Leeds United add Southend match to preseason fixture list

Leeds United have added an additional preseason fixture to its already busy fixture list. Leeds will travel to Roots Hall to take on Southend United on 22 July.

From the club’s official website:

We are pleased to announce an additional pre-season fixture against Southend United on Sunday 22 July.

The fixture will take place at Roots Hall stadium; kick-off is scheduled for 2pm.

The first-team squad will return to training on Monday 25 June and they will be based at Thorp Arch throughout the summer.

Southend United finished 10th in the League One table last season. Southend has never played in the top division of English football, and they’ve spent two periods in the second tier. They were in the old Second Division in 1992 when the Premier League broke away, and they continued in the “new” first division until they suffered back-to-back relegations in the 1996-97 and the 1997-98 seasons to send them to the lowest rung of the English Football League.

They made the Championship again in the 2006-07 season, but they were relegated along with Leeds to League One. They played six fixtures against Leeds in League One until Leeds were able to gain promotion back to the Championship. Leeds United’s overall record against Southend is four wins, two draws, and three losses, with all of them coming during the period between 2006 and 2010, with one loss coming in the League Cup at Elland Road, four days before beating them in the Championship in October of 2006.

Leeds will now face six teams in preseason, with all but one of them away from home. They will play Forest Green Rovers on 17 July, York City on 19 July, Southend 22 July, Oxford United 24 July, Guiseley 26 July and host Spanish club Las Palmas at Elland Road on 29 July.