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On the equivalent afternoon 12 months ago, when Sky’s cameras also offered live coverage, over 30,000 watched them defeat Derby County.
Such statistics undermined the claim by Kevin Blackwell, the Leeds manager, that the absenteeism was partly due to “holiday week” in the city “I can’t be blamed for the size of the crowd,” he said. They still roared out “Marching on Together”, but with only 20,440 present, they were singing and marching in drastically reduced numbers. In their first season outside the Premiership, Leeds averaged 29,500. Leeds United’s fans yesterday made plain their disdain for Ken Bates’ decision to raise ticket prices by 25 per cent, Elland Road’s lowest league crowd since the late 1980s watching David Healy score his second goal from the spot to launch their Championship campaign with a victory over Millwall.

Substitutes not used: Dichio, Neal.Referee: I Williamson (Berkshire).Booked: Watford Young, Bangura; Preston Davidson, Mawene.Man of the match: McKenna.Attendance: 12,597.. Substitutes not used: Chamberlain (gk), Diagouraga.Preston North End (4-4-2): Nash; Alexander, Mawene, Lucketti, Davidson (Davis, 82); Sedgwick, Etuhu, O’Neil (Jones, 75), McKenna; Cresswell, Nugent (Agyemang, 70). He has also brought in the experienced Danny Dichio.What Adrian Boothroyd, Davies’ counterpart, would give for such stability. Clarke Carlisle was still acquainting himself with his new defensive partners at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon, the second of two transfers in the space of 48 hours.The first was Darius Henderson, who headed home cleverly during a period of Watford dominance that was ended by David Nugent’s well-taken effort from 20 yards and Dickson Etuhu’s waltz through the home defence that concluded with a firm shot.Yet Flintoff and his ilk should not be deceived by Davies’ apparent lack of confidence: things are looking good already.Goals: Henderson (9) 1-0; Nugent (22) 1-1; Etuhu (37) 1-2.Watford (4-4-2): Foster; Doyley, Carlisle, DeMerit, Stewart (Bouazza, 79); Young, Blizzard, Bangura, McNamee (Chambers, 61); Henderson, King. The fans have got great expectations, but we certainly haven’t.”For all that, Davies can still count on virtually the entire team that underperformed against West Ham in May, and has only lost the winger Eddie Lewis. “When you look at Wolves, Norwich, Crystal Palace, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday, we’re nowhere near that league.”You’ve got to be realistic. So what can supporters of the Lilywhites – Ashes hero Freddie Flintoff included – expect? According to Billy Davies, avoid relegation and possibly scrape into the top half of a division that includes the likes of Luton, Crewe and Plymouth Argyle, not to mention a Watford side beaten quite comfortably.
Davies’ crushing lack of ambition is backed up by a belief that they are once more minnows in a division full of sharks, or at least some big fish.

Preston fans, look away now. Your manager believes that last season’s play-off final appearance was not a harbinger of great things to come, merely an unexpected bonus for a team that overachieved. They played a little more defensively and a bit more direct.”Wenger ruled out moves for either of the Lyon midfielders Michael Essien – who may join Chelsea today – or Mamadou Diarra. Wenger is interested in Jermaine Jenas, but not at the price quoted by the Newcastle United manager, Graeme Souness, of up to £20m, which he said was “crazy” “We are not interested at that price,” Wenger said “I’m not especially ‘on’ any player at the moment.”. “It was a very even game and Chelsea were dangerous with the long balls,” he said.

“They would go very direct and we tried to play more our usual game.” Wenger added: “I’m not here to judge Chelsea They play their game We play ours I just feel that Drogba gave us a hard time. He didn’t lose the ball and he controlled the game,” Wenger claimed. He admitted that Arsenal struggled with Chelsea’s physical, direct style. He said that Chelsea were keen to emulate “what Arsenal and Manchester United have done for many years” and dominate the League.The Arsenal manager, Ars? Wenger, was encouraged by his side’s display – especially that of Cesc Fabregas, who had an “outstanding game” replacing the departed Patrick Vieira “He scored. They are a great team and it maybe helped that we scored the first goal and after that our confidence was bigger.”The Chelsea captain, John Terry, said that the result was “psychologically a massive boost” for the Premiership champions before the new campaign. But it is better to win than to lose.”
Mourinho added: “We were the best team and deserved to win. Both teams were good but we scored a goal and after that the game was difficult for them.”Mourinho also praised Arsenal “They showed the team they are,” he said “A potential team to fight with us for the Premiership.