Today Sky announced that they will be covering two more fixtures in the new year, against Derby County and Barnsley. And still there are people who say we’re not famous any more!

Given the frequency of our appearances on Sky in the last few years, it’s something of a surprise that only two of our games so far have been televised. We all know that Sky’s priority is to chase viewing figures, and up until now we’ve been the best supported club in the division, but earlier in the season I was wondering if they were intentionally cutting back on the number of Leeds games.

Was it down to a couple big clubs being relegated from the Premier League in the shape of Newcastle and Villa? Was it down to Massimo’s complaints about the number of times we were televised? Or was it the change of scheduling, so that on most Saturdays the Championship game on Sky is now at 5.30 rather than at lunchtime?

But I needn’t have worried. In a spectacular return to form, Sky will be treating us to a run of five consecutive live games in all competitions, once tomorrow’s visit to Norwich is out of the way. Then after a few weeks off for good behaviour, they will be back to cover our trip to Villa Park on December 29th.

And now today they have announced two more games to take us into the new year, covering the aforementioned matches against Derby (home) and Barnsley (away). I’m surprised that the police have agreed to let the latter game kick off at 5.30, which will allow all-day drinking before a fixture that might give them a little bit of trouble.

This brings us to a total of 10 live games before the end of January, and obviously there may be yet more to follow, especially if we continue of push towards the play-offs. It may be no co-incidence that only three of them were/will be at Elland Road, given Il Presidente’s previous threat to refuse them admission to the premises, so covering our away games is a slightly easier option.

The date of our trip to Huddersfield has also been moved, but that is due to the dog botherers having a live game on the Thursday. It’s now at 12.30 on the Sunday, with the early kick-off due to the police rather than Sky.

Photo: Action Images

Leeds United Polls