Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Leeds United: Nailed On
This is how this weekend felt. Not just the defeat, but the manner of it, the way the cosmos seemed to be taking the monumental piss.
There were many good reasons behind Massimo Cellino's attempt to play hardball with Sky over their broadcast scheduling.
The apparent financial cost to the club; the lack of recovery time for the players; the inconvenience for the fans.
There was one other implication that was missed about Sky's insistence that we played Sheffield Wednesday on a Saturday lunchtime: having to endure the rest of the afternoon's football, when we had lost, and the rest of the afternoon's football featured the following goalscorers:
Fabian Delph, Paul Robinson, Ross McCormack, Robert Snodgrass, David Norris, Billy Sharp, Cameron Stewart, Nicky Ajose (2).
That's nine goals in one day, before you chuck in a tenth from Steve Morison on Sunday; compared to the league goals accrued by Leeds United's starting line-up in the entire season so far: four.
Pretty soon we'll be able to leave our latest Sky-dictated Saturday-seven-a.m. defeat behind and tune in for the three o'clock kickoffs to hear how Sam Byram is getting on, too; there's a grim inevitability to it. That's how this weekend felt; not just the defeat, but the manner of it; not just the ex-players scoring, but the way the cosmos seemed to be taking the monumental piss.
It's either a pisstake or a conspiracy. Against Sheffield Wednesday Steve Evans was convinced he was the victim of a conspiracy while he was taking a piss. "When people talk about, is there an agenda with Leeds United?" he said to Adam Pope on BBC Leeds after the game, "Well, let the football authorities come and charge me tomorrow. There is an agenda."
If the Football League really is corrupt to this degree, I expect Anthony Taylor will be hauled in front of Shaun Harvey on Monday morning and asked what he thinks he's doing make it look so bloody obvious. As it is, it's much more likely that Shaun Harvey will spend Monday morning dictating a just snarky enough disrepute charge for Evans, while hissing 'Exxxxcellent' to himself and sending Snapchats to Ken Bates.