A fans eye view of Sunday's FA Cup semi defeat against Cheleea.

Living 90 miles south of Elland Road has its advantages sometimes and Sunday was one of them.

I didn't get up until 7am, showered, picked my "lucky" outfit, LUFC "smiley" traccy top and last years away top and even had time to read the excellent "Follow me and Leeds United" written by Heidi Haigh. Heidi had already set off from Elland Road. As we didn't start our journey south until 9am, the Leeds supporters coaches had obviously passed by the time we hit the M1.

We travelled 90 minutes or so to Milton Keynes, a regular travel-plan for away games in London for us! Ample parking a stones throw from the station, regular trains to London and a 'Spoons just around the corner!

Fed and refreshed, we exchanged a few plesentries with fellow Whites fans on the platform and the mood was quietly confident amongst us.

Me and three of my four sons did our pre-match ritual of taking a Tequila Rose shot each, albeit the Aldi version. Im not sure if I can say the word "Big Girl's Blouses" these days but it all started before West Ham and we carried on the tradition for Scum, Wolves and Bournemouth. So it had to be done!

Changing at Watford Junction, there was a large number of Leeds fans and just a handful of Chelsea on the "Lionesses Line" bound for Euston via Wembley Central which hopelessly confused me and others but this basically translates to an overground not underground service! It was packed, as well as Leeds fans there was the odd Londoner going about their Sunday business.

We arrived at Wembley Central for the 15 minute walk up to the stadium. Quite a few Leeds fans, not just trying to get into the couple of pubs which were open. Id necked a couple of ciders in the car down to MK as I wasn't driving, one in 'Spoons plus the shot I was more than happy with my fill! As well as hearing the horror stories of Wembley prices, one claiming four cans of Stella tipped into plastic glasses would set you back £28 (the same product in a supermarket would cost you £6-7). In fact this "deal" was only £25.50! A pint of Carling was £7.60.

I was surprised how little security intervention there was, im unsure if we went through an airport style metal detector, a quick sniff from a labrador drugs dog and I was politely asked to remove my cap having entered through the e-turnstiles.

As we were in the upper tier, it was five escalators up to the concourse, which was packed, the Leeds fans in great voice and clearly not bothered about paying over the odds for average beer. We took our seats and a free, yellow scarf with the Lowfields tiling design and MARCHING ON TOGETHER had been left on our seats.

The usual applause for the lads coming out to warm up, then the build up. Wembley's "resident DJ" tried abd failed miserably to get the beer monsters off the concourse and into the stadium to build up the pre-match atmosphere. After a medley of dance "classics", she seemed to play a Madness mix for them, I think Suggs once said he was a fan and who else but the Kaisers for us!

Things did get going when the Chelsea matchday announcer was handed the mic and introduced Alan Hudson, I couldn't really hear what was being said as like for the majority of the match the Leeds fans drowned out the locals. There were a few gaps in their end and when they did the pre-match anthems, "Blue is the colour" was meant to be accompanied by mass flag waving, co-ordinated by blocks of blue and white. It didn't quite work with the missing numbers but I will admit Chelsea did have a better tifo- then again, we're Leeds United, we don't need a tifo or a drum!

Despite having a foot in both camps, Tony Dorigo was our special guests and made no secret he was backing us. He was also awarded a legacy cap, Mick Jones the scorer of our only FA cup winning goal was the first recipient of this award last month.

Like I said earlier, we got free scarves again. I'm assuming that we don't get flags is due to what happened in August 2021 for our first home game of the season post promotion and pandemic v Everton where some of our more gung-ho supporters redeployed them as projectiles. But the scarves looked brillant as "Marching On Together" boomed out.

The stadium roof surely would have blown off had Aaronssen taken his early chance. Tanaka had a decent free-kick in Stach range but the first-half settled into a depressing pattern of Chelsea keeping possession without really threatening us and us chasing shadows, looking like we'd run the London Marathon earlier that day.

Clearly confidence was an issue and Leeds seemed to suffer again from big stage fright. We seemed incapable of getting the attacking threat of Okafor and DCL into the game.

But on 23 minutes, Struijk had his very own "Brendan Ormsby moment", like the Leeds captain in our previous FA Cup semi he'd had a good season but switched off to allow our opponents to score. Thirty-nine years on it was Fernandez who outjumped James Justin and the team who had lost five of their last three-matches were in front.

I didn't see the DCL "violent conduct" incident on Cucarella. I wryly joked had he pulled the Spainards mane? Ironically the scum fans have been going apopleptic about it this morning, but ex ref Keith Hackett said it wasn't a red so thats good enough for me.

Had it been a red and if Pedro's effort had gone in off the post, it would have been all over by the break. To give Farke some credit he shuffled things about at half-time, replacing Bijol and Justin with Rodon and Stach.

It made a difference and Leeds had much more about them. Okafor crossed with perfection for DCL who should have scored with the header and Stach drew a world class save from Sanchez.

Shortly afterwards Sanchez stumbled back, fell on his arse and set the stage for an impromptu team-talk. I didn't see it at the time but good on Ampadu trying to interupt the shithousery from the club who gave him away for just £7m.

The final 15 minutes flew by and eight minutes time-added on seemed light given their timewasting tactics. We finally got to hear the Chelsea fans, who were singjng "One Step Beyond" by Madness as the final whistle went.

My fears of being surrounded by gloating Chelsea fans were unfounded, I spotted a couple but the sheer volume of Leeds fans around kept them quiet. We trudged back to Wembley Central dispondent but not as disappointed as I was two years ago versus Southampton.

My reasoning is win on Friday against Burnley then our mission to stay up is acomplished. The cup run has been a bonus and has not hindered our progress in staying up. We can win because lets face it a billion pound team like Chelsea had to resort to timewasting to beat us inspite of us not being at our best. Post Southampton, another 46 game Championship season beckoned, a crushing blow after amassing 90 points. Chelsea, despite their woes have players who regularly play in massive stadiums in front of huge crowds. Our players shall be stronger for the experience.

We got back around 9pm. We could be forgiven for never wanting to see Wembley ever again but I dunno about you, like winning at Scum in the league for the first time since I was a nine-year old and our first FA Cup semi for nearly four decades, Im wanting more!

Bring it on! United are back!

Photo: Action Images via Reuters