Ashamed, embarrassed, disgusted.

By Mike Courtney

The title says it all; Ashamed, embarrassed, disgusted, these are just some of the emotions I felt last night after watching the game. I shouldn't have tofeel this way supporting my team but because of the actions of a few, and yes I mean a few and I'll explain why soon, I went to bed last night feeling this way.

I have been supporting Leeds for over 40 years so I've seen the mindless violence of the 70's and 80's when fighting on the terrace, ripping up seats and pitch invasions were the norm. But I thought all that was behind us. I thought we as a society had moved on from that. But what I saw last night shook me to the core. It just gives the media another stick to beat us with. We at Leeds have taken a lot of flak down through the years for our fans and teams behaviour but I felt of late, especially since relegation from the top flight, that our fans had earned respect for the way we have supported our team through the bad times and the vast support we bring to away games in particular. But all that progress we have made has been well and truly kicked to touch by the actions of some fans last night.

Yes we all have seen the footage of that Moron, as Warnock rightly labelled him after the match, and it’s been beamed around the world and is currently trending on Twitter. Many better writers than me will print stories about him and I'm glad he has been named on some site's (I won't do the same here because I refuse to mention his name in the same breath as my beloved LEEDS. But he wasn't alone, other fans came on to the pitch and if you watch the footage you will see another so called fan kick the microphone behind the Wednesday net. Is this behaviour acceptable? If this happened on the street it would be Criminal Damage.

We had 5000 fans there last night and yes there was chanting but that was from both sides so Dave Jones needs to get his own house in order before labelling us all vile animals but today he can take the moral high ground because of those few who entered the pitch and committed crimes, because no matter what way you look at it that's what they were, CRIMES. 99.9% of Leeds fans and in particular those that spend their hard earned cash to travel to away games are top class genuine supporters who lift the team when we are down and who get behind the boys no matter what. But the actions of those few who entered the pitch last night have dragged the name of Leeds United and football as a whole through the gutter and brought it back to the dark days of the 70's and 80's.

So instead of celebrating a fantastic strike by Michael Tonge that earned us a vital point when we didn't play particularly well we are on the front pages of every newspaper with our reputation tarnished and it'll take more than a statement from the club and condemnation from the Manager to repair that.

Finally I'd like to finish on this point; I think the worst thing about it for me is that this happened at the
Leppings Road end of the ground where 23 years ago 96 fans lost their lives and all the advances in safety and behaviour of fans since then have led to a situation which allows a mindless THUG to do what he did to Chris Kirkland last night.I will still support Leeds but it is with a heavy heart and a head hung in shame that I do so today.

MOT Leeds Leeds Leeds

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