Leeds United 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Hard fought, hard graft, hard luck — Square Ball 20/1/25
The ungodly of Leeds
Written by: Rob Conlon
Elland Road has always been a home for the ungodly of Leeds.
When rugby league was the prominent sport in the city, many of its clubs were
linked with churches, meaning people treated their favourite team with the same
respect as their faith. Except at Leeds United, where our only religion over
the last century or so has been maintaining a reputation as a right set of
bastards.
It was only fitting, then, that on the Lord’s day we were
traipsing over to Beeston with Leeds kicking off their Yorkshire derby against
Sheffield Wednesday at the ungodly hour of 12pm. To hell with Jesus or any of
his disciples when it’s a freezing cold morning and there are flat pints of
lager to force down. Seriously, no wonder we’re like we are.
We’re still waiting for evidence of divine intervention at
Leeds: nothing we’ve won has been given to us, and our latest three points from
Sheffield Wednesday were no different. Don’t let the scoreline fool you, this
was a hard-fought win built on hard graft.
For most of the game, Leeds were grateful for the buffer
given to them by Joe Rothwell’s early ambition and enterprise in spotting
Brenden Aaronson’s intelligent run two minutes after the opening whistle.
Rothwell’s pass may have been a yard too far, but it was tantalising enough to
tempt Aaronson into forcing a fumble out of ‘keeper James Beadle, allowing
Manor Solomon to pick up the rebound and calmly dissect the two defenders
standing on the goalline.
Moments later, Leeds broke again, only for Aaronson to take
too long while weighing up which of the three teammates around him to pass to,
inviting a tackle that halted United’s momentum. Aaronson’s dithering was an
infuriating theme of the afternoon in another performance that convinced me
he’s a defensive midfielder stuck in a waifish attacker’s body. For all his
energy in haranguing defenders helped Leeds keep winning possession high up the
pitch, he was just as disruptive to the Peacocks’ own attacks with his
wastefulness on the ball.
But while Leeds may have been guilty of playing at a pace
that suited the visitors, referee David Webb revealed himself as the game’s
real villain. Talking and writing about match officials is boring, but it’s not
as tedious as paying the best part of fifty quid to watch the latest dickhead
blow his whistle time after time while he makes up the rules as he goes along.
For long periods of the first half, Webb decided football is now a no-contact
sport and outlawed tackles altogether, only to randomly interpret other periods
by a completely different standard. At one point, both teams stopped after a
slide tackle, assuming Webb was going to interfere once more even though the
ball had been won, only for the ref to wave play on much to everyone’s
confusion. The most exciting part of the whole match came late on, as Webb
briefly allowed a concerted free-for-all of tackles, the ball ricocheting from
one end of the pitch to the other before Leeds came out on top and broke to a
roar from the crowd, with the attack predictably petering out due to Aaronson’s
brain buffering at the choice of simple passes.
Leeds’ failure to find their groove at least meant we got
the chance to appreciate a different side of this team. While Sheffield
Wednesday threatened to cause problems, Leeds’ defence never let them get too
close to test Illan Meslier’s nerves. Ethan Ampadu’s last ditch-tackle just as
an unmarked Josh Windass was shaping to shoot in front of goal would have made
Marius Zaliukas proud, Joe Rodon relished his usual meat-and-potatoes defending
and got his usual whack for doing so, and Sam Byram was once again worth his
weight in gold, coolly dealing with opposition attacks even when diving
two-footed into the air to win the ball in his own penalty area. The solidity
of that trio gave Jayden Bogle the license to roam forward, getting up and down
the wing like the Duracell Bunny Leeds have lacked since Gjanni Alioski was
shaking the tunnel and squeaking like a dolphin.
Paired with David Webb’s meltdown, Wednesday’s own
doggedness made much of the first half a dour watch, but Leeds asserted their
class just before the break, Dan James’ persistence drawing two sharp saves
from Beadle.
United seemed more like their usual selves after half-time,
but leading by only a single goal felt dangerously familiar to so many other
past disappointments, at least until Largie Ramazani came off the bench, got
the ball on the edge of the penalty area, spotted Aaronson to his left, and
wisely decided to shoot into the bottom corner himself. The goal allowed Elland
Road to exhale, and Ramazani to continue a proud tradition of Leeds United
backflips, with Ao Tanaka’s subsequent backheel serving up a late chef’s kiss
to the Sheffield Wednesday fans heading for the exits and back to South
Yorkshire. It wasn’t as easy as Leeds eventually made it look, which only made
it all the more satisfying. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday, after all.