Blackburn v Leeds United

Saturday 30th November 2024 - Ewood Park

2024/25 Season

As the coach was picking me up at Ainley Top today instead of me travelling to Leeds, I initially decided I was going to walk there and back despite it being an approximate 45 minute walk each way. When I opened the curtains this morning it was pitch black, no cars on the road making it feel very eerie which immediately made me feel very vulnerable, so I changed my plans and drove there. Despite that, by the time I got to the pickup point, my stomach was churning badly and didn’t stop. It was either everything I’ve been going through of late making me anxious, or it was what was going to happen on the pitch. With over 7,000 Leeds fans going to the game, it was a case of would we turn up?  As things eased once Blackburn had scored, I assume it was the latter. Thank you once again to everyone who took the time to speak to me, have photos taken or gave hugs because regardless of what does or does not happen on the pitch, this is what being Leeds is all about.

Team:  Meslier, Struijk, Rodon, Bogle, Firpo, James, Gnonto, Piroe, Rothwell, Tanaka, Aaronson.

Subs: Triple subs (69) Bamford for Piroe, Solomon for Aaronson, Ramazani for Gnonto, Joseph for Rothwell (82).

Subs not used:  Darlow, Crew, Debayo, Guilavogui.

Leeds lost the game 1-0.

Attendance:  21,942, 7,501 Leeds fans.

Referee:  Lewis Smith.

Booked: Bogle, Ramazani.

I couldn’t help but think when I saw Firpo back after suspension, that we had won every game without him so hoped it wouldn’t be a bad omen. It looked like Blackburn would take the lead when their player saw his powerful header canon back off the crossbar, but the rebound missed the target. It was a warning for us, but it was our turn next to attack when Gnonto dispossessed a Blackburn defender, but his shot couldn’t beat their keeper. Gnonto then saw another shot saved by the keeper. As Blackburn attacked, we struggled with their pace and a nudge in the back saw the referee point to the spot for a penalty. It felt it was a soft penalty to be given but they duly scored from it and although Meslier went the right way, it was a perfectly placed penalty.

The second half saw Leeds up the pressure as Struijk’s header was pushed away by their keeper before Blackburn themselves did the same. Their shot when it looked odds on that they would score a second, deflected over the crossbar for a corner. We thought we had equalised from a corner as Bamford picked up Struijk’s header. Firpo then saw his shot come back off the bottom of the post, but Ramazani put the ball into the net only for the linesman to flag for offside. I’ve looked at the replays a few times to try and work out who was offside, but apparently it was in the build up to the goal. As Leeds piled the pressure on, I felt if we got one goal, we could get another. As it was Struijk and Bamford had a clash of heads in the penalty area and by the time Bamford finished receiving treatment, it had taken the sting out of the game. Despite nine minutes of injury time, I couldn’t see us scoring again. Gamesmanship of going down at the drop of a hat and feigning injury, meant we had no answers to getting around it as we went down to our first defeat since Millwall at the start of November.

As it’s the 1st of December tomorrow with seven games between now and 4th January, we’ll see what happens by then. There will always be ups and downs, swings and roundabouts but realistically at the moment, there are no guarantees about promotion. We haven’t got the euphoria created under Bielsa and it’s a case of Farke getting as many points as he can. It does feel that we would be battered every game if we did go up so hopefully things will improve a lot before we get near the end of the season. There’s still a long way to go though!

See you next week for the early kick off against Derby. LUFC – Marching on Together!