Burnley v Leeds United

Monday 27th January 2025 - Turf Moor

2024/25 Season

We’d had a good journey across the Pennines, a pub stop in Bury and got to the ground in plenty of time before kick-off. Well, that was until there was no common sense applied to the coach parking at the ground. Despite our coach being one of the designated disabled coaches, oh no, we couldn’t go through the cones to stop behind the other coaches. We went round and round the mulberry bush ending up in the same place three times, only to then let us drop everyone off just round the corner from there. The next thing was not being able to take flags into the ground but it’s okay you can leave them all on the first coach. As it was by the time I tried to find the driver, I decided to go back to my coach so at least I’d know where it was at the end of the game. The woman steward apologised to me when I got back into the queue again saying it was the rules. I realised then that Burnley had only just come down from the Premier League, so it was back to sanitised football again. I honestly fail to see what harm flags from fans being displayed at grounds causes, as I love seeing all the different places our fans travel from. I also cannot remember seeing anything official about them not being allowed into the ground but please let me know if this was not the case. It also made me realise what I don’t miss about being amongst the “elite”. Thankfully the kick off wasn’t until 8 so we made it in before it still.

Team:  Ramazani for Solomon (71), Joseph for Piroe (71), Guilavogui for Gruev (90+2).

Subs: Gruev for Tanaka (55), Firpo for Byram (55), Ramazani for Solomon (74), Gnonto for James (74), Guilavogui for Rothwell (89).

Subs not used:  Darlow, Gnonto, Schmidt, Rothwell, Firpo, Wöber.

The game ended in a no score draw.

Attendance:   21,329, 2,283 Leeds fans.

Referee:  Josh Smith.

Booked: Solomon, James, Bogle.

It became obvious quite early in the game that both teams would settle for a point each. There were times when we slowed the ball down, but we also had to defend when we gave the ball away easily in the opening minutes. The Leeds fans were in fine voice throughout the game with one of our better atmospheres. I’ll give Ashley Barnes his due as he took the going bald chant in good spirit. Byram was knocked off the ball at the last minute in the penalty area, but the referee played on. That said, we settled down, but no one would take a chance at shooting from outside the area, possibly because they were quickly closed down by the Burnley defence. It looked like both teams were looking to break quickly which did happen, but overall, the defences held strong as we went into the break on level terms.

The second half saw Leeds still have lots of possession as in the first half but the closer it got to the 90 minutes; I just didn’t want Burnley to suddenly get a goal out of the blue. As the rain got worse, Leeds did try to get a winner when they broke near the end only for James’s great shot tipped over the bar by the keeper. What was infuriating today was the fact that three of our players ended up in the book, but no Burnley players were, even when they were guilty of consistent and bad fouls.

At the end of the day, I just wanted us to get something from this game as it was always going to be a tough one. Not getting beaten was the main thing especially as I will be on BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast at 6.20am today. It felt at times that we were too cautious and if we’d have put more pressure on them, we could have won the game. The main thing is, we got a point and another clean sheet.

I also did an interview for Anders Palm and LUSCOS on Friday for their magazine, talking about Paris in 1975 at the European Cup Final. I’ll never forgive or forget being robbed of our rightful trophy and we will always be, Champions of Europe! Finally, a friend of mine and his family are facing one of the toughest days of their lives this week. I know exactly what they are going through with the recent loss of my husband, so I just want to send them lots of love and hope things go as well as they can.

 See you next week for the Cardiff game with a traditional 3pm kick off.