New look Leeds at the Turf

Finally he was banished, I'm sure we won't see the like of him again in management, and when John Carver failed to cut it as caretaker, the chairman Ken Bates, clearly intent on making the club look like Chelsea, turned to Dennis Wise who arrived from Swindon along with Gus Poyet.

It's difficult making too many changes when you take over a club at a time when the transfer window is closed, but Wise has already been involved in no fewer than seven loan deals, three players going out and four coming in to join the three players already there on loan.

The ones going out are established players, all very experienced, and now all deemed surplus to requirements at Elland Road. None of them have found a club at the same level. The first to go was Sean Gregan, he's joined Oldham on loan, and his fellow defensive partner Paul Butler, who was so close to joining Burnley four years ago, has dropped even further and signed for Franchise.

Last week, Wise told goalkeeper Neil Sullivan it didn't matter how he performed, he would never be better than third choice. He took the hint and he's gone to Doncaster. He's third choice because Blackwell brought in Tony Warner on loan from Fulham whilst Wise has added Reading's Graham Stack. The new manager knows all about the pair of them, they both played for him at Millwall.

Stack was the first of Wise's four loan signings, and defender Matt Heath was next. The big 25 year old former Leicester defender had played only two games for Coventry since August and appeared to be surplus to requirements in Micky Adams' squad at the Ricoh. Last week he was joined by another central defender, this time Middlesbrough's former England player Ugo Ehiogu. He's been out of the picture, mainly through injury, and hasn't featured in a game as yet this season.

The last of the four newcomers was a surprise, Barnet striker Tresor Kandol who only ten days ago scored a hat trick against Rochdale in a League Two game. Kandol started his career at Luton but has since played for Cambridge, Bournemouth, Thurrock, Dagenham & Redbridge and Darlington before joining Barnet in January of this year where he has scored ten league goals in twenty-eight games.

The results have remained inconsistent since Wise's arrival with three wins and three defeats. It has been enough to take them out of the bottom three in the table.

Click HERE to see all Leeds' results this season.

The last time we beat them at the Turf, it was the day Edward Heath, leader of Her Majesties Opposition, officially opened the Bob Lord Stand. Goals from Paul Fletcher and a Leighton James penalty won it for us 2-1 in a game that saw Ray Hankin and Leeds defender Gordon McQueen sent off.

Leeds are very confident ahead of the game although Eddie Lewis, who scored the winner against Plymouth, did admit that Burnley had played ‘quite' well this season. Manager Wise believes Burnley are a tough team to play against and said earlier today: “Burnley are a good team and a difficult team. It'll be a difficult game because Steve Cotterill will have them firing on all cylinders. He's that type of person.”

With Gary Kelly and Richard Cresswell both remaining doubtful he is expected to name the same side that had won at Plymouth. That means in form striker Robbie Blake, incredibly left out on a regular basis by both Blackwell and Carver, will play up front alongside his former Burnley strike partner Ian Moore.

Leeds will line up: Graham Stack, Hayden Foxe, Matt Heath, Matthew Kilgallon, Stephen Crainey, Ian Westlake, Jonathan Douglas, Shaun Derry, Eddie Lewis, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake. Subs: Tony Warner, Sebastien Carole, Tresor Kandol, David Healy, Geoff Horsfield.

Click HERE to see the full Leeds squad.

There's one extra in the squad for Steve Cotterill, former captain Frank Sinclair who returns after serving a one match ban following his dismissal at West Brom. It gives the manager a poser but I think Frank will return at full back at the expense of Stephen Foster who deputised for him on Saturday.

That could well be the only change, despite us suffering a third successive defeat, and that would leave the Burnley team as follows:

Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Steve Jones, James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Chris McCann, Gifton Noel-Williams, Andy Gray. Subs from: Danny Coyne, Stephen Foster, John McGreal, Alan Mahon, Wade Elliott, Kyle Lafferty.

We'd just got our season underway with two successive wins against Ipswich at the Turf and then Wolves at Molineux, but the winning run came to an end in somewhat controversial circumstances.

We led 1-0 with a Garreth O'Connor penalty after Sean Gregan had brought down Ade Akinbiyi, yes a penalty, one of those things we are still to get in 2006. But the game was turned on its head in a four minute spell with just about a quarter of an hour to go.

David Healy had just come on as a substitute and he clearly fouled Jon Harley when he got on to the ball for the first time. Incredibly referee Dean gave the kick the other way and Lewis hit it in for an equaliser. Four minutes later and Leeds had won it with a header from Rob Hulse.

Garreth O'Connor came close to an equaliser but it wasn't to be and Leeds went away with all three points as they had done in the previous season.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Garreth O'Connor, James ‘Connor, Micah Hyde, John Spicer (Wade Elliott 77), Graham Branch (Chris McCann 29, Gifton Noel-Williams 77), Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Keith Lowe, Karl Bermingham.

Leeds: Neil Sullivan, Garry Kelly, Paul Butler, Sean Gregan, Dan Harding, Frazer Richardson (David Healy 69), Shaun Derry, Jonathan Douglas, Eddie Lewis, Robbie Blake (Gylfi Einarsson 88), Rob Hulse (Ian Moore 86). Subs not used: Ian Bennett, Matthew Kilgallon.

Previous 20 Seasons
Season	Div	Ven	Result	Att	Scorers
2004/05	C	a	2-1	27,490	Roche Duffy
.	.	h	0-1	17,789	.
2005/06	C	h	1-2	16,174	G O'Connor(pen)
.	.	a	0-2	21,318	.

Click HERE to see all our results against Leeds.