Middlesbrough v Leeds United

Tuesday 8th April 2025 - The Riverside Stadium

2024/25 Season

After an emotional week where our scores haven’t been at the forefront of my mind, I’d felt more upbeat today as we headed to the game. Thank you for the support and for caring because that means such a lot to me. I’d decided to go to Don Revie’s statue when I got to Elland Road as I wanted him to give some inspiration to the team. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I said it wasn’t over yet and we still stood a chance. Well, we got behind the team and we got that hard worked for three points. It was harder that it needed to be as we had two perfectly good goals disallowed but well done to the lads for the victory.

Team: Darlow, Ampadu, James, Rodon, Firpo, Bogle, Piroe, Aaronson, Tanaka, Gruev, Solomon.

Subs: Gnonto for Solomon (68), Byram for Firpo (68), Schmidt for James (injured possible hamstring 73), Bamford for Piroe (73), Guilavogui for Aaronson (90+1).

Subs not used: Meslier, Ramazani, Joseph, Wöber.

Leeds won the game 1-0 with James scoring (2).

Attendance: 28,729, 2,622 Leeds fans.

Referee: Andrew Kitchen.

Booked: Byram.

Leeds got off to a fantastic start after Firpo then Solomon passed the ball for James using his pace to get in front of the defence to put the ball into the net. Just what we all needed to settle any nerves. Boro had a goal disallowed when their player ended up with just Darlow to beat but he was miles offside. We kept attacking, which is the best form of defence, as Tanaka put the ball into the net from close range to take a bigger lead only to see that chalked off for offside. We started getting messages from people telling us it was onside and should have been allowed. That was typical as it would have dented Boro’s attacking in my opinion. As it was, we ended up going into the break with the one goal lead.

The second half James was prominent in taking the ball forward, his pace caused all sorts of issues for Boro, and he was also my man of the match. Piroe had a shot saved by their keeper as Boro tried to get back into the game. They got into good positions but luckily for us, they’d mostly left their shooting boots in the dressing room although Darlow made a couple of good saves. We really came under the cosh then as Boro constantly attacked us putting us under severe pressure and we needed to change things as far as I was concerned. It wasn’t much longer before we did make the change then five minutes later Bamford came on making his 200th appearance for us. We ran straight up to the other end out of defence with Schmidt passing to Gnonto. With a great ball into the box for Bamford, he put the ball into the net as we started to celebrate only to see this one chalked off for offside again. We were indignant that it wasn’t offside and once again we were proved right when we got messages again saying it should have been allowed. The disallowed goals would have taken all the pressure off us but as there was only one goal between is, we had to battle hard until the final whistle blew. It was very nervy as Boro came close a few times but thankfully, we saw the game out for a very important win which took us back to the top of the table as Burnley drew and Sheffield United lost.

Swings and roundabouts, ups and downs, it will never be easy supporting Leeds but, keep the faith, get behind the lads and make Elland Road a cauldron of noise on Saturday as we have another 12.30 kick off for the visit of Preston.

See you there, LUFC- Marching on Together!