'Owed them one' - Leeds United ace in 'naughty' Preston verdict with fans impact and star praise — YEP 21/1/24

Ethan Ampadu has opened up on the effects of Leeds United’s Boxing Day defeat at Preston North End – admitting his side “owed them one” in savouring Sunday’s 2-1 success.

By Lee Sobot

Daniel Farke’s Whites fell to 2-1 defeat in last month’s reverse Preston fixture at Deepdale in which ‘keeper Illan Meslier was sent off early in the second half. Just short of four weeks on, Ampadu says Leeds knew Preston would be on a “high” from that success at Elland Road and that his team were definitely eyeing a slice of revenge.

Despite falling 1-0 down inside just two minutes, that revenge eventually arrived in dramatic fashion as Leeds were awarded a late penalty which Joel Piroe converted in the 94th-minute to seal a 2-1 success for Farke’s side.

Sunday’s contest featured ten yellow cards, Ampadu admitting the game progressed towards a “dirty” conclusion with some “naughty challenges” as the two teams scrapped for the points in front of 36,570 fans.

Ampadu, though, was just delighted that his side ultimately had the last laugh in completing their revenge mission as he praised both the coolness of matchwinner Piroe and the impact of the home crowd.

"Hard fought, some tired bodies,” said Ampadu post match to LUTV. "Obviously it was a very physical game, maybe got a bit scrappy at the end, a little bit dirty at the end. But we knew that was going to happen coming in, they were obviously off the high of beating us before and we wanted to get a little bit of revenge. We thought we owed them one and after the game it's good feelings."

Pressed on the needle in the game and if he was pleased with his side’s reaction to that, Ampadu admitted: "Definitely, especially after going 1-0 down. It's like ‘here we go again’ but we know what the crowd is like here, we know they are going to stick behind us and we know that however minutes are left in the game we have got quality to bring it back. The early goal made it a bit difficult but we are very proud of the way we came back."
Reflecting on the awarding of the late spot kick, Ampadu declared: “I was very happy. Obviously you have still got to put the ball in the back of the net and all credit to Joel, he kept cool, kept composed and he did that. We all have belief in him to do that. I was just happy because the game was very scrappy, there was a couple of naughty challenges in there and I feel like we deserved it."