Force is with Leeds United as Daniel Farke's conviction and Elland Road desperation pay off — the final word — Yorkshire Post 13/4/25
By Stuart Rayner
Doubted and decried with disrespectful regularity, Leeds
United manager Daniel Farke knows a thing or two about promotions.
Farke has won the Championship twice with Norwich City, and
gone up three times in German football.
When he said in the Luton Town press room he thought Leeds
had won a "good point" at Kenilworth Road, it felt like he was in a
minority, possibly even of one.
But three Sheffield United defeats and two Leeds wins later,
guess what? It turns out he knows what he is talking about.
He was far too shrewd to say out loud that Saturday was
decisive in the Championship promotion race, but his demeanour on a triumphant
lap of honour after an unnecessarily uncomfortable 2-1 victory over Preston
North End spoke volumes.
Inside the stadium he called the three points
"priceless" over and over. He previously stated his "100 per
cent" conviction Leeds will be promoted this season and doubled, trebled
and quadrupled down on it when asked did he really mean that?
Maybe we should start listening.
Promotion races are not run in isolation and it was not just
about Leeds' win, but Sheffield United apparently losing their heads amidst
scuffles in the Home Park tunnel after Plymouth Argyle turned a 1-0 loss into a
wounding 2-1 win.
Recent results have lured us into attaching greater
significance than was ever there. But.
Jelly-legged at Portsmouth and Queens Park Rangers, shaky
against Swansea City, outmuscled in the decisive moment at Luton, Leeds played
with a goalkeeper in Karl Darlow who – one brainwave apart – oozed reassurance,
a full-back in Jayden Bogle whose adventure was not curbed by fear of failure,
a winger in Manor Solomon who emphatically put a bad day in Bedfordshire behind
him, and a crowd who underlined why Leeds have easily the division's best home
record.
Farke spoke of a "big force" that can propel Leeds
to greater heights. On Saturday you could really feel it.
This was why watching on the telly will never beat being in
a stadium.
Farke used it as a motivation for his players to win
promotion in front of a full Elland Road. Leeds have not done it since 2010 or
properly celebrated winning top-flight football there since 1990. The
party-planners need to start making tentative ideas.
This being Leeds, the players still injected a pinch of
drama.
Having taken crosses with such assurance and saved well from
former Sheffield United and Doncaster Rovers midfielder Ben Whiteman, Darlow
punched the ball outside his area after 72 minutes.
"Perhaps Karl wanted to create a bit of suspense,"
smirked Farke, but Whiteman's free-kick hit Brenden Aaronson in the wall.
And then there were the misses. So many misses.
"We should have scored six or seven," Farke
rightly argued.
Ahead inside six minutes through Solomon’s wonderful finish,
as per, Leeds failed to go for the throat. Perhaps Kaine Kesler-Hayden’s own
curler, seconds after the restart as Junior Firpo stood off, was the kick up
the bum they needed. Soon Solomon crossed for Bogle to score.
But the third never came.
David Cornell saved from Willy Gnonto, but keeping out
Aaronson set up a sitter of a header put wide. Gnonto missed in the second
half, a Solomon shot deflected for a corner.
Mainly, though, it was Piroe – wide after Bogle's gorgeous
dinked pass, blocked when Aaronson touched the ball to him, swinging at a
Gnonto pass but missing the goal, unable to convert when Aaronson played him
through, hitting the bar from a Solomon cross, unable to contort his neck just
right to Bogle's cross
You could feel, never mind hear, the desperation to get the
job done, only amplified by news from Devon.
Desperation is normally dangerous, but Elland Road
channelled it – willing Leeds on, rather than expressing frustration.
"We always talk about it," said Solomon. "It
gives you more energy.
"Elland Road is a special stadium, a special
atmosphere, and when the fans are buzzing like that, it's an amazing
feeling."
As Farke pointed out, it can be a weapon not just a
pleasure.
"We can develop a big force if they are behind us and
help us," he argued. "You could feel on such a day it could be really
crucial.
"Sometimes when we are not there with the best result
the disappointment comes out a bit – not for negative reasons, just because
everyone cares so much about the club.
"But when it really counts – and the sense was in the
stadium that it could be a really, really important step – and everyone gives
everything to fight for this Leeds United shirt this stadium can develop an
energy like nowhere else.
"You could sense a bit what it means if we can
celebrate together a really special achievement with our supporters.
"We had a little taste how it could feel but we're not
there yet."