Stadiums up and down the Premier League know they cannot afford to be ill-prepared when Leeds United roll into town with one of the most vocal away followings in the country. Week in, week out away fans at Elland Road fail to get anywhere near the noise the Whites faithful has taken to grounds around the division this term.
The definition of a 12th man through the ups and the downs under Marcelo Bielsa, home sides know their supposed advantage can be whittled away by the visit of the Leeds noise. While Wolverhampton Wanderers did not change their seating arrangement exclusively for Leeds, it is still noticeably different from many stadiums, which tend to bank visitors vertically across two tiers rather than horizontally across one long tier.
On Friday night, it was jarring how the seating arrangement seemed to stifle the noise we normally hear from the visiting fans. While normally you have one column of support building noise on top of each other, in Wolverhampton it must have proved hard for one end to hear the other.
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It made for a disjointed effort and songs were unable to get going, especially with the in-stadium DJ drilling 2004’s Clubland anthems so loudly into your ear your ancestors could hear them. In truth, the quality of the football in the first half gave little for the United die-hards to sing about.
After the break, as the match turned, it was only Leeds fans who could be heard. Wolves’ ploy, at least on this occasion, did not have the desired effect of keeping Leeds shackled.
