04-08-07: Wigan Athletic (h) 1-2 (HT 0-1) Crowd (7,469)

Programme:

With Scott W. Mathieson of Stockport as referee in front of a crowd of 7,469, United played host to EPL side Wigan Athletic for their final pre-season game at Elland Road. They lined up: Scott Loach; Scott Gardner, Ben Parker, Rui Marques, Eddie Lewis; David Prutton, Jonathan Douglas, Alan Thompson, Ian Westlake; Tresor Kandol, Jermaine Beckford. David Prutton, Jonathan Douglas, Alan Thompson, Ian Westlake and Tresor Kandol were replaced in the seventy-fifth minute by Robert Bayly, Curtis Weston, Jonathan Howson, Sebastien Carole and Tom Elliott, while a trialist goalkeeper, L. Coritzo, and Fabian Delph were unused on the bench. Jason Koumas put the visitors ahead one minute before the interval and this was equalised by Jermaine Beckford just ten minutes into the second half. But another Koumas goal on sixty-nine minutes sealed the victory. Wigan made three changes at the start of the second half with ex-Leeds Junior, Caleb Folan, replacing Emile Heskey as striker, Paul Scharnertaking over from Denny Landzaat and Antoine Sibierski replacing Julius Aghahowa. After seventy-eight minutes David Cotterill came on for Jason Koumas and two minutes later Tomasz Cywka took the place of Michael Brown, leaving goalkeeper Mike Pollitt midfielder Lewis Montrose and central defender Peter Moore unused. Leeds could be well pleased with their performance and the way they coped with the EPL club who had invested heavily in in new players during the summer break. On the financial front, United had received back their ‘golden share’ on the Friday evening at the cost of a fifteen point penalty deduction for the 2007-08 season. The Football League having deemed that United had failed to come out of administration via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), but the administrators had left and United, as Leeds United 2007 Ltd, were Football League members. The crippling points imposition, while it had a motivating effect in the short term, proved too much for United in their fight for instant promotion at the end of the season.