Leeds United v Preston North End 21st January 2024 at Elland Road
As soon as Andrew Dalton put the stat up that Leeds United were the only team unbeaten at home, I said that I wished he’d done that after the game today. Then I posted never mind we’d have a positive mental attitude instead. Well, the lads certainly needed that today and deserved the win in the end which happened under difficult circumstances. As well as the wild weather to contend with, they were up against a very strong side who in my opinion let themselves down. Time wasting is a part of the game which Preston used to their advantage for most of it but how they managed to keep 11 men on the field is beyond me. The referee by not clamping down on their cynical fouls led to them doing it more and more and the foul on Gruev should have seen a red but their player got a yellow instead alongside Bamford. Why he booked Bamford I’ve no idea? Teams will get angry seeing their teammates getting no protection as he had lost control by not doing anything about it. That said, scoring the penalty to win it in the dying minutes was a sweet moment to endure that Preston had received their comeuppance on the day. Ecstatic? You bet we were!
Although my granddaughter came to mine at the time we agreed to leave, it was a further 45 minutes later when we did. It only took 15 minutes on the motorway from Brighouse but then took the same amount of time to get off it and parked up. We were heading to the Peacock but ended up meeting my sister at Billy’s statue and Nikki, Steven and Carol collecting for the guide dogs next to the club shop. As we were stood talking, it was lovely to see people who came for a chat, and it was nice to be remembered with my friends of when we used to wear our Bay City Rollers gear in the 70s. Thanks to everyone who asked about my husband and how things were. It has been a less stressful week although as usual, there has already been something else to hit us with after my daughter thought all her health problems were behind us.
Team: Meslier, Ampadu (captain), Gray, Firpo, Rodon, James, Summerville, Kamara, Bamford, Gruev, Rutter.
Subs: Byram for Firpo (76), Piroe for Kamara (76), Cooper for Summerville (90+6) Joseph for Rutter (90+8).
Subs not used: Klaesson, Poveda, Shackleton, Gelhardt, Anthony (on the bench and the team were wearing black armbands due to the death of his mother this week).
Leeds won the game 2-1 with goals from James (6) and Piroe (penalty 90+4).
Attendance: 36,570 with approx. 1,900 Preston fans.
Referee: David Webb.
Booked: Summerville, Rutter, Bamford.
I had just walked up from the front of the stand as Preston were awarded a free kick outside the penalty area. I decided to stay where I was which obviously had the desired effect for Preston as they scored within the second minute with the ball running kindly for them. As I got up to my seat my granddaughter said she had been eating crisps and not her cereal (the latter has become a superstition recently). She started to eat her cereal as Leeds went on the attack, I said it was disappointing to be a goal behind, but it wasn’t the end of the world even though the stat did cross my mind! Summerville picked up the ball and passed to Firpo on the wing who ran with the ball to the bye line, putting a superb cross in that was headed into the net by James in front of the South Stand for an equaliser sending the Leeds fans wild. Meslier pulled off a great save as Preston came on the attack but the rest of the first half saw each team trying to cancel each other out, with most shots off target although their keeper made a save from a Bamford header.
In the second half Summerville got through the penalty area which saw Rutter stick his foot out and the ball hit the crossbar and away. Leeds had a chance with their keeper out of his area and beaten by the speed of James, but the ball didn’t run kindly for Leeds. In another chance James chipped the keeper only for the ball to land on the roof of the net. To be honest I felt the ball ran in Preston’s favour so many times today but thankfully for us, they didn’t get a second goal. The more fouls flying in at our team meant it got the backs of the crowd up which at least gave us an atmosphere. When we were awarded a penalty for a blatant hand ball, we had Bamford playing mind games with the ball in his hands before handing the ball to Piroe. As the ball hit the back of the net as we scored from the penalty, the noise was immense. Justice was served; thank you.
Seeing a still photo after the game which proved “Rutter’s” dive with the Preston player’s studs in his shin, was another shocking decision and his booking needs rescinding. Their keeper going down to slow down the Leeds attack and their trainer being allowed on was gamesmanship. The miraculous 30 second treatment was astounding, reminding me of distant memories from the bible as he stood up very quickly with no issues. Despite only six minutes of injury time on the board we played at least 99 so it was a great relief once the final whistle blew to know we had won and got another three points on the board.
Back, at Billy’s statue we became aware of an altercation of around seven youths to one man wearing a Leeds shirt. It was nothing more than handbags but from what I was told, it carried on from inside the ground after comments had been made to the man. As we reached home, storm Isha was really starting to blow so I was glad I didn’t have to go back out in it. Stay safe to all Leeds fans travelling home in it and see you on Wednesday for the rearranged fixture versus Norwich at Elland Road. LUFC – Marching on Together!
