Leeds United v Plymouth

Saturday 2nd November 2024 - Elland Road, Leeds

2024/25 Season

Having spent the last five days in Scotland with my eldest daughter and three granddaughters being introduced to Cullen by my friend Arnie, we arrived home to find a card from Leeds United. This had been sent to me after the recent loss of my husband Phillip which meant I cried all evening. It was a lovely gesture alongside all the other cards I have received as well as lots of flowers which are greatly appreciated. There was another card today from the Holbeck Club which included Maltese Supporters Club, Shropshire Whites, Norwegians and Irish showing the depth of support from the Leeds United family. It was lovely to meet Mick Jones our greatest number 9 who played in the best team I have ever seen under Don Revie at the Holbeck. His first words were that it’s been ages since he’d seen me. The rapport we had with the players of that era is still evidenced today and I was thrilled to hear him say these words. He had been brought to the game by some Leeds fans and was going in the director’s box. I was aiming to leave home early this morning so I could walk from the Holbeck to the Moot Hall Arms to see Paul Wilson perform but I felt so ill, realising that I hadn’t overcome a recent infection. Because of this I didn’t leave home until later and decided to drive into town after going to the Holbeck only to find the Trinity car park full, so I went straight to the ground from there. Once again, I thank everyone for their comments, words of support and hugs handed out to me. I can’t thank everyone enough for the support given to my family and me. It was also poignant seeing our photo on the Supporters Club page in the programme announcing my husband’s death.

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

Subs: Joseph for Aaronson (66), Solomon for James (66), Chambers for Gnonto (75), Guilavogui for Rothwell (75), Crew for Piroe (86).

Subs not used: Darlow, Schmidt, Debayo, Wöber

Leeds won the game 3-0 with goals from James (30), Piroe (33), Aaronson (38)

Attendance: 36,066, approximately 1,500 Plymouth fans

Referee: David Webb

Bookings: None

I know lots of people were expecting a big scoreline today but as I’d been pre-occupied again, I hadn’t thought too much about what could happen. Instead, as always, I would rely on watching the game and making my decisions that way. As it was, it was more or less one way traffic during the first half despite being turned round to attack the Kop in the first half. That said, we needed to turn that pressure into goals. We came close when Piroe’s shot rebounded off the post but got our reward with three goals in a space of eight minutes. James hit a long range shot from outside the box that hit the top corner of the net to start the goal glut, then Piroe scored from close range with quick reactions before Piroe back heeled the ball which fell kindly for Aaronson to hit the ball into the net. That was a good first half which saw us get our just rewards.

The second half was a lot quieter affair which showed as I was ready to fall asleep. Farke gave home debuts to Chambers, Guilavogui and Crew and the latter was very unlucky not to score with a long-range shot put over the bar by the keeper.

At least we avoided a banana skin today with the predictions of a good win as so many times it hasn’t worked that way for us. Another three points with the win takes our tally to 26 and into second place. Burnley still have to play tomorrow so things can change obviously, and it is still early days. Despite that it is nice to see. We head to Millwall on Wednesday and I’m hoping to be fighting fit for then as I went to an out of hours doctors tonight and have now got more antibiotics that were needed.

See you there, LUFC – Marching on Together!