Stoke City v Leeds United

Thursday 26th December 2024 - The bet365 Stadium

2024/25 Season

I’m hoping you have all had a lovely Christmas and given your loved ones a special hug as you never know what is around the corner. If you are struggling, then please reach out to others in the Leeds United family who are there to support you, as they have to my family and I since my husband’s death in October. I know I struggled yesterday and was glad when my family took over the Christmas dinner cooking when things got too much. I hadn’t felt brilliant this morning and when my granddaughter came round to set off to Leeds at least it gave me the push I needed. After spending the last month listening to Christmas songs and then since my return from Berlin a week ago listening to German Christmas songs, I decided to go back to listening to love songs on the way to Stoke. Well maybe that wasn’t the best of ideas because as soon as we got on the coach and I started listening to the music, the tears fell all the way to the pub stop. That was the best thing that could have happened, as having the break and something to eat meant I overcame the sadness with the help of our fans. As we walked into the pub in Burton, we were met by comments of “Leeds” by West Brom fans who were in there. They left after 10 minutes as they had an earlier kick off than us.

When we reached Stoke, we parked in a different area than usual as the away fans had been moved to the corner to the right of the goal so could no longer use the coach park.  We then headed to the Power League, because as usual we were meeting up with my friends Ian (a Leeds fan) and Leslie his brother (a Stoke fan) and some others. We go back a long way but it’s unbelievable when I realise how many years have passed by since we first met. Travelling with Wallace Arnold coaches in the seventies brought long time friendships. At least these Stoke fans were nice and not like the woman going nuts after the game as we came out onto the road. I’ve no idea what had happened, but she was very aggressive trying to attack a young lad then walked away. Suddenly she came charging back at him and the next thing a bottle came flying through the air hitting another lad from my coach, then me firmly on the jaw! Whether it was her or someone with her who threw it I couldn’t say, but luckily it was plastic and half full so didn’t cause any damage. I’d certainly recommend some anger management for her that’s for sure. Having endured being ambushed at the graveyard when going back to the station for the football special when Stoke played at their old Victoria ground, this was nothing in comparison thankfully. Thank you to the Stoke Supervisor for his help in getting us into the same area rather than different areas of the ground.

Team:  Meslier, Ampadu (Captain), Struijk, Rodon, Bogle, Byram, James, Aaronson, Piroe, Solomon, Rothwell.

Subs:  Gnonto for James (76), Ramazani for Solomon (76), Joseph for Piroe (79), Tanaka for Rothwell (79), Schmidt for Byram (90).

Subs not used:  Darlow, Bamford, Guilavogui, Debayo.

Leeds won the game 2-0 with a brace from Piroe (43, 63)

Attendance:  24,738, 3,383 Leeds fans.

Referee:  Stephen Martin.

Booked:  None from Leeds.

The Stoke fans had told us that if things didn’t go well today that things could turn very toxic. They also said that they hadn’t been playing well but with it being Boxing Day too, no doubt they would raise their game because it was against Leeds. With bad visibility due to fog that had affected travel to the ground, we couldn’t see the opposite goal very well but Stoke attacked the goal in front of us. As it was Stoke came out of the starting blocks very quickly and Meslier made a good save with his feet then getting the ball, when their speed got them through our defence. Aaronson hit a long strike that the keeper saved then with another attack, James made a good run down the wing, crossed into the middle only for Solomon to mishit it altogether. That was a good chance as it was an open goal and the shot should have at least been on target. The man next to me said that he was getting nervous the nearer to half time it was getting without us scoring. As it was, he needn’t have worried as Rothwell picked out Aaronson who put a perfect ball through for Piroe to run onto to. Their keeper got the ball at Piroe’s feet, but he got to the rebound first then smashed the ball into the net from a narrow angle off the underside of the crossbar to give us the lead. We had to watch the replay of the goal on a phone next to us to see who had scored as we couldn’t see through the fog. That was a good, timed goal for us just before the break.

I said in the second half that I wanted all the action to be down at our end so at least we’d be able to see. Although Stoke had a couple of corners and one attack where they got in front of our defence, but their header went wide, most of the play came from Leeds as we put some excellent runs together. Solomon was running them ragged in front of us, but we came close to making it two when a header from Struijk from a Rothwell corner caused confusion in the box. Bogle sent James down the wing, he beat their defender then crossed a perfect ball for Piroe to head in our second goal of the game.  It was disappointing to see Piroe run to the opposite corner to celebrate instead of coming to the Leeds fans, but then the team did come over to us thankfully. Solomon and Aaronson came close to scoring with the latter’s shot being tipped over the top of the goal by their keeper. I had hoped for win so we could sing jungle bells, so it was good to hear it get an airing as we got another win and three points to put us at the top of the league going into the last game of 2024 away at Derby. As someone said, 23 games to go but as always, I will never take anything for granted where Leeds United are concerned as we have seen things go wrong and been there too many times already. Despite looking way better than other teams recently, there is still a long way to go.

See you on Sunday, LUFC – Marching on Together!