00:00My name's Johnny, so we're here at Park Square in Leeds today, where it is wonderful British weather, as expected,
00:06but everyone in Leeds is still really happy about the promotion in May, so we're not letting the bad weather dampen our spirits.
00:12When it comes to Leeds United's stories, stats and trivia, there's not much that LUFC superfan Johnny Cooper doesn't know.
00:20From goal scorers to managers, he's compiled an abundance of quirky insight since becoming a fan.
00:25When I'm at the game, I am just watching as a fan, and I am getting excited, angry, all the other emotions that you get,
00:30but then I will have stats in my head or facts that if that player scores, that's the first time since John Charles or Jermaine Beckford, Mark Viduc, whoever it might be,
00:39and I do kind of find myself going, I need to stop being a saddo, and just kind of watch and enjoy the game, but I can't help it, that's just kind of how my brain's wired up.
00:46The first game was in the year 2000, I won something from Yorkshire Evening Post to get a free tour of the stadium,
00:54so me and mum and dad went to look round the ground before the game, which was amazing, I think it was John McClelland showed us round,
01:01he used to play for Leeds in the 80s and 90s, and then we went to the game in the evening and lost 2-1,
01:06and then my next game was a couple of weeks later and we lost 2-1 in that as well, so I got the bug straight away from that, as you can imagine.
01:11And then one of my other first games was when Mark Viduc had scored four goals against Liverpool in 2000,
01:16which was a really famous Premier League game, and then yeah, from there on I was just absolutely hooked on,
01:22you know, going to Ellen Road was amazing, and then four years after that I got a season ticket, which I've had ever since.
01:29My first season was the first season back in the Championship after we got relegated,
01:32so I've not seen too many years of Premier League football since then, but yeah, looking forward to going back.
01:37John A was approached to combine his love of Leeds United and stats into his debut book,
01:43and he's enjoyed reflecting on the club's journey.
01:45I just loved compiling the statistics behind the players and who'd scored and who was starting every game,
01:51and when we used to go, I used to note it down on the back of the programme, who was on the bench and all that kind of,
01:55you know, nerdy stuff really, but you know, which I do on my computer now rather than the back of the programme,
02:00but that's, yeah, that's always been the same for 25 years.
02:02Leeds' record in the FA Cup has kind of bordered on a joke for quite a long time,
02:06and even, it was like the Don Revy era was when we were great,
02:09and then before and after has just been relatively appalling.
02:13I think we've not reached the quarter-finals since 2003.
02:15But yeah, the stat that I always loved was that Leeds have the record for the most consecutive away ties in the FA Cup,
02:21right back to the beginning since 1872, so 150 years of FA Cup history,
02:25Leeds have the record for the most consecutive away ties,
02:28which is very much a sort of, that's just typical Leeds, to get drawn away 13 times around.
02:32It has to be 13 as well.
02:33Players and managers and teams, they really want to know when they're on top of the records or something,
02:37because, you know, we kind of look at footballers and managers as like,
02:41they're just like way above us, like these higher beings kind of thing,
02:44but they're only human beings, and, you know, I want to get told I'm doing well at my job,
02:47and just like anybody who wants to get told they're doing well at the job,
02:49so that's one thing that I've really tried, especially with the Leeds players,
02:52just to say, look, this is actually, you've done something special there that nobody's done for 50 years,
02:56and, you know, they might see it, they might not see it, but if they do, then great.
