Wants, needs, and friendly defeats — Square Ball 27/7/26

Not you, Lewis

Written by: Rob Conlon

Leeds and Wrexham may never have played each other in a competitive game, but they still have history. In the summer of 1964, the two sides arranged back to back friendlies in the space of three days. The first at the Racecourse Ground, the second at Elland Road. Wrexham had just been relegated to the Fourth Division, while Leeds were preparing for their return to the top flight with a core of Don Revie’s Super Leeds already coalescing: Sprake, Reaney, Charlton, Hunter, Collins, Bremner, Madeley and Gray all in action across the two games.

It should have been a walkover, yet Wrexham earned praise for their performance in North Wales as it took a Paul Madeley goal ten minutes from time to secure a 2-1 win for Leeds. Ahead of the return trip to South Leeds, reporter Michael Charters wrote, ‘If this match proves as entertaining as the first match between them on Wednesday then everyone will be satisfied.’ Nobody could have expected what actually transpired, as the two teams put on a twelve-goal riot, Albert Johanneson and Jim Storrie helping themselves to a hat-trick apiece as United won 8-4.

Leeds’ latest meeting with Wrexham was always going to struggle to live up to such chaos but, to the credit of both teams, they tried their best. In Florida, Kieffer Moore replicated Johanneson’s opener after thirty seconds at Elland Road 62 years ago, putting Wrexham 1-0 up before Leeds had even touched the ball following some impressively slick football from one end of the pitch to the other.

While the fixture marked Leeds’ first outing of pre-season, it was Wrexham’s third, having already drawn with Wisla Krakow in Poland and beaten Scum 1-0 in Finland. In those first thirty seconds, it showed, with Wrexham’s smooth passing a stark contrast to Leeds’ scattergun pressing, leaving the majority of Daniel Farke’s side chasing back a mishmash of players drawn out of position, like an acid flashback to the very worst of Jesse Marsch’s Red Bullshit.

Thankfully it was only a friendly, so it was somewhat understandable that, like me, Leeds looked like they were still figuring out who was meant to be playing where. Once a semblance of normality was restored — ie, Leeds got a touch of the ball — it became apparent United were lining up in a 3-4-2-1 formation. Under-21s captain and Charlie’s kid brother Alfie Cresswell completed a back three alongside Joe Rodon and James Justin. In midfield, Ethan Ampadu and Sean Longstaff were flanked on either side by wing-backs Dan James and Jayden Lienou, with Joel Piroe up front supported by attacking midfielders Wilf Gnonto and 17-year-old Callum Mills.

Throughout the opening stages, any enterprising play was punctured by the usual rustiness typical of a first run-out in pre-season. On a couple of occasions, space was created on the right for Longstaff and Gnonto, only for both to be guilty of ruining promising attacks with poor crosses. Gnonto and Ampadu challenged for the same bouncing ball around halfway and simultaneously decided to leave it for one another, letting Moore steal it back instead. Longstaff’s nice pass over the defence led to some Dan James zoomies — despite the injuries, he doesn’t seem to have lost his pace — buying a penalty out of goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, leaving Piroe to step up and continue his rotten record from the spot of last season with his new peroxide fringe still stinging his eyes.

As nice as the new away kit looks, by that point I was proposing the club set fire to the whole batch if this was a sign of our luck wearing it.

Piroe at least atoned for his miss midway through the first half, finishing Longstaff’s low cross with a clever backheel, and Leeds should have gone ahead five minutes before half-time as they put together their best move of the match. Rodon, Mills and Longstaff combined to put Gnonto through on goal, but with Okonkwo standing up in goal, Gnonto inexplicably tried to chip the ‘keeper from the edge of the six-yard, allowing an easy save.

The miss proved costly as shortly afterwards Bailey Cadamarteri — born in Leeds and the son of one-time (literally, he played once) United striker Danny — beat last man Rodon to a ball on halfway, rounded Alex Cairns and found the net with Lienou desperately racing back to the goalline. Yet there was still time for Longstaff, involved in everything Leeds did well, to make it 2-2 before the break with a superb dummy and finish from the edge of the box, a timely reminder after a frustrating second half of last season that he might just be low-key one of the best finishers in the squad.

Six changes at half-time involved a switch to 4-2-3-1, a first appearance for Harry Wilson, and a much more familiar Leeds line-up with Lucas Perri, Lukas Nmecha, Jayden Bogle, Anton Stach and Ao Tanaka also introduced. Wilson’s first involvement was some bright link-up with Dan James, immediately seeming more comfortable playing as an out-and-out winger. Within his first ninety seconds on the pitch, Wilson almost had his first assist as a clever cross from the right gave Gnonto a chance at the near post that was well saved by his nemesis Okonkwo.

But after such a back and forth first half, that was about as fun as the second half got. Leeds controlled possession but largely went through the motions until Tanaka met a hoof forward from Wrexham with a miscontrolled pass, allowing striker Sam Smith to get in behind Rodon and net the winner five minutes from time, albeit not before late sub Charlie Crew’s cross from deep almost snuck all the way into the bottom corner.

By then my interest in a friendly had waned. It might not have been a twelve-goal thriller from a Leeds United team set to dominate English football for the next decade, but if you looked closely enough there was a sign of how the club is changing for the better. Playing in midfield for Wrexham was Lewis O’Brien, the cause célèbre of our will-he-won’t-he transfer saga ahead of Leeds’ second season in the Premier League under Marcelo Bielsa. Despite desperately needing a midfielder, O’Brien never joined Leeds, partly because Leeds weren’t sure whether he was even good enough, partly because they knew he definitely wasn’t good enough to justify the money that Huddersfield wanted.

The failures of that transfer window prompted a spiralling that set the club back five years, but now we’re finally back to that point, Leeds appear in a much better place. A stronger squad in the first place has already been bolstered by Harry Wilson and Tarik Muharemovic, and this summer’s problem position of goalkeeper is potentially being solved with the exciting signing of an England goalkeeper in James Trafford. We don’t really need a midfielder this time around, but there’s a £20m+ bid on the table for Shea Charles just in case. And regardless of whether we’re dealing in wants or needs, I’m not sure a pre-season victory over Wrexham features high up either of those lists anyway.