Brentford         1 (Henderson 70)​

Leeds United   1 (Calvert-Lewin 82)                                                

 

14th December 2025. EPL

17,159.

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The most crucial target for Leeds in this game was to continue the momentum started last week against City, Chelsea, and Liverpool. And that we did without question.

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Brentford have a fine home record this season – one defeat and some useful scalps taken along the way – so no one thought it was going to be easy, and it wasn’t.

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The first-half possession was dominated by the home side, but they did far less with it than Leeds did with theirs. Both keepers had to be alert to stop fierce drives – Noah Okafor blasting at Kelleher from a tight angle after a solo run, and Keane Lewis-Potter testing Perri with a similar strike as halftime loomed. Okafor had one other sight of goal when he hooked a Tanaka header well over the bar. Other than that, and the ludicrous penalty initially given by John Brooks for the softest of challenges by Gudmundsson that was eventually overturned for offside, the first half was hardly memorable, but Leeds managed four shots to three for the home side, and we looked mostly comfortable.

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The second half saw Leeds take more possession than Brentford, and we dominated the shot count, 14-4. Hence, it was a disappointment and surprise that we then conceded the opening goal in the 70th minute. For me, it was even more of a disappointment as it was yet another poor piece of defensive work from Leeds, the one annoying feature we’ve seen even during the otherwise really good performances we’ve strung together recently. This time we were undone down our right side; a simple ball splitting the attentions of Joe Rodon and Jayden Bogle to allow Nico Henry to get to the byline before Rodon could make amends. Henry crossed low to the near post, where Jaka Bijol appeared to be well-placed to knock the ball away, but his miskicked clearance only found Jordan Henderson, and he stabbed the ball neatly inside the post past Perri. It was all well-executed by the Bees, but I’ll be filing it in the ‘soft goals conceded’ folder with many, many other goals we’ve shipped this season; we seldom concede a ‘good’ goal, do we?

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As we saw last week, as soon as Leeds went behind and with so little time left, Daniel Farke immediately switched to a more attacking formation, sacrificed Bijol for Willy Gnonto, and brought on Brenden Aaronson for Ao Tanaka. Once again, it did the trick. In less than ten minutes, Willy Gnonto was curling a delicious cross in towards DCL, and his leap and header were perfection personified to glance the ball past Kelleher. From being just about written off by most Leeds fans as a waste of a shirt only ten days ago, DCL has now rattled in four goals in four games, and he’s finally shown us his complete portfolio – a couple of poachers' goals, a penalty and today one of his trade mark headers.

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On another day, Leeds would have been awarded a penalty when DCL was clearly pulled back, but referee John Brooks, so quick to give the early decision against Gudmundsson for a nothing sort of a challenge, saw nothing wrong; yet another referee who was only consistent in his inconsistency!

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So, in summary, another really decent performance from Leeds against a team that is far better than its league table position suggests. Leeds can take heart from the performance, and Leeds fans can start to think that this level can now be produced week in, week out. I still worry that we are too weak defensively and that, sooner or later, we will not find a reply if we continue to offer up soft goals, but if we could just get a few clean sheets on the board – we’ve not managed one since August – then I think we’d start to climb the table. We are not out of the woods yet, and Crystal Palace next weekend feels like another tough challenge, but we have the fight in us, we have some momentum, and we are finally seeing the players produce their full array of skills on a regular basis. Long may it continue!