Leeds United v Cardiff City

Saturday 1st February 2025 - Elland Road, Leeds

2024/25 Season

Well, the best laid plans didn’t work out today as my aim was to get to Leeds early enough to first go to the Holbeck Club and then to the Peacock. Despite all that, mum’s taxi rolled up at Elland Road at 2.15pm so everything went out of the window. Sorry I didn’t get to see some of our Irish Whites who I was hoping to see at the Peacock. I did see some others though outside the club shop although they weren’t planned. A big thank you to Nikki for passing on my complaint once again about the ladies’ toilets in the Kop via the Supporters Advisory Board. After 2½ years we have finally got a light changed in there! On the 19th minute there was a minute’s applause for young Daniel Grace who was sadly killed in a car crash last week. His family were here today as they are season ticket holders, and I hope they felt some comfort from the tribute he received.

Team:  Meslier, Ampadu, Rodon, Bogle, Firpo, James, Aaronson, Piroe, Solomon, Tanaka, Rothwell.

Subs: Byram for Bogle (66), Gnonto for James (66), Joseph for Aaronson (71), Ramazani for Solomon (71), Struijk for Tanaka (78).

Subs not used:  Darlow, Guilavogui, Gruev, Wöber.

Leeds won the game 7-0 with goals from Aaronson (6), Solomon (13), James (50), a brace for Piroe (65 penalty) (90+5), Joseph (88).

Attendance:   35,810, 1,214 Cardiff fans.

Referee:  Michael Salisbury.

Booked: None from Leeds.

It was another game where we started off on the upper foot with an early goal. Piroe sent a great pass to James and his speed meant he got to the ball before the keeper, rounded him and sent a short pass in to Aaronson to score in front of the south stand. What a great start again. It didn’t take long for us to get a second goal and James was involved in this move once again although from the opposite wing. His pace once again told once he received the ball from Piroe, and as he crossed the ball to the far post, Solomon was there to put the ball into the net to increase our lead. That was a great start, and the first half continued in the same vein with lots of Leeds possession and we were unlucky not get any more goals in this half when James saw his shot saved by the keeper. After both Firpo and Piroe saw their shots go narrowly wide, it was James once again that saw the keeper save his shot. The closer we got to half time, the harder it was becoming for me to keep enjoying the football as the fatigue I’d been feeling in the morning came back with a vengeance. I was wishing for the half time whistle to go and luckily there was only a minute of injury time so was relieved to see us go in 2-0 to the good. When I was asked if I was okay, I was told I looked shattered. As I didn’t have any energy to swing a cat as the saying goes, it was a true reflection of how I was feeling.

After being given some chocolate at half time, I started to come round and luckily for me this half brought a great performance from the team. Within five minutes of the restart James got his just reward for being involved in the first two goals by getting the third himself. Once again, his speed to getting to the far post after a great pass across the box from Firpo saw him in a perfect position to put the ball into the net. That was well deserved.  I’ve always maintained the best form of defence is attack, something I learned well watching the great Don Revie side. Today we were on fire and our attacking down the wings kept creating problems for Cardiff and when James was brought down in the area, Piroe stepped up to take the penalty making it 4-0. Any thoughts of not feeling well had disappeared by now as the chocolate and the goals had made a great impact luckily. James was replaced by Gnonto and immediately he picked the ball up on the left wing and ran towards goal before eventually hitting a low shot into the corner of the net to give us a 5th goal. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen so many goals in a game from us, but it was good to see. We hadn’t stopped by then though as things got even better! As my granddaughter wanted to go to her mum, we made our way down the stairs and someone on our row said, “You aren’t going are you as you’ll miss two more goals?” Well, I’d no intention of leaving but when Joseph put the ball into the net for our sixth, I couldn’t see a thing as I wasn’t on the stairs so had to be content watching the replay. When the fans started chanting for seven, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to see a 7-0 score again at Elland Road. This time I was in the perfect position to see Piroe score his second goal of the game to give us that scoreline. I was going to say no one could have predicted that score but my daughter and friend had predicted this exact scoreline before the game kicked off.

On the whole it was total dominant performance from Leeds United for most of the game and although Meslier made a great save to keep them out, Cardiff were rarely in the game. Another win, three points and a clean sheet to keep us top of the league including a great boost to our goal difference.

I was privileged to have been here the last time we scored 7-0 at home to Southampton in 1972 when I saw a magnificent performance by my hero Billy Bremner and the rest of the greatest Leeds United team ever. They made me the loyal Leeds fan I am today.

With our rearranged game to Coventry mid-week before being back in FA Cup action next Saturday I am looking for favourable scores for both.

 See you then, LUFC – Marching on Together!