Leeds United 1 Stoke City 0: No signs of stodgy Leeds falling apart — Yorkshire Post 5/3/24

Can you do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke is supposed to be the ultimate test in the Championship endurance race, but claiming three points against Stoke City on a cold West Yorkshire night was every bit as valuable.

By Stuart Rayner

Leeds United managed to do that. Just.

The roars of relief at full-time were telling but on nights like this, just is plenty.

It has been a tough few days for them. The Championship is too gruelling to be plain sailing for long, and Huddersfield Town and Stoke City were obdurate opponents for them.

So to have taken four points from those games, extending their unbeaten run to 11 league games was something to be pleased about, even if another stodgy performance was not.

A 1-0 win was more than Leeds deserved but sometimes the art of winning promotion in this division is about winning when you are not at your best, which even for the finest sides will happen from time to time when the games come so ridiculously thick and fast.

The lack of a No 9 they can really hang their hat on is a slight weakness of this Leeds team – although Mateo Joseph played a good cameo – but again, it is about compensating elsewhere, and in Dan James they have a winger who has stepped up to the plate with 11 goals this season, nine of them at Elland Road.

Leeds laboured for the first quarter of the game, unable to break Stoke down or have a shot.

James had a penalty appeal waved away with referee Oliver Langford more influenced about the winger looking for goalkeeper Daniel Iversen's leg after nutmegging the former Rotherham United player.

They swapped wingers and at one point Crysencio Summerville and Georgino took up each other's role, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Josh Laurent failed to take advantage of too much space with a weak shot at Illan Mesler and Ki-Jana Hoever headed a Lewis Baker free-kick over.

But then, suddenly, something clicked.

Although Patrick Bamford's header wasted a corner by a lovely move started by Joe Rodon carrying the ball out and continued by James and Conor Roberts, on his first Championship start for the club, it got them going.

Two minutes later Rutter helped the ball on to Rutter to force a low, stretching save, and Rutter headed a Roberts cross over before Stoke could get the ball away.

Rutter popped up on the left and played in James for a one-on-one the keeper won. Glen Kamara picked the winger out next, only for Iversen to come out on top again and a Summerville shot hit a defender.

But the breakthrough came in the 34th minute from an increasingly reliable source. Fed by Rutter, James carried the ball into the area, checked onto his left, then his right, and put a near shot inside the far post.

Baker's long-range effort minutes later, which Meslier tipped over for a corner Wouter Burger headed over, showed the job was not done and it would be Stoke who slowly turned up the heat as the half went on.

Not long after the hour mark the chances started to flow freely at Meslier's end, Million Manhoef shooting against a defender, Baker forcing a low save, Tyrese Campbell beating Ethan Ampadu too easily only for Meslier to stick out a foot, Hoever volleying a Lynden Gooch cross over, then shooting at the goalkeeper.

There cannot be too many criticisms of Daniel Farke, but one is that the Leeds manager is slow to make substitutions, and even after he changed his front two, the fans were pointedly singing Archie Gray's name.

They finally got their wish in the 87th minute.

The initial changes did liven things up, though, Joseph taking the ball around Iversen only for Ben Wilmot to get back and cut out his goalbound effort, and Summerville unable to make anything of the tempting ball Joseph's fellow substitute Joel Piroe threaded to him.

Their momentum broken, Stoke then made the mistake of getting Ben Pearson sent off.

In his 32 minutes on the field, the substitute was booked for some nonsense with Rodon, then sent off for bringing down his centre-back partner as Ampadu carried the ball into midfield.

James could have won it in the fourth added minute but his shot his Iversen in the face.

Laurent could have snatched a point in the seventh extra minute, but Meslier dropped onto his steered shot.

Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart mockingly greeted the full-time whistle.

Leeds Are Falling Apart is the version football fans know better but this season, it does not seem to apply.