Everton            1 (Barry 76)​

Leeds United   1 (Justin 28)

 

26th January 2026.  EPL

51,979

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It was another one of those games where, had we been offered 1-1 before the start, we’d all have taken it, and yet by the end, it felt like we’d tossed away another two points.

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Leeds totally dominated the first half, and the only gripe we can have about that period was that we only managed to score one. It was another lovely Leeds goal, though, coming in the 28th minute. A bit of head tennis in midfield eventually ended with Anton Stach bundling the ball down the right to Jayden Bogle, who quickly returned it into the path of Stach. His low cross was meant for Dom Calvert-Lewin at the near post, but he couldn’t connect, and it ran through past the back post, about six yards out. Brenden Aaronson first thought he could get to it, but quickly saw that James Justin was racing in and Justin fired into the net. It was no more than we deserved at that point.

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Just six minutes later, we ought to have doubled the lead, and DCL will be kicking himself for not scoring against his former employer. A long clearance by Darlow found the busy Brenden Aaronson, and he took it on a few paces before pushing it wide to the overlapping Bogle again. Jayden's low cross to the near post was met by DCL, but the effort struck the post. He should have scored; this was early-season DCL, not the red-hot one we saw a few weeks ago. Strikers do have scoring streaks, and DCL is not currently in one.

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What happened at halftime, I’m not sure, but the second half belonged more to the home side than the visitors.  Leeds’ passes started going astray, final balls were wasted, and slowly but surely the home side took advantage and seized control; maybe it was the changes the wily old David Moyes made at the break.

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We escaped a couple of times – Justin first crabbing across the pitch and losing the ball, Gueye racing away before feeding Ndiaye, who easily beat Struijk, before getting his shot away, but the big size 14 boot of Seb Bornauw fortunately blocked that effort before it tested Darlow. Then Darlow was tested, but he brilliantly turned away a clever shot from the annoying Barry before clutching a follow-up shot from Gueye. The writing was on the wall, though, and in the 76th minute, we finally crumbled.

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It was too easy, really. Tanaka, on as a sub, failed to stop Gueye getting his cross in, and Struijk failed to stop Barry getting his boot to the ball to smash it past Darlow. Once again, I felt we ought to have done better; it was another preventable goal, the only sort we seem to concede these days.

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A few minutes later, Daniel Farke finally decided his troops needed reinforcements, possibly ten minutes too late, and on came Buonanotte, Okafor and Longstaff for Bornauw, Aaronson and Stach – it looked like Farke still fancied winning it, and we probably should have, but, once again, a lack of composure in front of goal let us down.  The chance fell to Sean Longstaff, in a similar position to that from which we saw Willy Gnonto almost burst the net at Derby. This time, Longstaff could only balloon his effort over the bar when he had loads of time; all he had to do was hit the target. I expected more from him than that. A few Leeds players let themselves and us down in that second half - Tanaka was poor, Struijk went off the pace, Anton Stach faded as he often does and even Buonanotte had a few poor touches but we'll let him off until he settles in! 

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So, at the end of round 23 of games, we are still six points above the drop zone, although Forest and West Ham both gained two points on us this weekend from arguably more difficult fixtures. The good news is that, in the first half at least, Leeds again dominated a team that has done very well in recent weeks. If we can just maintain that first-half performance for 90 minutes next week, then who knows, we might yet cause an upset against the league leaders. At our best, we are good enough, but we are still a bit naïve at times, and seeing games out is not our strong suit.

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