Of Optimism II

Leeds United beat a near-full strength Manchester United 1-0 in the third round of the FA Cup at Old Trafford last night. I'll confess that when I wrote 'Of Optimism' a few weeks ago, I hadn't even contemplated that this might happen. But after all was said and done what really struck me was how normal it felt to win. Even without Leigh Bromby (suspended), Max Gradel (ineligible) and Robert Snodgrass (on the bench). And I do not attempt to take the mickey out of you when I say that the last two league games I've watched (1-0 at home to Southampton and 4-2 at Stockport) honestly felt like tougher games, nor do I attempt to sound pompous when I say it really could and should have been two- or three-nil. So when Simon Grayson said, "We've been playing like this all season", it reminded me very much of Jason McAteer's quip after his shift on the right side of midfield was instrumental in Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland bringing down the Italians at USA '94 -- "It was like playing Bournemouth on a wet Saturday."

The same Bournemouth who were the last lower league opposition to knock Manchester United out of the FA Cup, pre-Ferguson, in 1984. The same Bournemouth whose mastermind that day was a young Harry Redknapp, now of Tottenham Hotspur. The same Tottenham Hotspur who, at White Hart Lane, now stand between Leeds United and an improbable place in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Having harboured the briefest of ambitions that Leeds might just go all the way this year, I'm now willing to concede that that is probably that. There's a good chance Jermaine Beckford will be wearing the black-and-white of Newcastle United by then and there's an even better chance that ex-Leeds boy Aaron Lennon will rip the legendary but limited Andy Hughes to shreds.

But, right now (and, indeed, up until Wycombe Wanderers come calling), that will not matter. Having supported a club that's suffered an administration, two points deductions, two relegations, three heartbreaking play-off losses and the perpetual and growingly nauseating tag of 'football club gone wrong' in the last six seasons, I'd got used to getting kicked in the teeth on a regular basis. Humiliated by non-league Histon in Round 2 of the FA Cup last year and seemingly heading the same way this year after another bunch of amateurs from Kettering were minutes away, regardless of what happens to Manchester United's season from now on (and I cannot, in good conscience, wish them the best), this has to rank as the happiest I've been in a long time, for something I've loved unreservedly from day one.

Bigger than that systematic picking apart of Lazio in Italy, bigger than that youth team demolition Manchester City in the FA Cup, bigger than Mark Viduka's relegation-saving goal at Highbury, bigger than Harry Kewell's header on Rio Ferdinand's first return to Elland Road. You cannot tell me this team doesn't deserve to play Premier League football.

And with eight points back to Norwich dead at halfway in the season and a JPT semi-final waiting to be won against Carlisle, 2010 promises to be a happy new year indeed.