Leeds look like a dead cert to return to the Premier League — Mail 1/3/25
Leeds look like a dead cert to return to the Premier League, writes JASON MELLOR - as Daniel Farke's side take another step towards promotion after draw with gutsy West Brom
Leeds entertained West Brom in the Championship at Elland
Road on Saturday
The Baggies took a point after Darnell Furlong cancelled out
Junior Firpo's strike
By JASON MELLOR
Daniel Farke was unfamiliar with the cautionary tale of
Devon Loch but it would take a choke of similarly disastrous proportions to
deny Leeds United a place back at the top table of English football.
The unfortunate thoroughbred's astonishing collapse and
ultimate defeat with Grand National victory at its mercy has become a metaphor
for sporting collapse over the decades.
The kind of which befell the United States' Ryder Cup team
when they were on the wrong side of the Miracle of Medinah 13 years ago. Or
Newcastle's stunning implosion to allow Manchester United to bridge a 12-point
gap to win the Premier League in 1996. In short, finding a way to snatch defeat
from the jaws of victory.
Such has been their outstanding form - they remain unbeaten
in the league for more than four months spanning 17 games - having to settle
for a point after being pegged back by an admirable West Brom side felt
something akin to a defeat as they were denied a sixth consecutive league
victory.
However, with 11 games remaining they moved eight points
ahead of Burnley in third, and the Championship leaders don't look ready to
join the unwanted club spawned by Devon Loch's exploits almost 70 years ago,
and appear to be a dead-cert to end a two-year top flight exile.
Spurred on by the bitter memory of last season when a
90-point haul was only good enough to secure third as they fell foul of a
gut-wrenching Wembley no-show in the play-off final defeat to Southampton,
Leeds are well on the way to securing promotion without any unwanted Spring
overtime.
Farke is closing in on the Championship title for a third
time after two previous successes with Norwich, and the 48-year-old said:
'Maybe we started to enjoy ourselves a little too much after we scored first
and didn't play with the knife between our teeth for a spell.
'But if you can't win the game then you have to make sure
you don't lose it. We're one point closer to our goal. We're on 76 and we know
we won't make it into the top two with that so there's no reason for
complacency.'
The German's side have made a habit of hitting the front
early at Elland Road this season, and the pattern continued as they took a
ninth-minute lead.
Dan James swung over a cross from the left which Junior
Firpo, a full-back getting further forward than many attackers manage at this
level, guided the ball into the net with a glancing header after darting in
between defender Torbjorn Heggem and goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith to score for the
third time this season.
Ao Tanaka should have doubled the advantage but the Japan
midfielder inexplicably volleyed fresh air when it looked easier to score from
five yards out as Albion froze at a corner.
Since returning for a second stint in charge at the
Hawthorns in January, Tony Mowbray is doing a tidy job of coaxing his players
to cast-off the tactical straight-jacket of Carlos Corberan's stultifying
risk-averse reign, an increasingly stalemate-ridden spell where the only thing
they couldn't draw was any comfort from the Spaniard's safety-first approach.
The Baggies deservedly levelled six minutes before the
interval, Jayden Bogle bullied out of position at the far post to allow
defender Darnell Furlong to direct a deftly-judged looping header over a
statuesque Illan Meslier from a John Swift free-kick as the midfielder
partially made up for missing an early gift-wrapped chance to break the
deadlock from inside the area.
The second-half remained without a goal, despite the best
efforts of both sides. On an afternoon for marauding full-backs, Furnell sent a
diving header narrowly over from Mikey Johnston's centre, before at the other
end, a slaloming run from Mateo Joseph culminated in the substitute's shot
clipping the bar from a narrow angle.
Joe Rodon put in the hard yards with a late lung-bursting
effort to thwart Tom Fellows' bid to run half the length of the pitch to win it
in added time as the spoils were shared.
Albion remain in the play-off places after a gutsy display
saw them become the first side since Blackburn on New Year's Day to leave
Elland Road with a point.
Boss Mowbray said: 'We did very well against a Leeds side
that are going to finish in the top two.
'We didn't want to be the team that came and sat behind the
ball for 90 minutes. The energy and effort was there and the desire not to get
beaten, it was a pleasing performance.'