LEEDS UNITED
Premier League, Wednesday 4 January 2023, 7.45pm GMT
The Claret and Blue Army kick-off the New Year with a trip to Elland Road on Wednesday evening.
West Ham United have left West Yorkshire as victors over Leeds United in each of the previous two seasons, winning 2-1 on each occasion.
It is over a century since we first visited Elland Road, as goals from George Carter and Syd Puddefoot secured two Second Division points on 29 January 1921.
More recently, we went nearly nine years since making the trip to the Leeds suburb of Beeston, returning to score a win without supporters present in December 2020.
Leeds returned to the Premier League after a 16-year absence in 2020/21 and finished ninth in their first season back, before struggling to a 17th-place finish last term.
American head coach Jesse Marsch will hope the Peacocks can strut through a more comfortable second half to the campaign this time around.
How to get there…
If you are driving, parking is restricted in the roads around Elland Road, so you are strongly advised to park in one of the Leeds City Council controlled car parks situated nearby. Charges are set at £6 for cars, £12 for mini coaches and £20 for coaches. For more information, call Leeds City Council on 0113 395 7400 or email [email protected].
Alternatively, there are two Park and Ride services from either Stourton or Temple Green to Elland Road, which will run from 4.45pm until kick-off and again after the game.
Stourton is situated at Junction 7 on the M621 at postcode LS10 1FF, while Temple Green is situated in the Aire Valley next to the A63, with access via Junction 45 of the M1 at postcode LS9 0PS. Visit https://tickets.leedsunited.com/en-gb/categories/park-and-ride to buy Park and Ride tickets.
If you are taking the train up from London, you will need to stay overnight.
Services leave London Kings Cross regularly and take around two hours and 40 minutes to reach Leeds. From Leeds station, you can take a taxi to Elland Road or walk the two miles to the stadium, which should take around 35 minutes.
On the Thursday morning, with strikes seeing a reduction in the number of trains running, direct services depart Leeds at 08.00 and 09.45.
Where to stay…
Like every major city, Leeds has plenty of accommodation options to suit all budgets and tastes, including hotels, B&Bs and self-catering apartments.
For those for whom price is more important than style, there are the usual chain options in and around the city centre.
Alternatively, you could opt to make a weekend of it and stay in the surrounding countryside, with the Moors west of Bradford – an area known as Brontë Country after the book-writing sisters – a particularly beautiful area and within 30 minutes’ drive of Elland Road.
What to do…
Leeds prides itself on being the ‘Foodie Capital of the North’, so why not try out one of the city’s top restaurants to test that claim?
Alternatively, the lively Trinity Kitchen offers plenty of food options without the formality of a sit-down meal.
If you are taking the children, there are plenty of options to keep them occupied, including the Abbey House Museum, the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds Industrial Museum, Thackray Museum of Medicine or Leeds Art Gallery.
Steam train enthusiasts might normally enjoy a ride on the Middleton Railway, the oldest working railway in the world – but it's closed for winter maintenace!
For more information, head to visitleeds.co.uk
What’s happened there before…
We have won on our Premier League visits to Elland Road in each of the previous two seasons, coming from a goal down on both occasions.
Goals from Tomáš Souček and Angelo Ogbonna helped us win 2-1 in December 2020, then a Junior Firpo own-goal and last-minute Michail Antonio winner secured victory in September 2021.
Prior to that, we had won just one of our previous 15 matches at Elland Road in all competitions, dating back to a 2-1 First Division victory in April 1978.
Unsurprisingly, then, we have not been particularly successful away at Leeds throughout our history, with our biggest-ever victory there being a 3-1 win in the Second Division in December 1948.
Other than that, all our victories at Elland Road have been by no more than a single-goal margin.
