Leeds United v Blackburn Rovers

Wednesday 1st January 2025 - Elland Road, Leeds

2024/25 Season

I hope everyone managed to bring the New Year in the best was possible. Personally, as I’ve been ill, I came back round home at quarter to eleven last night, went to bed and just read. I suppose after the year we’ve had in 2024 I was glad to see the back of it, but I didn’t feel like welcoming a New Year in. After the croaky voice I woke up with on the day of the Derby game, I’d gone to the doctor for something unrelated but was checked over as I wasn’t looking well. It was a surprise to hear I’d got a temperature of 38.4 and some sort of flu bug, so have done nothing but rest. It also meant that we didn’t leave home until 1pm today to give me chance to come around. Well, I wasn’t going to miss the game, was I? That said, within 15 minutes of the game I nearly went to the front of the stand to sit down but luckily drank lots of water so managed to stay upright. It was nice to catch up with friends at the Holbeck Club and thank you to everyone for their kind thoughts and messages which were greatly appreciated.

Team:  Meslier, Struijk (Captain), Rodon, Bogle, Byram, James, Piroe, Tanaka, Aaronson, Rothwell, Solomon.

Subs:  Wöber for Byram (45), Ampadu for Bogle (51), Gnonto for Rothwell (69), Joseph for Piroe (69), Bamford for Solomon (69).

Subs not used:  Darlow, Schmidt, Guilavogui, Ramazani.

Leeds drew the game 1-1 with Struijk scoring from a penalty (88).

Attendance:  36,646, 1,972 Blackburn fans.

Referee:  Oliver Langford.

Booked:  Tanaka, Aaronson.

I was under no illusions that it was going to be a tough game today as they had beaten us not too long ago at Ewood Park. They would defend in numbers which always proves a challenge for us. Also it was New Year’s Day….. (happy birthday to my sister Erica by the way). The first half didn’t disappoint as it proved to be very hard going plus you could hear a pin drop in Elland Road it was that quiet. How I long for the days when the crowd got behind the team from start to finish with singing and chanting, as it makes the match going experience so much better plus it buoys the team on. After the horrendous rain over the last 24 hours, it started again during the game, so the conditions weren’t great but when their keeper slipped when trying to kick a ball back, I was only sorry that Solomon had stopped running forward as he thought he’d got the ball. If only he had kept going, he may have been able to get there when he slipped and capitalised on the mistake. Piroe had already nearly caught him out when he was clearing the ball. With chances for either side few and far between it was 0-0 going into the break.

At half time we stayed in the stand as Liam Cooper was back after his recent transfer to come and say hello on the pitch with his two children. He was in the Peacock earlier, but he had already gone by the time we got there. Byram who had a knock on the head didn’t come out for the second half and was replaced by Wöber, it also saw the fans start to get loudly behind the team. Bogle went down injured six minutes after the restart and was also replaced, this time with Ampadu coming off the bench. James and Solomon were seeing plenty of the ball, but we couldn’t find a way through their defence. The referee then made a few decisions that were unbelievable. Their player was “injured or time wasting” but was off the pitch in front of the Kop but he stopped play when we were attacking to come back to see him. For crying out loud it wasn’t a head injury plus he was off the pitch. He had already shown bizarre decisions when one of ours went down at this end as we were attacking towards the South Stand and again, he stopped play instead of playing advantage. The third thing was Leeds were awarded a free kick when Gnonto was fouled. As the defensive wall lined up, Aaronson was told to go and stand next to the wall by a teammate. The referee went up to him and it looked as if he said, “you can’t stand there!” Aaronson then moved to the right and left a gap! Now if it was anything different then fair enough but that was the interpretation of a lot of us as we shrugged our shoulders at the decision. There were a lot of bad fouls committed by Blackburn who were very physical and when Joseph was brought down in the area, the referee pointed to the spot with two minutes of normal time remaining. As we all wondered who would take the penalty, Bamford had hold of the ball. I knew he was kidding them and told someone there was no need to panic as he wouldn’t be taking the penalty. I was right, it was Struijk who stepped up to take it and put the ball into the net to give us the lead. I thought it was lovely seeing both Rodon and Tanaka racing to the far end of the ground to celebrate the goal with Meslier. Straight away some of our fans started singing about us being top of the league but I felt it was too early to sing it as there was still a long way to go. It turned out we had 10 minutes of extra time added on but in fact it only took Blackburn two minutes to equalise from a corner. At this moment I haven’t seen a replay, but I was always worried about a sucker punch, mainly about being caught out too high up the pitch. I’ve seen others say our defending was poor but once we had made our last subs, it was obvious that our shape had gone. When Ampadu came on as sub, it looked like Farke had changed his habits and was bringing on an early sub alongside him.  Gnonto was coming on to the pitch for Rothwell and it was even announced, but then he went to sit back in the dugout. Whether it would have livened the game up earlier I’m not sure but the last 15 minutes had probably more entertainment than the rest of the game with Wöber unlucky not to get a winner in extra time. A draw was probably a fair result though.

When the final whistle went, I was more than grateful that we hadn’t lost the game as it was important for me. At least we got a point and as it turned out stayed at top of the table which I wasn’t expecting to hear. All in all, getting 10 out of 12 points over the Christmas period is excellent and whilst some may think it is two points dropped, realistically, we are never going to win every game.

As we came out of the Kop, it was kicking off between our own fans this time. Apparently, someone nicked a hat off someone who reacted badly to it. Despite it being handed back relatively quickly, things carried on as someone in a white jacket lashed out at others. Then a woman in yellow joined in lashing out too. Well, it’s all been happening at games over the Christmas period as this is the third instance in the last three games. The stewards handled it well though as they “forced” them out towards Lowfields tunnel, and they then headed to the buses. Maybe it was an overreaction especially as lashing out can cause serious damage to people but if the hat wasn’t taken in the first place it wouldn’t have happened at all!

See you at Hull – LUFC - Marching on Together!