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Coventry C     0                                 

Leeds United  2 (Piroe 17, Bogle 26) 

 

5th ​February, 2025, EFL Championship.

28,008.

Football is a strange old game sometimes isn’t it? Having thrashed Cardiff at the weekend with a consummate display of clinical finishing, we could easily have matched our seven goal haul at Coventry a few days later. The chances were there and, but for some atrocious finishing this time and some more slack work from the officials it would have been a very similar outcome. As it was, we recorded yet another 2 - 0 result, our signature result this season.

Once again, Leeds were head and shoulders above the opposition – another opposition, like Cardiff, that was actually in decent Championship form having won four on the bounce – and, just at the moment we are in a class of our own. Having said that though, all our missed chances kept the Sky Blues in the game, with hope if not expectation and, but for Illan Meslier, the result could have ended very differently as we proffered a couple of decent chances to the home side.

We started like a train again and Ao Tanaka set the tone when he blasted a shot miles over the bar that should really have at least found the target. Coventry had an early sight of goal too when the useful-looking Rudoni fired one across goal that Meslier did well to hold. But we were only 17 minutes into the game when Coventry hit the self-destruct button.

A keeper’s clearance was met by the boot of Simms who lofted the ball back towards his own goal in error. Manor Solomon could hardly believe his luck as the ball fell to him from a height. Instinctively though Manor knew where Piroe was and his first-time touch put it in the striker’s path. One touch got it onto Piroe’s left boot, and he steered it perfectly inside the right post. Now that WAS a quality piece of finishing!

Barely ten minutes later and the Sky Blue’s blundered again! This was a solo Jayden Bogle effort. He collected just inside the Coventry half on the right wing and, well, he just ran through the Coventry defence. He ran through five blue shirts, then nutmegged a 6th. The ball then got away from him and the home keeper, Dovin, looked to have it safely covered as it rolled harmlessly towards him. Somehow though, Dovin found the ball to be  like the proverbial bar of soap and it squirmed out of his hands back to Bogle. This time Jayden shimmied past one defender and then poked it home past two more on the line. It was the sort of self-destruction we are more used to seeing from us in seasons past!

The chances then started to come for Leeds on a regular basis but we just couldn’t put them away. Dan James fluffed one when Ampadu clipped the ball diagonally over the back line and James ran onto it. He merely had to lift it first time over the advancing keeper but, as we’ve seen him do before, he didn’t get enough on it and hit it straight at the keeper. We’ve seen Dan score and miss similar chances a few times this season.

Then it was Joel Piroe fluffing his lines as he latched onto a through ball from Solomon. With James free at the back post Piroe decided instead to try to blast the ball into the roof of the net from the tightest of angles – like his did recently to better effect. This time the ball climbed over the bar.

The second half was a similar story; chances and poor final balls coming in from the wide men for Leeds and the odd sight of goal for the home side. Dan James fired one over the bar and then shot into the side netting, when on another day he’d have at least made the keeper work. Still only the two goals up, we then offered up another chance to Coventry. A deep cross again found us wanting in the air, the ball was headed back across goal and Simms seemed to have glanced the perfect header inside the right post. Not so! Meslier to the rescue with a save reminiscent of the great Gordon Banks when he famously denied Pele! Meslier somehow scooped the ball away off the goal line. It was a let off.

Solomon then fired a fierce shot that Dovin (great name for a keeper is that!) palmed over the top. But at the other end we had a narrow escape again as another Rudoni cross was inches too high for the substitute Sakamoto; he’d ghosted in unseen at the back post and dived full-length – another warning that we were not at our best today against the , admittedly few, cross balls we had to deal with.

Piroe then missed an absolute sitter as he was gifted the ball in front of goal after another clever run by Solomon. Piroe appeared to try to dink the ball over the keeper from merely five yards but instead put it straight at him. Shocker! It was a tired, sloppy-looking effort from our hot-shot striker.

Ramazani was then in the clear and he shot straight at Dovin; it was another awful attempt. Back at the other end a Coventry corner caused us pain in the air again as Meslier once more had to fly through the air to tip a Thomas header onto the bar. It was Meslier’s best game for months, one of the first times he’d really been needed and yet Leeds were absolutely dominating the game! Very strange. The other factor in the game had been yet another dire set of officials – referee Dean Whitestone being just the latest of many poor refs who seemed totally random in his decision making. Leeds scored what to me looked like a perfectly good goal in the final moments, initially given by the officials. Ramazani got behind the Coventry back line for the umpteenth time, pulled it back and Junior Firpo fired the ball home, probably clouting Willy Gnonto on the line as it went in. If it was indeed eventually disallowed for Gnonto being offside then it was a clear error as he was well onside when Firpo struck the ball. Oh to have VAR eh folks? We were denied an obvious looking penalty (again!) too when Joel Latibeaudiere brought down Brenden Aaronson. For some reason we seldom get them though do we?

So, it finished only 2 – 0 but goodness knows how! The good news is that Leeds dominated and were miles better than Coventry, just adding yet one more game in which we’ve been the better side my miles. There is no doubt that Leeds are far and away the best side in the Championship at this moment and have been all season. BUT, this one could have gone wrong on us. Too many chances missed, too many final balls wasted and then, at the other end, weak in the air, failing to deal with a number of cross balls. Thankfully Illan Meslier rescued us this time. So, while it continues to look like we can dominate every game, we really do need to revert to our Cardiff demolition finishing in future and not our Coventry fluffing.

Now we can have a weekend with no stress as the Lions come to town for an FA Cup tie. I’ve said for weeks that I fully expect Leeds go out of the cup this time; my logic is that I expect us to field a completely different starting XI to normal, utilising the regular bench similar to how we played it against Harrogate. While individually we know those ‘second string players’ are still damn good, they are not used to playing with each other all at the same time. If Millwall play their strongest XI then it wouldn’t surprise me if they sneaked through. To be honest, I’m sure none of us would care; it’s Watford next Tuesday and then the big games with Sunderland and Blades that really matter.

        Game Statistics:

 

                       Coventry Leeds

 

  Possession    46%     54%

  Shots              9         20

  On Target        4           8

  Corners          3           8

  Fouls             11          10

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