Portsmouth     1    (Bishop 61) 

Leeds United  0                       

 

9th ​March, 2025, EFL Championship.

20,314.

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That was a typical Leeds United defeat! Thankfully, only the fourth league defeat of the season but very typical of the previous three, all ending in a one-goal defeat of course.

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First things first, credit to Pompey. If it is true that they are missing several first team players then all I can say is that they will be a very good team when they all come back! Today they ran their socks off, pressed us relentlessly and, when they had a chance, they took it well. Add to that some fine saves by their keeper Nicolas Schmid, acclaimed Man of the Match by the game sponsors,  and it was an almost perfect display from them.

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For Leeds though it was a familiar old story; when things don’t go our way they tend to go horribly wrong! Another stonewall penalty was ignored by another appalling referee, Richie literally kicking the back of Dan James’ leg with full force! What bit of that was not a penalty? We have been denied so many this season that it is tempting to believe there is a conspiracy to keep us in this damned Championship for the viewing figures alone!

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More in our own hands though was our defending for their goal. A simple ball over the top landing behind Rodon and in front of Meslier and neither was decisive enough to deal with it. Credit Colby Bishop for the finish though.

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Then there were the chances that fell to Leeds – three big chances compared to just one for the home side and an xG of 2.27 compared with .66 for Pompey. OK, there were a couple of good saves in there, but there were two first class chances for Joel Piroe – one when following in a Solomon shot that was saved and palmed straight to him and one when set up by Solomon at the near post that Joel blasted over the bar. Just when we needed Joel to be at his deadliest best, he had an off day. Junior Firpo for once also didn’t have the composure in front of goal we’ve become accustomed to lately when he got a couple of lucky breaks of the ball to get behind the home defence but then dinked his shot straight at Schmid. Dan James then had a glorious late chance when a Firpo header struck the bar but Dan nodded his header wide. It had the look of one of those days.

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Of course we were not at our best, that also has to be said. On days when the whole team isn’t quite “at it” the weak links in our regular XI are highlighted. Once again today there was too little coming from Brenden Aaronson, yes he runs a lot and leads the press, but he played virtually no part in our attacking game all afternoon. Both full backs looked shadows of the players we’ve watched recently too while neither Tanaka nor Gruev were effective. Once again, the early part of the game looked to be crying out for Joe Rothwell with his penchant for driving forward with the ball rather than the square passing of Gruev. When the subs arrived, they all looked exactly what they are – short of match practice playing together as a unit. Largie Ramazani could do nothing right, Willy G hardly had a kick and Mateo Joseph continues to underwhelm, not only with his lack of a scoring touch but his general touch too. Even the normally impactful Joe Rothwell struggled to find a pass due to that impressive Pompey press.

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Let’s not go too overboard though. Yes, we were below par, but those chances missed and that penalty shout ignored were as much to blame as anything. We are still a decent team, it was just that the important moments didn’t quite go for us today. We are still top of the pile and there are still ten games left in which we can prove again that, at our best, we are the best in class. Put this down as one of those days but Leeds need to come out all guns blazing on Wednesday night against Millwall and then we need to show this early kick-off curse can be beaten at QPR next weekend. Then let’s see how the table looks before we write this fine season off completely as the temptation must be after a disappointing defeat.