time.
Leeds receive bad press for allowing a fancy dress party round Leeds City centre on the same week that two of their player are on trial for GBH.

On December the 14th Lee Bowyer is found innocent and Jon Woodgate is convicted of affray. The Leeds fans joy is short lived, as there is a national outcry and a press and media attack that is inexplicable and unprecedented in the football world.
The fallout from the trial verdict is incredible. It's as if the whole world is against Leeds Utd and it's fans.
To compound the problem, Leeds' manager David O'Leary has a book release that is badly titled "Leeds Utd on trial". The timing of the book release is bad at best. Leeds is pounded by the press again.

During the weeks leading up to Christmas the press hate campaign against Bowyer and Woodgate reaches incredible levels.
The Najeib family announces that they will be bringing a civil trial against LUFC and five of its players.

Leeds throw away a two-goal lead to Leicester as Seth Johnson goes off injured with a dead leg.

Lee Bowyer is transfer listed for not agreeing to pay a club fine of four weeks wages, which the club had inflicted on him due to external pressure. He later pays the fine and stays after overwhelming support from the fans during the Everton game.
As Leeds throw away a 3-1 lead at home to Newcastle. Harry Kewell goes off with a back injury. He won't start another game until early February.
Newcastle is awarded a penalty for a handball against Bakke. The replay shows it to be a complete accident. Several similar incidents have occurred since, but not one has been awarded as a penalty.
As Newcastle come back to win the game 4-3, the press go to town on a good over evil theme. Has the world gone mad?

As Leeds win 3-0 at Bolton, Matteo goes off injured in the opening minutes. Bakke also goes off injured later in the game.

A fan attacks Lee Bowyer as Leeds win at Southampton. It is edited out of all TV coverage and not mentioned. The Sunday papers completely ignore it. The police or the FA brings no charges against the club.

Leeds go to Cardiff in the FA cup. Crowd trouble mars the game badly. Bottles and coins are thrown at players and Leeds fans. The Cardiff chairman Sam Hammam incited crowd trouble by walking around the perimeter of the pitch. The Leeds fans remained very restrained throughout considering the circumstances that ensued. There was a pitch invasion at the conclusion of the game. The problems that surrounded the game hadn't been seen in football for many years.
During the game Rio Ferdinand, Leeds' influential skipper received a bad tackle from behind, which went unpunished. Ferdinand went off injured and missed the next two games. Alan Smith received a straight red for the second time after an alleged elbow. Action replays showed otherwise, but an appeal failed to get the card overturned. He is banned for four matches.
Leeds fans are warned by the FA about their future conduct. DOL receives yet more bad press for his actions during and after the game. As yet, to my knowledge, no action has been taken against Cardiff City football club or it's fans. They were allowed to continue in the FA cup. It's as if the incident has been swepped under the carpet.

The following game against Newcastle sees Danny Mills sent off for the second time. This time it's a straight red. He is banned for four matches. Leeds receives a FA fine of £25k for accumulating six bookings during the game. The game is marred by some ugly incidents, and Leeds receive yet more bad press as their tag of being a dirty team is trawled across the newspapers and TV stations.
Seth Johnson retires from the game injured.
Alan Smith is banned for one match after being carded for the fifth time this season. His total suspension is five matches after losing the Cardiff appeal.

Mark Viduka is cited for elbowing Keown as Leeds draw 1-1 with Arsenal. Sky TV go to town on the incident, but conveniently ignore a punch and flag-throwing extravaganza from the same player. The FA incredibly decides to review the alleged elbow. During the same game Pires and Cole should have been sent off for technical offences that were far worse than the ones that Bowyer and Mills went for in the corresponding fixture.

Mills and Bowyer lose an FA Appeal against sending offs and an elbowing incident that dates back over a year. They are banned for two and six games respectively.
It is revealed that Alan Smith will be charged by the FA for an alleged shoulder charge on Le-Saux dating back to a game that was played three moths ago.
Leeds fans and management are up in arms about and FA witch-hunt. The press have a field day with their dirty Leeds campaign.

Off the field Chairman Peter Ridsdale speaks out against the players for misbehaving. This doesn't go down well with some of the fans. In the following game against Chelsea Leeds lose 2-0 in a miserable performance. Jon Woodgate goes off injured and is out for six weeks. Seth Johnson also goes off injured for the third time in his three months since joining the club.

In the following game Leeds are trounced 4-0 at home to Liverpool with another miserable performance. There is now talk of unrest in the camp as some of its top players speak out against the management in the national press.

Pressure increases as Leeds throw away a lead twice to a poor Boro side. One of Boro's goals is and outrageous fluke.

The chairman announces that failure to qualify for the C/L will see some big name player leaving during the summer in order to balance the books. The pressure is now really on the management to turn things round. The fans are becoming very restless.

Leeds finally seem to be getting things together as the team that was the essence of there C/L success last season are finally re-assembled to take on PSV away in the UEFA cup. A great display sees the team unlucky to walk away with only a 0-0 draw, but the signs were there. With a little luck maybe things will start to pick up. The game is marred by some outrageous challenges on Leeds players that go unpunished. This proves without doubt that is not just in the PL that there is one rule for Leeds and one for the rest. Leeds just get on with it because they don't expect things any different now.

Charlton are the visitors to ER next and a good Leeds display spurns no luck whatsoever in front of goal. Influential midfielder Olivier Dacourt goes off injured at half time and will miss at lest the next two after just returning from injury. The crowd show signs of real descent at the final whistle.

The return Leg of the UEFA tie sees Leeds spurn some guilt edged chances in and eventful first half, only to run out of steam in the second half and concede a scrappy goal in the 90th minute and go crashing out of the UEFA cup.

It's now the beginning of March and Leeds travel to Everton. Skipper Rio Ferdinand is pulled out of the squad late on with a back injury. He joins fellow first choice C/H Jon Woodgate on the treatment table. Dom Matteo is sent off in the first half for his second bookable offence, but Leeds hang on for a draw in a very scrappy game. Eric Bakke deputises at C/H for the majority of the game.

In Bizarre circumstances a minority group of Leeds' travelling fans are heard chanting for Leeds first team coach Brian Kidd to be sacked. It has to be said that this would seem very strange indeed to any neutral observers.
Leeds manager David O'Leary praises the majority of Leeds fans for their support and points out that there has always been an element of very fickle fans that seem to attach themselves to Leeds Utd. The club and the true fans of Leeds Utd would sooner see the back of them. Thankfully O'Leary also states that as long as he is manager of Leeds Utd the Brian Kidd will be his no.1.
Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale confronts these so called fans at the end of the game to try and educates their minds (someone should have told him it was a pointless task). Are these the same fans that cheered the club to the top of the PL on the first of January?

It took DOL exactly 1185 days and two European semi finals to reach this point. Along the way he completely change the direction of the club and generated spending power in excess of 60 million through his own innovation. He lifted the club into the echelons of the leagues top four teams, something that could never have been anticipated 3 years earlier.
In the sixty-two days that have elapsed since the beginning of the year things have not gone to plan. It could be said that DOL has made some mistakes, but considering everything that has gone before, any rational thinking person would see that there are grounds for forgiveness. In the last calendar year we lost 3 league games. We've still only lost 5 this season, despite all the unprecedented problems we've had. After all the club has gone through you'd think above all else that they would stick together.

It's Monday the 4th of March. Leeds is still hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. First it was the media that gave them a hard time. Then it was the FA. Now it's their own fans.
What next? Maybe I'll wake up and the nightmare will be over. Then again, maybe not. Perhaps the worst is yet to come."