9th November 2024. EFL Championship
Once again I thought it would be easier than that! In hindsight, and knowing how QPR frustrated both Sunderland and Burnley recently, preventing both from scoring, I should have guessed they’d be another tough nut to crack. Add in the fact that, despite dominating almost every minute of every game, we never seem to blow teams away, and I realise my 4 – 0 prediction was always on the optimistic side! We could add in the fact that QPR are already having to fight for their Championship survival.
At the end of the day, we’ve seen the template for this game many times already this season, Leeds totally dominant and giving the opposition hardly a sniff of goal and yet just not able to fashion more than one or two quality scoring opportunities; so-called big chances. At least this time we managed to match our expected goals (xg) statistic - in too many games we fail to do that simply due to missing big chances.
However, we’d already gone close when Brenden Aaronson thumped the crossbar with an effort from the edge of the box but then we broke the deadlock as early as the 19th minute. Jayden Bogle weaved his way inside from the right wing to feed the ball to Joe Rothwell who scurried around the left side of the QPR defence before dinking a lovely ball into the middle. Manor Solomon was first to stretch but he could only toe-end the ball which looped back over his head. Willy Gnonto scrambled to get something on the ball and it eventually arrived at the feet of Mateo Joseph, but his wild swing only caught the ball a glancing blow and it was blocked by a defender near the line and this time came back to Jayden Bogle. Jayden finally showed the poise we needed in this manic pinball moment and, with a slight dummy to open the space, he lashed the ball in the net off the underside of the bar. As an observation, do you think Joel Piroe, in Joseph’s position, would have buried the chance before Jayden had to? I do.
We were slightly unfortunate later in the half when Sam Byram strayed offside, going too early onto a lovely little through ball from Brenden Aaronson or maybe Brenden took too long to release. Sam passed across the face of goal and Solomon finished but the flag was rightly in the air. So, it was only 1 – 0 at the break despite Leeds bossing the possession to the tune of 70% and amassing 10 shots compared to just one effort by QPR, a headed effort by Jimmy Dunne that he’ll think he ought to have buried. It was the only real sight of goal we offered all afternoon though; we have to credit the whole team again for a masterful defensive performance.
The second half continued to follow the same script, more domination from Leeds, more half-chances resulting in another 11 shots but no clear-cut big chances. Earlier in the season we were missing big chances, now the issue is mainly that we’re not creating enough of them. Perhaps the best chance of the second half came when Willy Gnonto raced away from well within his own half with Manor Solomon in the clear on his left. Sadly, Willy got the pass all wrong and gave Manor too much to do and the chance went begging. Our final ball has too often recently not been quite good enough.
The longer the game went on with the score still only 1 – 0 it was inevitable that the nerves, on and off the pitch, would start to jangle – we know we have to keep winning these games against the lesser teams because we know there are at least two other sides who usually will, maybe three if we add Burnley into the mix with Sunderland and Sheffield United. Note to self though - Sunderland failed to beat Coventry today and have now drawn three on the trot. We'll see how the Blades and Burnley get on tomorrow.
Hence the huge outpouring of relief from players and fans alike when Joel Piroe scored in the 95th minute; another goal that showcased just what a cool finisher he is given even half a chance. He jinked his way through three or four defenders and then clipped a delightful little chip past the QPR keeper. If only we could offer Joel such positions more often. I should also mention the referee, Matt Donohue, and not in a good way. Donohue was the latest in a long line of poor referees who didn’t help our cause one bit with his near random decision making and his insistence on giving free kicks for the softest of challenges; let the game flow man! His assistants are open to question too – they seemed flag happy to me but maybe our forwards weren’t alert enough to stay onside, I’m not sure which.
So, another win has confirmed our status as having the best home record in the Championship with 6 wins, a draw and that annoying Burnley defeat from our 8 games, only Watford (I know, mad isn’t it?) can match that record with six wins and a draw from their 7 home games. We’ve scored more goals than anyone else at home too – 17 – and we’ve only conceded 5… three of those in that ridiculous opening game with Pompey. It’s a fine record, one to be proud of and long may it continue. Folk have criticised our away record – 2 wins, 4 draws and the recent Millwall defeat – but I think, considering the places we’ve had to go to, - including Sunderland, Albion, Norwich, Bristol and Millwall – our away record is fine too. We know we should have beaten Sunderland but we also know ‘stuff happens’ sometimes.
We are not perfect folks, we’d be called Real Madrid if we were, but we’re still the best side I’ve seen this season. The areas we’re not great at are, in no particular order, set pieces, winning aerial duals, creating big chances from promising positions, and, sometimes, our finishing. All things to work on to make us even better in the coming weeks but, hey, let’s rejoice at where we are already.
Sky Bet Championship
Leeds United 2 (Bogle 19’, Piroe 90+5’)
Queens Park Rangers 0
Leeds: Meslier (GK), Bogle, Struijk (C), Rodon, Rothwell (Guilavogui 84’), Aaronson, Solomon (James 72’), Joseph (Piroe 72’), Tanaka, Byram, Gnonto (Schmidt 90’). Subs not used: Darlow (GK), Bamford, Wober, Chambers, Crew.
QPR: Nardi (GK), Dunne, Cook (C), Field, Smyth (Santos 89’), Saito, Celar, Ashby (Lloyd 81’), Morgan (Madsen 66), Andersen (Bennie 66’), Varane (Morrison 82’). Subs not used: Shepperd (GK), Dixon-Bonner, Kolli, Aoraha.
Venue: Elland Road
Attendance: 36,011
Referee: Matthew Donohue
Booked: Byram (Leeds) Morgan (QPR)