
It's Here!..........
The new David Watkins book documenting the 2024/2025 Leeds United Championship season is available now! As in previous years, the book is available in Kindle and Paperback versions and is exclusively sold on Amazon. Click the Amazon link on this page to see further details.

David Watkins retired from his role as a Finance Director in the engineering Industry in 2011 and since then has devoted himself full time to following his beloved Leeds United. He is a home and away season ticket holder and rarely misses a game. This is the 15th season he has documented his travels and the fortunes of the team, every detail, on and off the pitch.
Leeds United recruited Daniel Farke in the summer of 2023 to get the club back where it belonged, in the Premier League, following a disastrous relegation the previous season. He nearly managed it too, only missing out through a lacklustre performance in a Wembley playoff final against Southampton. It was heartbreaking for Leeds, having put together a record-breaking season, only for Leicester City and Ipswich Town to have even better campaigns, edging Leeds out of the automatic promotion places.
Leeds backed Farke to go again in the 2024/2025 season, and, once again, Leeds put together a scintillating season. This time, Burnley and Sheffield United matched Leeds almost every step of the way in another incredibly tight race for promotion. But this time Leeds didn't stumble and on a bright sunny afternoon in Plymouth Leeds United secured the Championship trophy. This is the story of an incredible season, seen through the eyes of the author, watching the many highs and a few lows and experiencing the hopes and fears of one of England’s most iconic football clubs. This is the 15th book in this series from the author, each one following Leeds United through a complete season, both on and off the pitch, trying to capture the very essence of what it means to 'be Leeds’.
All of the books are available from Amazon. They can be purchased in Kindle version or print and the first few pages can be sampled by clicking on the "Look Inside" link on each book cover on the Amazon pages . Use the button above to check out the Amazon page.






Oxford United 0
Leeds United 1 (Solomon 33)
18th April, 2025, EFL Championship.
11,537.
Well, it wasn’t always pretty, but it was certainly very gritty! A professional performance by Leeds at Oxford has got us to the brink of promotion; just four more points from our final three games and the dream will be realised, even a point on Monday against Stoke would be enough realistically if Blades succumb at Burnley.
I think everyone thought it would be tough at the Kassam, all logic said it would be. They beat the Blades here only a couple of games ago, and they were still too close to the relegation zone to give anything less than 100 per cent effort against us. Meanwhile, the pressure on Leeds was huge, having seen the earlier results for Sheffield United and Burnley. A ‘Molineux-like’ flame and firework display before kick-off was presumably designed to fire up the home side even more, but the Leeds fans yelled “What the f****** hell was that” to get things back in context!
In that context then it was a fine, solid, determined performance from Leeds. Every player stood tall and performed starting with Karl Darlow in goal who had to be alert to dive full length to parry away an early shot from Cameron Brannagan, that was so vital. After that Leeds took control and Brenden Aaronson had the first of those big chances minutes later when he was put though after a neat touch from Joel Piroe. Brenden’s shot was well saved by Cumming in the Oxford goal but a more composed shot nearer the left post and it was a certain goal.
Next it was Manor Solomon, again looking full of running and intent on the left who hit a low ball across the face of goal towards Willy Gnonto. Only a sliding last-gasp clearance from Ben Nelson took the ball off Willy’s toes. Just after the half-hour mark though, our nerves were calmed.
Joe Rodon turned visionary number ‘10’ as he played a slide-rule pass through the centre of the U’s defence to perfectly meet the run of Jayden Bogle in the inside right channel. Bogle fired the ball across the face of goal and there was the ever-alert Manor Solomon at the back post to smash the ball into the roof of the net. “It’s Solomon again!” rang out from the hoard of Leeds fans in the North Stand and one or two perched on top of buses in the car park!
It has to be said that Oxford came more into the game in the second half but their only real weapon was the long throw of Will Vaulks of which a dozen or more were hurled into the Leeds area throughout the last 45 minutes. Thankfully the worry was greater than the impact as most were commandingly headed away by the superb Joe Rodon who was my man of the match.
Leeds had other sights of goal as the Oxford rally began to lose energy. Jayden Bogle will probably think he should have done better as he guided a right-foot shot wide of the left post and then Ao Tanaka was unlucky to see his fierce long-range shot cannon against the left post. It was a nervy old final few minutes but, in hindsight at least, there were few worrying moments as another three points were safely bagged.
Now the task is even more simple; at worst we need four more points from our final three games, two of which are at Elland Road. At best, a win or even a draw against Stoke on Monday and then we can sit back and watch to see how the Clarets v Blades contest goes later in the evening. If we’ve got at least the one point by then and Blades fail to win then, we are as good as promoted barring some unlikely high scoring wins for Sheffield and defeats for Leeds. We are that close.
Stoke just about cemented their place in the Championship for next season with a fairly fortunate win against Sheffield Wednesday yesterday (Did you see their second goal? Talk about scoring a goal off a blokes arse!) so maybe they’ll be less determined than they otherwise would have been. Sometimes it works the other way of course and the freedom from pressure helps a team play more fluently. Surely we’ve got enough to see them off though, haven’t we?
Game Statistics:
Oxford U Leeds
Possession 33% 67%
Shots 9 11
On Target 2 4
Corners 2 5
Fouls 16 6



