Leeds United v West Bromwich Albion

Saturday 1st March 2025 - Elland Road, Leeds

2024/25 Season

As I’d to rely on my daughter to pick me up today, it meant a later set off than I intended so we went straight to the ground. It was nice to catch up with fans at the Peacock and in the Kop before kick-off. With the sun shining and despite it being cold, it felt a lovely day for a football game.

Team:  Struijk, Meslier, Rodon, Firpo, Bogle, James, Rothwell, Solomon, Piroe, Tanaka, Aaronson.

Subs:   Joseph for Aaronson (72), Gnonto for Solomon (79).

Subs not used:  Darlow, Guilavogui, Byram, Schmidt, Ramazani, Debayo, Gruev.

Leeds drew the game 1-1 and took the lead with a goal by Firpo (9).

Attendance:   36,705, 1,969 WBA fans.

Referee:   Farai Hallam.

Booked:   None from Leeds.

WBA showed they were up for the game with an early attack that thankfully saw their final shot go wide of the post. That was a relief because I thought it was going into the net and to be honest after seeing replays later when I got home, it wasn’t that far away. Leeds did in fact take an early lead once again when a fantastic cross from James on the wing, saw Firpo head the ball into the net in front of the South Stand. Things didn’t quite go our way for long spells after this and WBA put up a good fight to try and get an equaliser. Their players beat the offside trap with one in space, who took the ball forward as Meslier came out to smother the shot. He did enough to take the sting out of the ball, but the ball continued to go towards the net where Struijk was there to kick the ball away. It was a bit of a warning for us that they were not giving up without a fight. We didn’t heed that warning as they equalised before half time. They floated a free kick to the right of our goal where their man got up the highest and looped the ball into the net. One criticism I have as we defended corners is that there were too many WBA players in acres of space, and we weren’t man marking them. That was different to when they defended corners from us as there seemed to be so many more of their players than ours in the penalty area.

The second half saw Leeds come out fighting with an early attack although Solomon’s shot went over the bar.  As he shot, he was taken out by their player from behind, so it should have been a penalty from my point of view.  We continued an onslaught of attacks that saw shots blocked as WBA defended well. When they managed an attack, I just didn’t want them to take the lead as we had to keep them out at all costs. Not losing had to be a goal as this game wasn’t easy for us at all. Although they got a good cross in, their header went over the bar thankfully. Leeds were very unlucky not to take the lead as Joseph received the ball on the wing in front of the West Stand. He took the ball all the way into the penalty area only to see his shot scrape the top of the cross bar and go over. WBA then got a chance to win the game when they beat our last line of defence who were pressing high and in their half. Their player was way in front of our defence as Rodon charged back to take the ball off their attacker on the edge of our box. Rodon had the ball between his knees and managed to kick the ball away as their player bore down on him. Luckily for us their player came inwards with the ball giving Rodon the chance to get level with him. Our last chance came to James who hit a hard shot that went wide.

With the score even at the end of the game, the main thing is we didn’t get beat and got a point. It was a hard game, which is why I will not get carried away and keep my judgements by what I see happening on the pitch. Our next game sees an early set off for a lot of us as we head to Portsmouth for our early kick-off on Sunday next week. There will still be lots of ups and downs to come as the season comes to the hardest part, but we still have that fighting chance of automatic promotion.

See you there, LUFC – Marching on Together!