Leeds United V Luton

Saturday 5th April 2025 - Kenilworth Road

2024/25 Season

It’s been a very emotional week for me personally because yesterday saw the anniversary of my baby daughter’s sudden death from an undiagnosed heart defect. Tomorrow also sees my late husband’s birthday so alongside the Chris and Kev tributes it all hit home for me and plenty of tears have been shed. Thank you to everyone for the support you have given me with words and hugs because they are all greatly appreciated.

With another 12.30pm kick off, it was an early start as we left Leeds at 5.30am stopping at Stevenage getting to the ground in bright sunshine. I needn’t have worried about being under the stand and not getting any sun, as my seat was at the side. As it was cold this morning when we left, I’d been well prepared despite knowing the weather would warm up by kick off. Well done to Luton for their support in the 25th minute with the round of applause for Chris and Kev with flags in the Leeds end and everyone turning their backs in tribute to the lads.

With Farke making the decision to drop Meslier and put Darlow in goal, it had taken the sting out of the social media emotions. All I wanted from today was to keep things in our own hands, battle and fight for 90 minutes. As we all know now, we got a draw which means Burnley had leapfrogged us to go top. Although it is still not over yet as we have chances, we need to up our game if that’s the case.

Team:  Darlow, Ampadu, Struijk, Bogle, Firpo, James, Solomon, Piroe, Tanaka, Gnonto, Rodon.

Subs:  Bamford for Gnonto (63), Aaronson for Piroe (79), Struijk (injured) for Wöber (86), Byram for Bogle (87), Schmidt for Solomon (87).

Subs not used:  Meslier, Gruev, Ramazani, Guilavogui.

Leeds drew the game 1-1 coming from behind with a James goal (28).

Attendance:   11,867, 1,400 Leeds fans.

Referee:  Thomas Bramall.

Booked:  Bogle, Solomon.

Leeds started off on the front foot which saw their keeper save from Firpo before another attack saw him save a Solomon shot. Luton then took an early lead after counter attacking and winning the ball on the far side before racing towards our goal in front of the Leeds fans. When they crossed over to our side their man was in loads of space having no one marking him, to hit the ball into the net. That was disappointing but Leeds fought back to equalise with a fantastic goal by James 15 minutes later. Level terms at half time gave us some hope. 

Darlow had to make an important save at the start of the second half. It took a while before Leeds suddenly looked to get the impetus to attack when Bamford had come onto the pitch for his first game after a long injury. After a powerful header out of defence by Rodon which was picked up by James to run onto, he passed to Bamford who saw his low shot parried by their keeper. James got behind the Luton defence again and sent a great pass across the box with Solomon coming in at the far post only to see the ball go wide. Bamford got on the end of a Tanaka forward pass, but their player caught up with him and closed him down. His pass to Schmidt saw the ball taken off the latter’s toes. With Leeds getting on top, Luton made subs that took the sting out of the game as they took such a long time. At times we were very slow in our build ups playing across the back, but it did feel that we wouldn’t get the winner despite 8 minutes of injury time.

Looking back at the playbacks, their keeper spilled every shot from us but sadly no one was near enough to follow up and stick the ball into the net. It's still not over, there are going to be plenty more ups and downs and we go again on Tuesday against Middlesbrough. We’ve got to keep fighting despite the draw today and never give up.

After hearing that our last home game against Bristol has now been moved to the Monday night with only three weeks’ notice, I feel sorry for so many of our fans who are now unable to attend. Hearing some of our Irish fans were not only attending the game but had flights and hotels booked, shows the high impact this will have had on many. It is time the 3pm kick off blackout is consigned to the bin so that games do not get moved at the last minute. Fans will still go to the games despite them being on TV, as well as ensuring fans around the world can watch their team too.

Many of you will know about the CDs we recorded with over 200 songs and chants from the terraces from the 1960s until 2018. On 24th April we will have 99 of these songs and chants being available for downloading from sites such as Spotify. As before, any monies raised will go towards the Leeds United Foundation/Academy. Hopefully our fans who used modern sites to listen to music will help support this.

Thank you to those who have given great feedback from my new website going live. If you haven’t seen it yet, please have a look at www.followmeandleedsunited.co.uk and you may just find yourself included in the photos from each game on the Matchday link. I will still post my blogs as I have been doing but the website will have everything in one place even though it is still work in progress. Also thank you to Kevin Smith from Harrogate for the Leeds United LP Marching on Together Leeds United Greatest Hits, Golden Anniversary Collection. I’m looking forward to listening to this.

I pulled into Hartshead Moor services on my way home, rejoining the motorway a short time later with blue lights bearing down behind me. When I got level with the two cars at the side of the road, one was facing towards me and the other in the right direction. It puts it all in perspective for me. After having a robin serenading me in the garden yesterday as I was having a quiet moment, I do feel I’m being looked after by loved ones.

See you Tuesday, LUFC – Marching on Together!