12th April 2025. EFL Championship
That was much more like it! For me that was a return to the dominating, fluent, attacking side we enjoyed watching in January and February. All that was missing was a bit of composure in front of goal, something that, to be honest, we’ve struggled with throughout the season, despite the vast number of goals we’ve scored. If we’d have been consistently better in front of goal all season we’d be well up towards the 100 goal mark already and probably promoted already!
?Preston North End are a difficult side to beat – only the top five plus West Brom have lost fewer Championship games this season – but they never looked likely to get anything out of Leeds today.
Leeds were ahead in only the 4th minute, the 7th time this season we’ve scored inside the first five minutes. It was another peach of a strike from one of our wide men – we’ve seen several each from Manor Solomon and Dan James already this season – this one was from Solomon, who cut inside onto his right foot and curled a perfect shot over the PNE keeper into the far corner.
?Sadly, we didn’t have much time to savour that one as the Lilywhites hit straight back and were level inside six minutes. Watching replays back, it does look as though Junior Firpo should maybe have done more to prevent Kaine Kesler-Hayden working space onto his left foot to get in his shot but, once the PNE man hit the shot, it was staying hit; it was a fearsome strike that gave Darlow no chance. Ilia Gruev was also nearby but also failed to spot the imminent shot being unleashed.
?Back came Leeds though, seven minutes later to restore the lead, with more fine work by Manor Solomon who this time crossed left-footed from near the left byline for Jayden Bogle to bundle home from close range. It was timely that, with Dan James missing, Manor was having possibly his best game for months.
For the remainder of the game it was a question of whether Leeds would add to their goal tally, but a succession of big chances came and went while Preston hardly had a glimpse of goal, just one decent shot that Karl Darlow dealt with, a flying save to his left
?Leeds recorded one of their best xG totals of the season – 3.71, a total of no less than five big chances. That compares with a paltry xG of only .33 for Preston and zero big chances. The telling stat though was that Leeds missed 4 of our big chances. Joel Piroe was the main culprit, he himself missed three – crashing one against the crossbar when it looked easier to score – while Ilia Gruev somehow failed to turn a loose ball in at the far post merely allowing the ball to ricochet off him. In the first half Brenden Aaronson also fluffed one close range shot that was easily saved and then put a weak header wide. Willy Gnonto managed to side-foot another snap-shot over the bar and had a first half shot well-saved by the PNE keeper, David Cornell. In all, Leeds managed 20 goal attempts but only five hit the target. We really could do with upping our strike record as we move into the final four games of the season.
?Having said that, I thought almost everyone had a really good game today. The pick of the bunch for me was Manor Solomon who looked on fire in the early minutes while throughout the game Jayden Bogle was a constant outlet and threat down the right side. Junior Firpo saw plenty of action down the left too although I thought Willy Gnonto looked under par with what we know he can do. Karl Darlow was (almost) perfect with a number of superb catches from crossed balls and just one rush of blood to the head when coming out of his area to punch the ball away, an effort that got him a yellow card but which could have been very much worse. Other than that his handling was first class.
?Brenden Aaronson was his harrying, tigerish best in leading a much improved Leeds press and Ampadu and Rodon were immense in defence.
?Late cameos from Patrick Bamford and Isaac Schmidt again did the job we saw them do at the Riverside on Tuesday night in similar circumstances, helping to manage the game to the final whistle. Our game management has looked far more effective in these last two games.
?So, who’d have thought we’d be sitting pretty at the top of the table again, five points clear of third placed Sheffield United, when just three games ago we’d won only a single game in five and were two points behind the Blades. It truly is a funny old game. It’s not done yet though, all eyes must now focus on getting a result at Oxford where the Blades succumbed only last week.
Sky Bet Championship
Leeds United 2 (Solomon 4’, Bogle 13’)
Preston North End 1 (Kesler-Hayden 6’)
Leeds: Darlow (GK), Bogle, Firpo, Ampadu (C), Rodon, Piroe, Aaronson (Bamford 80’), Solomon (Byram 95’), Tanaka, Gnonto (Schmidt 80’), Gruev. Subs not used: Meslier (GK), Ramazani, Joseph, Guilavogui, Debayo, Wöber.
PNE: Cornell (GK), Meghoma (Keane 80’), Whiteman (C), Frokjaer-Jensen, Brady (Riis 64’), Storey (Porteous 64’), Hughes (Lindsay 87’), Gibson, Thordarson (Carroll 87’), Osmajic, Kesler-Hayden. Subs not used: Stowell (GK), Evans, Bauer, Mawene.
Referee: John Busby
Booked: Darlow, Gruev (Leeds) Hughes (PNE)
Venue: Elland Road
Attendance: 35,747