Leeds United v Southampton

Sunday 26th May 2024 - Wembley Stadium

2023/24 EFL Championship Play Off Final

So, we have finally reached the end of our football season but not with the result we all wanted. After the stress of getting tickets and an 18-hour day leaving home at 4am this morning, the game at Wembley didn’t live up to our expectations. We came close to getting back into the game with a fantastic shot from James and I still feel that if we had equalised, we would have gone on to win the game. I said I hate the colour red, and it has come back to haunt us again but well done to Southampton for getting back up to the Premier League at the first attempt.

We will have another season staying in the Championship but as fixtures will be out in three weeks, the Euros take place and once we know where our preseason tour will be held, it won’t be long before we are back on the terraces again. To be honest I didn’t feel disappointed at the end just resigned to us not winning another play off game. I did think it would be third time lucky with them having beaten us twice already this season, plus our lick had to change one day in the play offs. I think we could have done with having Collar back leading the fans today. We have over 200 songs and chants that we recorded for our CDs, and it would have been lovely to have lots of different ones sung today. Even though we had scarves put on our seats again today, we could not create that 12th man siege we had at Elland Road. We may have had a wall of noise, but we needed to be singing songs in my opinion. I was also sad that we never did a “one Don Revie chant” as it was the anniversary of his death today. I was privileged to have seen the greatest Leeds United team under his tenure and he and that team are why our worldwide fanbase is what it is today. I was touched to be told that I was a credit to Leeds United today because of what I do with my blogs and photos, so I want to say thank you for the compliment which is appreciated.

Last week saw a BBC Radio Leeds interview on Tuesday morning, an appearance on Calendar Friday evening with my granddaughter, a telephone interview on the coach today with BBC Radio 5 Live and a zoom interview whilst in the pub with BBC London. I didn’t realise we were on the TV in the pub until afterwards.

Team: Meslier, Ampadu, Rodon, Gray, Kamara, Rutter, Summerville, Gnonto, Firpo, Gruev, Piroe

Subs: James for Gnonto (66), Roberts for Kamara (74), Anthony for Summerville (74), Joseph for Firpo (83)

Subs not used: Darlow, Cooper, Byram, Shackleton, Gelhardt

Attendance: 85,862 with 36,462 Leeds fans

Referee: John Brooks

Booked: Summerville, Ampadu

Just as the teams came out the heavens opened with torrential rain, and we got soaked. It was lovely to see young Riley leading the team out as mascot and hopefully he had an amazing day.

Southampton’s keeper was the first one called into action with a save from Gnonto and Meslier did well to push the ball away from a free kick. With their player in acres of space, I assumed their player was offside but with no replays etc. and no shouts from our players, I’m assuming one of out defenders played him onside. This turned out to be the only goal of the game. The second half saw Southampton try to double their lead before we brought on Dan James in place of Gnonto. With his shot hitting the upright and their keeper making a fingertip save in the dying moments of the game, what a fairytale ending that would have been for James if they’d have both gone into the net.

Going to Wembley for the play offs has once again been a waste of time and money, despite the good day out with our fans. To me, that means that for next season the only way we will achieve promotion is for us to go up automatically, so we need to aim for being champions.

Enjoy the summer break and thank you to everyone who loves reading my blogs and enjoys having their photos taken.

LUFC – Marching on Together!