On a rain sodden evening in West Yorkshire, Leeds managed to beat Partizan by one goal on the night, to complete their overall aggregate win - by 4-1. Darren Huckerby scored a second half winning goal of a disappointing game.

To read a full report, click here.

There was a real mixture of good and bad news coming out of the United camp today. Firstly, there was some promise that Captain Radebe, who picked up an injury in Saturday's game against Newcastle, might still be fit enough to play against FK Partizan on Thursday. However, with a 3-1 lead to take into the second leg, O'Leary surely won't risk Lucas unless he's 100% fit.

Elsewhere, there were England U21 call ups for Mills, Bridges, Smith, Robinson and Bowyer. Of course, all five were picked by Wilkinson last time round but, with the exception of Mills, the rest all pulled out through injury. The game will take place at the Bradford and Bingley Stadium, Bradford - otherwise known as Valley Parade - so the five should be guarranteed an interesting welcome, to say the least.

Of course, the only disappointment connected to the above is that, with Bows selected for the U21 squad, he has obviously been overlooked once again for the full squad. Keegan witnessed Lee's all star performance against Newcastle on Saturday but, for some reason, still doesn't believe he's ready to play at the very highest level. Puzzling and disappointing!

After what turned out to be months of negotiations, Lee Bowyer has finally signed a new four year contract with the club. The official reason being given is that the midfielder changed agents half way through the negotiations. Whatever, supporters will be relieved to hear that one of our brightest stars is now contracted to us in the long term.

Elsewhere, O'Leary has today been fuming over this season's UEFA Cup - and rightly so. He has been pointing out the injustice that, at the third round stage, teams who have not managed to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League will be dumped back into the UEFA Cup. That's despite the fact that, to get to that stage, Leeds will already have had to play four tough matches.

He branded the competition as "an absolute farce," adding it's almost like UEFA Chiefs are saying,"If you don't do well in the Champions League, there's something else you can go and dominate."

In a newly structured Worthington Cup third round draw this afternoon, United were given a tricky looking tie against First Division Blackburn Rovers. Although not making the most dynamic start in a division they were expected to dominate, following their relegation from the Premiership last time round, they will no doubt be fired up for this tie - to prove they can still mix it with the big boys.

The new style draw enables supporters to second guess who they might meet in the later rounds. If we successfully overcome Rovers, we will meet the winners of the Leicester v Grimsby tie. Of course, the former knocked us out of the competition at the same stage last season. Following on from that, a certain amount of guesswork comes in. However, putting on my Mystic Meg head for a moment, how about Tottenham in the fifth round, Man Utd in the semis and Chelsea in the final? Now that would be interesting!

In a superb game at Elland Road this afternoon, United beat Newcastle 3-2 - to take us to second place in the Premiership. During a first half which we dominated, we quickly amassed a two goal lead. However, after spurning numerous clear cut chances, a free kick put the geordies back into contention just before the break. When Shearer grabbed his second during a second half where the Geordies were far more in the game, things started to look a little dodgy. However, a late goal by Bridges earned us all three points.

To read a full report of the game, click here.

With United looking forward to the Newcastle clash tomorrow afternoon, there were unusually flattering words from Geordie and England Captain, Alan Shearer, today. According to Mr McDonalds, Leeds can be Premiership Champions within three years. Unusually kind utterings from Mr Shearer, who has had an unhappy knack of scoring goals against us over his career. Surely, he couldn't be indulging in a little kidology?

Did you know that the draw for the third round of the Worthington Cup will be made this Sunday afternoon, at 3.15 on Sky? At this point Leeds, along with the other teams involved in European tournaments, will join the competition - making 32 clubs in all. In essence, what that means is that we will be only four possible wins away from a Wembley appearance and five from winning the competition - and gaining European qualification for next season. With this in mind, David O'Leary will surely take the Cup seriously, as he did last time out when we were rather unfortunate to lose out, in injury time, to eventual finalists, Leicester. The competition offers the club a great opportunity to put some silverware in the trophy cabinet: important if we are to start repaying the faith that so many experts appear to have in us.

Another interesting point about the weekend's draw is that it will be done completely differently to previous years, in the style of a World Cup or Wimbledon draw. In other words, although there will be no seedings, the draw will be separated into a top and bottom half - and supporters will be able to plot their teams' possible progress to the final. It should add alittle interest, if nothing else.

Lee Bowyer's tackle on Paul Ince, which earned him his fifth yellow card of the season, on Sunday, means he has already reached his first suspension, just eight matches into the new campaign. As a result, he will now miss the game at Vicerage Road on October 3rd.

Still on the subject of disciplinary problems, it came as no real surprise today to hear that David Batty had received a two match international ban, following his late sending off in the recent England v Poland game. Unfortunately, the ban does not include friendly matches: only competitive ones. In essence, what this means is that - should Sweden do us a favour and beat Poland in their next Euro 2000 qualifier - Batty would miss both legs of the ensuing play offs.

Finally, returning to the subject of Bowyer, it came as something of a surprise to hear, at the weekend, that after months of negotiations, Lee still hasn't put pen to paper to sign a new contract - a point that has been kept fairly quiet from official sources, especially following the wrangling over Jimmy's contract. Although I'm not comparing the two, I think it does highlight the fact that, no matter how committed and 'die-hard' our heroes are on the pitch, there's only one real motivation off it. We aren't living in the days of Charles and Bremner any more!

I had to laugh, whilst reading the Official Club Programmes over recent weeks, and skimming over the so called "in depth" 'On the Spot' section, where United players reveal their "inner self" (honestly, that's a real quotation!) One of the sections asks "If you could persuade Tony Blair to change one law, what would it be?" So what did Woodgate, Bakke and Mills all suggest? Increase the minimum wage? Bring down hospital waiting lists? No....reduce tax, of course! I mean, I just don't know how they manage to scrape by, do you?

Leeds moved into second place in the Premiership tonight, following a 2-0 victory against Middlesbrough at Elland Road this afternoon. Although hardly a vintage display, we did enough to win - and Boro could have few complaints. Elsewhere, West ham lost 1-0 to Everton, enabling us to climb to our highest position of the season, so far. We are now four points behind Man United, having played the same number of games.

To read a full report of this afternoon's game, click here.

United today announced that they were close to finalising new deals for kit design and sponsorship - with Nike and Bulmers the two companies most likely to be involved.

United have been looking for some time for a new kit designer to replace Puma. They look to have hit the jackpot with Nike, with the company reportedly willing to pay United over three times what the Puma deal was worth. That would appear to be around £2.5 million a year: £10 million over the proposed four year deal.

The sponsorship deal with Packard bell also runs out at the end of the season and the computer company, although more than happy with their investment, will not be renewing. This paves the way for Bulmers to step in with another multi-million pound deal. Intriguingly, if the deal does go through, as seems likely, Leeds will run out next season with "Strongbow" enblazoned across their chests!

Leeds beat FK Partizan 3-1 in Heerenveen this afternoon, thanks to a brace of goals from Lee Bowyer and a collector's item from skipper Lucas Radebe. To read the full match report, click here.

For some reason, FK Partizan Belgrade have decided to indulge in a bit of kidology on the eve of their UEFA Cup tie against Leeds in Heerenveen. Despite the fact that United were keen to play the game in Yugoslavia, our opponents have accused us of being "too scared", of using "dirty tricks" and of "plotting".

What's more, they promise to teach us a "footballing lesson" tomorrow afternoon. Watch this space!

On the selection front, the situation is reasonable for O'Leary. However, with Michael Duberry suffering from a thigh muscle injury. the Leeds boss will be hoping that Jonathon Woodgate has recovered fully from the back strain which kept him out of the starting line up on Saturday.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it appears that United shareholders will reject the BSkyB bid, at a meeting on October 4th. It is public knowledge that Peter Risdale and the Leeds board regard the deal as a good one - but it will be the shareholders who will have the final say. Despite the fact that it would inject £13.8 million into the club, which Risdale has promised to O'Leary for immediate team strengthening, it might be that the shareholders believe an even more lucrative television deal could be just around the next corner - and so don't want to have their hands tied by Murdoch's empire.

Leeds beat Coventry 4-3 in an absolute thriller at Highfield Road this afternoon. For a full match report, click here now.

After all that's happened recently, nothing should surprise us any more...and sure enough, there was more farce this morning, relating to our ill fated UEFA Cup tie with FK Partizan Belgrade.

There were worries this morning that Tuesday's away leg might be in jeapordy, following the difficulties the Partizan club were facing over receiving their visas in time. At one point, there were even rumours that they might be expelled from the competition, leaving United with a bye to the next round.

However, apparently, everything is now sorted out and the game will go ahead as planned, kicking off at Heerenveen next Tuesday at 4.30 pm (our time).....but keep watching this space!

Meanwhile, United have the not so little matter of a Premeirship trip to Coventry City to consider, tomorrow afternoon. For a full match preview, click here.

David Batty is clearly a more complex character than meets the eye. On the surface, you would think that what you see is very much what you get: a dour Yorkshireman, passionate about his club and country and with Leeds blood running throughout his veins. On the football field, you get the feeling that he would die for the cause.

Yet off the pitch, this die-hard passion seems to disappear before your very eyes. Whether it be the World Cup penalty miss or last night's sending off against Poland, you get the feeling that it's all just a job of work, not a matter of life and death and certainly not worth worrying about. As a supporter, it's difficult to reconcile the two views. Personally speaking, on one level I admire his honesty and plain speaking rationality. After all, it is only a game. Yet, as die hard supporters, rationality and logic don't often play much of a part in our thinking. We tend to go more for Bill Shankley's oft quoted pearls of wisdom that football isn't a matter of life and death...it's more important than that! Batty says:

"There is nothing I should feel ashamed about. It wasn't a case of getting wound up, because I never get wound up on a field. I just went into a challenge which was late, their player made a meal of it and the referee gave me a red card. I've no complaints."

I wonder, however, when he has served his likely two match suspension, whether Keegan will feel quite the same way.

I'm speechless! After almost a fortnight of farcical UEFA bumbling, Leeds eventually got to find out today when and where they would play their UEFA Cup away tie against FK Partizan Belgrade. But even then, it wasn't straightforward.

United were informed earlier thast the tie would definitely take place in Holland. In itself, this isn't a bad thing - and is certainly an easier option than travelling to Russia or the like. However, the original choice of ground - the home of Vitesse Arnhem - was rejected by the authorities, despite the fact that it has a capacity of 26,000. Not a lot perhaps, but rather bizarrely, the new choice of venue - at Heerenveen - holds only 13,500. Another rather puzzling decision and one that understandably concerns Leeds' Chairman, Peter Risdale, wary that ticketless United fans could be provoked into trouble: "Unfortunately our reputation abroad is not good because of fans' indiscretions in the past."

Another unhelpful development is the decision to switch the date to next Tuesday, with a 4.30pm kick off. That means that United will be playing a crucial cup tie just three days after an away game at Coventry. Again, it is easy to understand why O'Leary is complaining that his preparation has been hampered by all the alterations.

Talk about confusing! On Friday, I talked about the FK Partizan situation, explaining how it now looked as though the second leg would be played at a neutral venue rather than in Yugoslavia. Well, despite the fact that UEFA have still not decided on exactly where this will take place, they have ordered Leeds to revert back to the original mechanics of the draw: in other words Leeds, as the 'away' side will host the second leg of the tie, not the first. This will now take place on Thursday September 30th, at Elland Road.

The Club have said that, despite the changes, original ticket information stands - so presumably season ticket holders still only have until September 8th to claim their seats. What does seem even more difficult to fathom is how any Leeds fans wanting to make their way to the away leg will be able to sort out travel arrangemets at such short notice. With just over a week to the trip, they're not even sure which country they'll be travelling to!

Having had the door well and truly slammed in our face when pursuing English based forwards, O'Leary and Risdale have now done the sensible thing and looked for better value on the Continent.

With numerous European Championship qualifiers taking place over the weekend, as well as mid-week, the United delegation are rather spoilt for choice. However, despite the obvious secrecy involved, speculation was today mounting that their destination might well be Rotterdam - and one of the few places where a friendly fixture is taking place: Holland v Belgium on Saturday evening.

A possible target emerging is Dutch superstar, Ruud Van Niestelrooy. Although hardly an household name over here, the player scored 31 goals for PSV Eindhoven last season, as they qualified for the Champions League. He was duly awarded Dutch Player of the Year and is reportedly high on the wanted lists of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, to name but three.

So why would he choose Leeds? Well, rumour has it that, having seen his fellow Dutch international team-mates settle so well in the Premiership (Not mentioning a certain Mr Hasselbaink, of course), he would quite like to play in England. How true this is only time will tell. However, if we can put to one side our recent problems with Dutch centre forwards, he may well represent a better investment than is available on the British market. Whereas Leeds would apparently need to offer the entire Hasselbaink transfer kitty to even get Leicester remotely interested in talking about selling Heskey (He's surely worth about half that amount), Van Niestelrooy should be available for £10 million or less.

All eyes will be on Wembley this afternoon, as England aim to brush Luxembourg aside, in preparation for next week's crunch game, against Poland. Despite diplomatic protestations to the contrary, anything less than a convincing victory against today's opponents would be unthinkable: I heard Mark Lawrenson, on Radio 5 yesterday, refer to them as a "pub team". Let's hope that's not tempting fate!

As predicted by most pundits, both Martyn and Batty will start the game and indeed, with Seaman out injured for both games this week, Nigel has a chance to prove himself as automatic first choice.

The confusion surrounding our UEFA Cup away leg against FK Partizan continues to grow - with one reputable Internet news source even claiming that the teams will be playing away in the first leg. This is clearly not the case.

However, it now seems highly unlikely that Peter Risdale's views (see yesterday) that United might be able to play the game in Yugoslavia will come to fruition. UEFA, the FA and the Foreign Office are all indicating that the match be played at a neutral venue - with Russia emerging as a front runner.

Of course, the first leg will tke place at Elland Road on Thursday September 16th. Tickets are on sale to season ticket holders until the close of business on September 8th.

Speculation was growing today that Leeds would be willing to play the away leg of their UEFA Cup tie, against FK Partizan, in Yugoslavia. Peter Risdale hoped that this would "build bridges", saying, "I've always believed sporting links should pervade political problems." An admirable attitude, although - as he himself pointed out - United would need to receive firm assurances from the authorities concerning the safety of both players and fans.

There was good news today concerning Alan Smith's sending off against Tottenham, on Saturday. It now appears he will only receive a one match ban. This means he will miss our next game, away to Coventry city a week on Saturday. A relief, considering the rather controversial dismissal.

Having selected five United players for his first England U21 squad, Howard Wilkinson now has only one: Danny Mills. The other four - Robinson, Bowyer, Bridges and Smith - have all backed out. Despite the fact that all four played a part in Saturday's win at Spurs, the official reasoning is that they have all been suffering from niggling injuries of late.

Elsewhere, United have announced ticket prices and details for the forthcoming UEFA Cup tie against FK Partizan. The home tie - which has been switched to take place first - will be played on Thursday September 16th. To their credit, United have once again kept the prices down - to ensure a good crowd: