Plymouth v Leeds United

Saturday 3rd May 2025 - Home Park

2024/25 Season

Well, what can I say but in typical Leeds fashion, they certainly put us through the ringer before winning the game dramatically in the last few minutes of the game. Carnage from then on as the Leeds fans celebrated wildly and as I’d moved over to the side to get my flag; I was in just the wrong place when we scored. I’d moved further down near the front and thought if we score now, it will be bedlam, cue Solomon jinking his way past players hitting a low shot that hit the back of the net. Immediately someone I knew came literally flying over the seats onto the steps behind me when he was pushed and I’m sure I ended up sitting on him as I tried to stop myself falling down the terraces. I think he’ll know about it in the morning and luckily for me I hung onto the handrail but then thought it safer to stay there. The flags had all been put on the cordoned off seats at the front of the stand then just on kick off, the stewards took them all down, so I went to get mine as it had been near the corner flag. I hung it on the side wall but would have been better bringing it back to my seat, as that would have been the better place to be for the team presentation.

After a 21 hour round trip, I thought I’d get plenty of sleep on the coach but for some reason, that didn’t go to plan so I’ll see how long it takes me to post my blog tonight. I don’t think we did too bad on the journeys both to and from Plymouth though and I only encountered road works on my way home just now. I wanted nothing more than to see Leeds get 100 points and be crowned champions but whatever happened, I was proud that we had managed to get automatic promotion with two games still left to play. I wouldn’t take anything for granted though.

Team: Darlow, Ampadu, Rodon, Byram, Bogle, Gnonto, Solomon, Piroe, Gruev, Tanaka, Aaronson.

Subs:  Wöber for Byram (69), Ramazani for Aaronson (79), Bamford for Tanaka (79), Joseph for Bogle (90).

Subs not used:  Meslier, Rothwell, Guilavogui, Gray, Schmidt.

Leeds won the game 2-1 with Gnonto (53) and Solomon (90) scoring the goals.

Attendance:  16,758, 1,637 Leeds fans.

Referee: Jeremy Simpson.

Booked: Piroe, Solomon.

Leeds got into good positions but were very wasteful with chances with none on target. Plymouth had an attack, and their player looked to have the ball stuck to his boot as rode his luck through our players. He unleashed a shot that cannoned back off the upright giving us a narrow escape. Sadly, we didn’t learn from that as our attack broke down and they counterattacked. Their player once again beat our players and crossed the ball from the byline which bounced back off the post and hit poor Byram scoring an own goal. We still got into some good positions and Byram sent a great cross in only for everyone to miss it. How it missed Bogle I’ll never know. Aaronson had a shot saved by the keeper, but it felt a bit of a dé ja vue situation and that we weren’t fighting to become champions on the day. I said that I’d been up since 1.20am and travelling through the night to the game, not them. Whilst queuing up at half time, we were all discussing how the team were putting us through the despair of things not going our way. One girl was really positive saying that we would come out in the second half with all guns blazing. We were all happy with her prediction.

I thought we’d have made some changes at half time but once again, Farke stuck with the same players, and I hoped he’d prove me wrong. Well, it didn’t take long before Solomon sent in a great pass from the byline into the middle of the box and Gnonto ran in to hit a close range shot into the net to equalise. I’m sure Bogle got a touch to the ball before reaching Gnonto. Plymouth had been time wasting and we thought we’d taken the lead when Gnonto picked up the ball to the left of us and hit a shot into the net from a narrow angle, only for it to be disallowed for offside. Replays showed once again that this goal was onside and could have been the difference between going up as champions as Burnley were now winning. That was very frustrating though. As it was, we set up that beautiful finale to send us all delirious with joy. We’d no idea how much injury time there was and then the lad next to me said six minutes were added. Suddenly a Plymouth fan in the left stand started taking the mick out of our celebrations and indicating he wanted to fight the lad next to me. All I was bothered about was the little girl to the left of him who was crying. Plymouth were already relegated which to be honest I thought was a shame as they had amassed 44 points.

As the seconds ticked down, Plymouth had a couple of attacks giving us some anxious moments before the final whistle blew and everyone including the team went nuts. The songs rang out from the Leeds fans celebrating our promotion to the Premier League as Champions with an impressive 100 points. It turned out that Burnley had 100 points too, but our goal difference was far superior thank goodness. Tremendous, joyous scenes both on and off the pitch as the team went off before coming out again to be presented with the trophy. It turns out there was quite a gathering of Leeds fans in the stand to our left too. Happy, smiling and ecstatic Leeds fans although we couldn’t quite believe we had done it. Being able to celebrate the promotion with the team was brilliant because when we last won the league under Bielsa, we weren’t allowed to join in the celebrations due to covid. I’m not sure how long we all stayed in the ground celebrating but what a great feeling it was.

I could say that’s it for this season, but it isn’t. There is the player of the year awards tomorrow, Monday morning I will be on BBC Radio Leeds at 7.10am then a trip to Selby market before the celebration parade in Leeds. Enjoy basking in the feeling and celebrating the joy of promotion and I’m so glad so many youngsters and those who haven’t been able to be there before, have had the chance to experience this. On reaching home, there was sadness that my husband wasn’t there to enjoy this with me, but the sky was filled with stars and the moon shining. I’d like to think these were all the Leeds fans who couldn’t be with us, along with all our legends overlooked by Don Revie. A poignant thought but it made me feel better about it all.

 LUFC – Marching on Together!