31st August, 2024. EFL Championship
So far this season, in the league at least, Leeds have pretty much done what we’d expect from a team hoping to be challenging at the top end of the table come next May. Dropping a couple of points against Pompey on opening day is our only real stumble and since then we’ve not conceded a league goal, we’ve seen off two Yorkshire rivals, and made a fancied West Brom look decidedly ordinary.
Today’s performance, against another side expected to be challenging this season, can best be described as ‘professional’ in every respect. Bossing the possession, attempts, and shots on target and limiting the Tigers to only two efforts that brought Illan Meslier into action, it was, as Daniel Farke agreed after the game, “an almost perfect home performance” to follow our “almost perfect away performance” last week at Hillsborough. Fair play to Illan though, the one first half save, tipping over the bar a powerful strike by Bedia after Joe Rodon made a mess of an aerial challenge with the Hull striker, was first class. Hull had only one other opening in that first 45 minutes and that one flew over the bar. I can't not mention referee Gavin Ward by the way, yet another really poor official who did nothing to help either team with some baffling yellow cards and some totally inconsistent decision-making. It is one of the few aspects of Premier League football I yearn for - at least some of the Prem officials are half decent!
With Hull unbeaten in their opening three games – all drawn – and with this being another game with Yorkshire bragging rights at stake, most Leeds fans knew the Tigers would be a hard nut to crack; they always are. But Leeds showed patience and knowhow to pretty much dominate the game and ultimately find a couple of moments of brilliance to finally break the visitors’ resistance. We have all bemoaned the loss of Cree and Georginio on the basis that we knew they were the sort of players who can come up with moments of brilliance… but just maybe we’ve found a new crop of players with that same talent.
It took Leeds 63 minutes admittedly, with few chances of our own created in the first half – a Gruev shot saved, a Bogle shot into the side-netting, and a couple of efforts off the target from Struijk and Gruev again – but it was one of the new boys, Manor Solomon, who turned the game in our favour in that 63rd minute. He raced down the left wing, went outside two defenders and then clipped a lovely ball in towards the near post. You might have thought he and Mat Joseph had been playing together for weeks not days as Mat got himself in front of his marker to stab the ball past the Tigers' keeper. It was a real poacher’s goal from Joseph and will hopefully be the first of many more if we can just give him the right service.
Inevitably, Hull then had to come out of their shell but still they found the Leeds press hard to get through and, with numbers committed, a quick break by Leeds sealed the points. Brenden Aaronson pushed the ball forward to Joseph who quickly spotted Junior Firpo racing down the left. Firpo in turn hit a first-time ball low across the width of the pitch to find Joel Piroe in acres of space in the inside right channel and he finished superbly, slotting the ball in the corner of the net. Game, set and match to Leeds.
Manor Solomon, by his own admission after the game, will need time to get to his best as this was his first competitive game for many weeks but he did enough today to show he has what it takes to shine at this level despite being only knee-high to a grasshopper! ”Largie” Ramazani is another pint-sized player who’s name doesn’t really describe his stature but he too showed some terrific touches during his late cameo, as did Ao Tanaka who got just a few minutes at the end. It looks at this early stage as if we may well have come up trumps in the transfer market after all and maybe it was well worth the long wait.
The first international break has come at an annoying time for Leeds, just as we seem to have hit our straps and we have not fared well after such breaks in recent years. We can but hope that all who now go out on their international travels return safe and sound and that we can, this time, pick up where we have left off. Once Dan James is fit, it will be fascinating to see how Daniel Farke sets up his team to face Burnley in two weeks’ time. The Leeds squad is like several of our players, small but perfectly formed!
Leeds United 2 (Joseph 63’, Piroe 82’)
Hull City 0
Leeds: Meslier (GK), Bogle (Byram 83’), Firpo, Ampadu, Struijk, Rodon, Aaronson, Solomon (Piroe 74’), Joseph (Rothwell 86’), Gnonto (Ramazani 74’), Gruev (Tanaka 86’). Subs not used: Darlow (GK), Gelhardt, Debayo, Wober.
Hull: Pandur (GK), Coyle (C), Jones, McLoughlin, Giles (Drameh 85’), Zambrano (Simons 78’), Slater (Jarvis 60’), Mehlem, Ömür (Palmer 78’), Bedia (Burstow 85’), Millar. Subs not used: Racioppi (GK), Hughes, Burns, Puerta.
Venue: Elland Road
Attendance: 36,517
Referee: Gavin Ward
Booked: Rodon, Gruev (Leeds) Millar (Hull)