Leeds Utd    1 (Firpo 9)      ​

West Brom   1 (Furlong 29) 

 

1st March 2025. EFL Championship

36,705.

 

Having studied the Albion’s form coming into this match I decided they were unlikely to be the ones to halt our recent magnificent run, they’d just been too erratic. In hindsight though, and remembering they are the draw specialists of the Championship, with almost half of their games drawn, maybe that was a clue I missed!

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Leeds still managed to shade the match stats – 53% possession, 15 attempts on goal to just 7 from the Albion, 10 corners won to just 3, and 22 touches in the opposition box compared with 13 – but in truth, a draw was probably a fair result and in terms of good chances created during the game, the visitors had as many good chances as we did, if not a couple more.

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Indeed, we could easily have been a goal down inside the opening few minutes when the Albion got away down their right side, Junior Firpo left stranded in no man’s land up-field as the ball was sent down that wing to Isaac Price. Price sent the ball low along the edge of the area and John Swift beat Jayden Bogle to the ball to sweep a shot towards the left corner of Meslier’s net. Illan was well beaten had it been on target but thankfully Swift dragged it inches wide of the left post.

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That warning survived, Leeds grabbed the lead in the 9th minute. Dan James continuing his fine season with yet another assist as he cut inside from the left and whipped in a perfect cross for our new ‘super-striker’ Junior Firpo to head home, getting in behind our old mucker Kyle Bartley. In many previous games an early Leeds goal had signalled an avalanche of goals but this Albion side was arguably the best organised and most capable we’d seen at Elland Road this season (only the top four have lost fewer games this season) and real chances were few and far between for either side.

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It was another game when the Leeds defence didn’t look altogether as tight as we might like and another big opening was created by the visitors even before they drew level. A simple ball was slid through our back line to find Adam Armstrong in the inside left channel with Pascal Struijk waving his hand in the air for offside. He wasn’t, but this time Meslier was out quickly and between his presence and that of Jayden Bogle the danger was thwarted. We know all about Armstrong of course from the playoff final last year when he scored the goal that won it for Southampton from a similar position, albeit in the inside right slot that time.

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The Albion equaliser didn’t show our defence in a great light either. A straight forward free-kick launched from the right over to the back post and Darnell Furlong arrived as the spare man behind Bogle to lob a simple header over Meslier that dropped into the far corner. It was a bit of a throwback to very early in the season when we lost track of a man at the back post fairly often.

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In the second half, as we’ve seen so often, Leeds started to dominate proceedings much more but the Albion defending was heroic if not always text book. Seven of those 15 ‘shots’ of ours were blocked by Albion bodies before they could do any damage and only two found their way through to the target. Six other attempts missed the target altogether, some closer than others. Mateo Joseph had one brilliant run, coming in from wide on the left to run through the Albion defence but then, as we’ve seen far too often from MJ, his technique and composure when pulling the trigger just left him and he scooped the ball up and it skimmed off the top of the bar. Dan James had a late chance of glory too but he smashed his right foot shot, admittedly from a very tight angle, wide of the near post.

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The Albion had just a couple of opportunities to steal the points in the second half; a diving header from Furlong flew over the top thanks to a sharp challenge from the impressive Firpo again and then another ball that split the Leeds backline found Tom Fellow in the clear. Meslier stayed put sensibly this time and Joe Rodon just had the pace to slide in and knock the ball away before Fellows could shoot.

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So, yeah, a point was a fair reward for both sides. It wasn’t our best showing of the season by a long way but that is probably down to the opposition as much as Leeds maybe not quite firing on all cylinders. Picking out a few players I though Junior Firpo was excellent throughout, despite being left in the wake of Isaac Price in that early Albion attack and Joe Rothwell looked his usual positive self and well-justified his start in place of Ilia Gruev. Dan James, Manor Solomon and Joe Rodon were as effective as usual in their respective roles while Joel Piroe and Brenden Aaronson were both quieter than usual, probably too quiet for Leeds to be as effective and potent as normal. Pascal Struijk was a tad off it I thought, too many misplaced passes from him, and that miss from Mateo Joseph just adds to the feeling that he’s not ready any time soon to lead our line effectively.

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The Blades cut our advantage at the top to just three points after their win at QPR this afternoon but according to reports they didn’t exactly impress in doing so. No damage done then, as long as we can pick up three points down at Pompey next weekend. Early start for that one Leeds fans!