My goal masked a rusty performance, admits Leeds United’s returning star striker Patrick Bamford - YEP 7/12/21
Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford was not completely happy with his performance despite scoring in the Whites’ 2-2 draw with Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
By Flora Snelson
The 28-year-old appeared for the first time in 11 weeks
after suffering an ankle injury against Newcastle United back in September.
Replacing Junior Firpo in the 68th minute, Bamford stepped
off the bench to score a 95th-minute leveller which rescued a crucial point in
his side’s quest to pull away from the Premier League relegation zone.
After the absence of last season’s top-scorer contributed to
a difficult start to the season for Marcelo Bielsa’s men, the Brentford fixture
was targeted as an opportunity to pick up points before heading into a
challenging Christmas schedule which features three visits to top-four teams.
While the Whites were boosted by the return of Bamford and
Luke Ayling, Brentford were weakened by the absence of star striker Ivan Toney
who missed out on the Elland Road visit with a Covid infection.
Leeds looked on track to capitalise when they headed into
the break 1-0 up after Tyler Roberts put his side ahead in the 27th minute.
But Brentford hit twice in a six-minute period to take the
lead and were heading toward victory when super substitute Bamford met
Raphinha’s corner, flicked on by Ayling, to poke home from close range in
injury time.
Registering one effort on goal in 22 minutes on the pitch,
Bamford’s contribution was enough to take the Whites six points clear of the
drop zone.
Though his wild celebration spoke of a striker’s joy on
returning to the scoresheet after months on the sidelines, Bamford gave a
modest assessment of his afternoon at Elland Road after the final whistle.
“Let’s be honest, if I hadn’t scored the goal it wouldn’t
have been a great performance,” Bamford said.
What a wild end... #lufc https://t.co/GgWcY3lDlw
— Leeds United News (@LeedsUnitedYEP) December 6, 2021
“I was rusty, because I’ve been out for a while, but I think
the goal kind of masked that. For me, it was important to get back on the
pitch. It’ll take me a few weeks to get up to speed, I’d imagine.
“I’m sure the manager knows that as well.”
The road to recovery has been long for the England
international, whose return date was pushed back several times as a supposedly
simple issue picked up at St James’ Park turned out to be more complicated than
first thought.
It’s been tough to be honest because, when it’s an ankle
injury, there’s no specific time-scale,” Bamford told BBC Radio Leeds.
“It can sometimes just niggle on a little bit and take a
little bit longer. Now that I’m on the other side of it I think ‘those twelve
weeks have gone quickly’ but, when I was doing the rehab and the long days, it
was quite slow.”
The striker was given a warm welcome by the Elland Road
faithful on his return to action, but it was a tough afternoon for Bielsa’s
side, who Bamford felt should have taken more from the game.
“Apart from 10 minutes in the second half, we pretty much
had control of the game,” Bamford said.
“It’s only a draw, which is frustrating because we’d like to
win a game like this.”
