November 2, 2011

#38: Horror Show

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Recorded on Halloween itself, episode 38 features Dan Moylan, Michael Normanton, Daniel Chapman (Moscowhite), and Paul O’Dowd (Oddy) — though it nearly didn’t happen at all. The episode had been delayed a week after Moscowhite failed to answer his door: the other three had driven to his attic flat, spent half an hour banging and ringing a non-functioning doorbell, and eventually had to leave. He had been in bed with a sympathy headache. The story winds up as the villain of the fortnight.

White Watching covers five matches at pace. Leeds thrashed Doncaster 3-0, with Tom Lees rising to head in at the back post in a moment one Twitter user compared to the Lion King — young dominating old, a new generation announced. Coventry at home was a 1-1 draw that should have been a win; Rachubka’s howler cost them, and the Coventry equaliser still stings. Away at Peterborough, Adam Clayton put Leeds ahead and, after a late equaliser, a winner went in deep into added time to leave Darren Ferguson on the verge of tears in his post-match interview. Birmingham away was a 1-0 defeat to a side whose game plan appeared to be putting very tall men on the pitch. And a televised Sunday against Cardiff — 1-1, with a goal conceded when Darren O’Dea appeared to lose his sight and clear the ball into the net.

Magazine issue four is now out for the Cardiff game. Oddy’s interview with Tony Dorigo is praised warmly; Moscowhite’s 5,300-word investigation into Ken Bates’s activities in the British Virgin Islands — centred on Noel Lloyd, who organised local resistance to Bates’s island-rental scheme in 1968 — is described as among the best things the Square Ball has published. The audience for the BBC “Who Owns Leeds United?” documentary is confirmed: 442,000 viewers in the Yorkshire region, holding its own against Coronation Street.

The horror theme extends into history: Carlton Palmer is examined as a signing that went wrong, the 1987 FA Cup semi-final is relitigated, and the League Cup Final and relegation to League One are revisited. The EPPP vote comes up — Leeds were among a handful of clubs to vote against the Premier League’s new youth development proposals. Crowd numbers and the pricing debate generate another extended discussion. Billy Paynter goes out on loan to Brighton, Will Hatfield to Accrington. Blackpool and Leicester are previewed with cautious confidence.