Remember Watford? Leeds United were being powered by hope when Watford came to visit Elland Road in December 2013. By the end of the game Leeds were powered by remembering Watford. Remember Watford? Okay. Yeah this is bad. Just, just remember Watford.

Brian McDermott was giving us hope, turning the previous season’s 6-1 home defeat under Neil Warnock into a 2-1 piss on their promotion bonfire at Vicarage Road on the final day. Ross McCormack was giving us hope, spearheading a push for the play-offs by creating and scoring all our goals all on his own. GFH were giving us hope simply by not being Ken Bates, promising investment in the upcoming January window. Leeds fans were up all night for Luke Murphy and drawing McDermott’s face on their thumbs, hoping this was finally the season for getting back to the Premier League.

Five consecutive wins at Elland Road made us even more hopeful, but Watford were a warning of just how hard it can be to get out of the Championship. After Leeds dragged them kicking and screaming out of the automatic promotion places on the last day of 2012/13, they lost in the play-off final to an extra-time penalty, and the man who took them there, Gianfranco Zola, was now on the verge of resigning after one win in nine. But against Leeds the quality that took them so close was still evident, and goals out of nothing from Troy Deeney and Cristian Battocchio put them 2-0 ahead at half-time. The second was scored following a counter-attack led by Hector Bellerin, on loan from Arsenal, before Battocchio’s dancing feet left three Leeds defenders on the floor.

The best McDermott could hope for was sticking with the eleven he started the game with. Three days earlier, he hadn’t made a sub in a win over Wigan, a recurring theme thanks to a bench full of Neil Warnock’s no-hopers, Michael Brown, Michael Tonge, Luke Varney, Stephen Warnock and Adam Drury.

Matt Smith credited McDermott and captain Rudy Austin’s words at half-time for inspiring Leeds to come out “full force” in the second half, as well as the crowd. “With the crowd, I’ve never heard anything like it in my life,” he said. “That’s the best atmosphere I’ve played in, and I’ve never heard noise so loud. At 2-0 down it was the polar opposite to what you’d expect.”

Hope arrived in the unlikely form of marauding left wing-back Danny Pugh, refusing to let Watford clear McCormack’s cross before angling the ball into the top corner to everyone’s surprise. McCormack was soon dribbling down the right wing once again, chipping a pass into the skies high above the Watford defenders’ heads, where Smith barely had to leave the ground while nodding into the bottom corner, levelling the scores just eleven minutes after Watford thought they were cruising to a comfortable win.

Leeds could be accused of being a one-man team when McCormack was in this sort of mood, but he was feeling benevolent even when sneaking behind the defence to deftly nudge Leeds in front. The John Sheridan of the Snapchat generation celebrated by pointing out Luke Murphy to the crowd, eager to acknowledge the clever pass from the £1million(!) signing, who was struggling to live up to the hope he generated by scoring a last-minute winner against Brighton on his debut. McCormack’s goal was his tenth in his last seven games, and made him the first player to score in six consecutive games at Elland Road since Jermaine Beckford. And turning the 0-2 half-time score into 3-2 with twelve minutes left was just what McCormack was about.

Elland Road was no longer hoping but believing, which made it all the more galling when Watford fought back off the ropes and landed a sucker punch, Deeney tapping home when Paddy Kenny was painfully slow getting up after parrying a shot from long distance, to a spot a couple of yards in front of both himself and the now empty net. After coming out swinging at the start of the second half, Leeds were in danger of being knocked out. Watford launched another ominous counter-attack. Joel Ekstrand was facing up to Kenny, one on one, ready to break our hearts. Then Marius Zaliukas appeared on the periphery, sprinting and lunging and blocking to make sure that if Leeds couldn’t win, they weren’t going to lose either.

“I’ve got hope because I know what the players here are like,” McDermott said after the thrillcoaster 3-3. “I also know that if we get [Elland Road] rocking, it’s a difficult place to come. There’s a lot of hope for us, but I keep saying that it’s not about quick fixes. We’ve had so many disappointments over the years at Leeds and we can’t have that any more.”

The performance against Watford became a reference point for whenever Leeds were trailing at half-time later in the season. Away to Forest just after Christmas, Leeds were a goal down until the 83rd minute, while fans were remembering Watford. McCormack equalised, but a minute later Forest scored again. On the cold, bleak New Year’s Day that followed, supporters were trying to drink off a hangover as Leeds were losing 2-0 to Blackburn, optimistically groaning “remember Watford” on the concourse. Smith pulled a goal back, but again Leeds were beaten 2-1. By the end of the following week, they’d also been knocked out of the FA Cup by Rochdale and beaten 6-0 at Sheffield Wednesday. Remember Watford? We hadn’t forgotten. But it’s the hope that kills you. ◉