Leeds United: Worth getting drenched to see Whites victory over Burnley – Catherine Hamill
It was worth getting absolutely drenched at Elland Road on Sunday to see Leeds win and put in a great performance.
Sitting eight rows back, there was no cover from the roof of the stand when it started chucking it down ten minutes before kick-off. As I looked round and saw everyone had their hoods up, I couldn’t understand why I didn’t bring one myself, and I had no choice but to sit there and pretend that it wasn’t pouring down onto my head for the whole of the first half.
Luckily my brother, a season ticket holder with a seat by the boxes at the back of the East Stand, swapped places with me at half-time so I could shelter from the downpour.
But I didn’t mind getting wet too much because it was such a good game of football and the atmosphere was amazing, especially at the end when Leeds had won and the Kaiser Chiefs’ I Predict a Riot rang out across the stadium. It was a fantastic win for us to take three fully-deserved and well-needed points.
After so much switching things around, it was brilliant to have players back in their normal positions. I think Luke Ayling is excellent at full-back, and it was great to see Robin Koch and Diego Llorente paired up at centre-half.
Massive credit has to go to Adam Forshaw, though. He played so well, and with so much energy - he was running all over the pitch. You can tell by watching him just how much he loves playing football. I can imagine how much you would appreciate getting to do the sport you love having spent so much time on the sidelines.
I have never suffered too serious an injury, but even having little niggles and not being able to do things in the way you could before makes you realise how much you take your body for granted.
It must be so frustrating for professionals - whose job it is to move - to be limited by injury. Now that he’s back, fit and healthy, you can see that Forshaw is making the most of it!
I will be back at training with Leeds United Women tonight. I’m hoping it won’t be too brutal, but I suspect we’ll be worked hard by head coach Dan O’Hearne as we’ve got to hit the ground running in 2022.
We did fitness in both sessions the week before we broke off for Christmas and it wasn’t much fun - I was knackered afterwards - but it’s got to be done.
Your heart’s telling you you want to do all ball work, but it really benefits the team to give the engines a good testing.
I’m hoping the exercise I’ve done over Christmas will help me with what’s in store for us at training - I only ended up taking a few days off as the habit is quite strong.
My New Year’s Resolution is to go with the flow, which is going to be hard as I am quite set in my routines.
I’ll be trying to do what I want a bit more in 2022 rather than stressing about getting things done.
That doesn’t mean letting myself go crazy on a Saturday night before a game, but maybe going a bit easier on myself if I don’t feel good on a run or I can’t quite finish my high intensity interval training. I might even rethink the habit of a lifetime and eat something other than salmon the evening before games!
I’m definitely going to try and be less nervous before matches, too. I’ll keep focussed, of course, but make an effort to avoid overthinking things.
I’ll be putting this into action this weekend, when the team and I will travel to Bradford Park Avenue for a County Cup game before we turn our attention to the second half of the Division One North season.