18th April, 2025, EFL Championship.
Well, it wasn’t always pretty, but it was certainly very gritty! A professional performance by Leeds at Oxford has got us to the brink of promotion; just four more points from our final three games and the dream will be realised, even a point on Monday against Stoke would be enough realistically if Blades succumb at Burnley.
I think everyone thought it would be tough at the Kassam, all logic said it would be. They beat the Blades here only a couple of games ago, and they were still too close to the relegation zone to give anything less than 100 per cent effort against us. Meanwhile, the pressure on Leeds was huge, having seen the earlier results for Sheffield United and Burnley. A ‘Molineux-like’ flame and firework display before kick-off was presumably designed to fire up the home side even more, but the Leeds fans yelled “What the f****** hell was that” to get things back in context!
In that context then it was a fine, solid, determined performance from Leeds. Every player stood tall and performed starting with Karl Darlow in goal who had to be alert to dive full length to parry away an early shot from Cameron Brannagan, that was so vital. After that Leeds took control and Brenden Aaronson had the first of those big chances minutes later when he was put though after a neat touch from Joel Piroe. Brenden’s shot was well saved by Cumming in the Oxford goal but a more composed shot nearer the left post and it was a certain goal.
Next it was Manor Solomon, again looking full of running and intent on the left who hit a low ball across the face of goal towards Willy Gnonto. Only a sliding last-gasp clearance from Ben Nelson took the ball off Willy’s toes. Just after the half-hour mark though, our nerves were calmed.
Joe Rodon turned visionary number ‘10’ as he played a slide-rule pass through the centre of the U’s defence to perfectly meet the run of Jayden Bogle in the inside right channel. Bogle fired the ball across the face of goal and there was the ever-alert Manor Solomon at the back post to smash the ball into the roof of the net. “It’s Solomon again!” rang out from the hoard of Leeds fans in the North Stand and one or two perched on top of buses in the car park!
It has to be said that Oxford came more into the game in the second half but their only real weapon was the long throw of Will Vaulks of which a dozen or more were hurled into the Leeds area throughout the last 45 minutes. Thankfully the worry was greater than the impact as most were commandingly headed away by the superb Joe Rodon who was my man of the match.
Leeds had other sights of goal as the Oxford rally began to lose energy. Jayden Bogle will probably think he should have done better as he guided a right-foot shot wide of the left post and then Ao Tanaka was unlucky to see his fierce long-range shot cannon against the left post. It was a nervy old final few minutes but, in hindsight at least, there were few worrying moments as another three points were safely bagged.
Now the task is even more simple; at worst we need four more points from our final three games, two of which are at Elland Road. At best, a win or even a draw against Stoke on Monday and then we can sit back and watch to see how the Clarets v Blades contest goes later in the evening. If we’ve got at least the one point by then and Blades fail to win then, we are as good as promoted barring some unlikely high scoring wins for Sheffield and defeats for Leeds. We are that close.
Stoke just about cemented their place in the Championship for next season with a fairly fortunate win against Sheffield Wednesday yesterday (Did you see their second goal? Talk about scoring a goal off a blokes arse!) so maybe they’ll be less determined than they otherwise would have been. Sometimes it works the other way of course and the freedom from pressure helps a team play more fluently. Surely we’ve got enough to see them off though, haven’t we?
Sky Bet Championship
Oxford United 0
Leeds United 1 (Solomon 32’)
Oxford: Cumming (GK), Long, Vaulks, Placheta (Mills 80’), Brannagan (C), Harris (Romeny 65’), Bennett (Leigh 65’), Nelson, Matos (Bradshaw 80’), Goodrham (El Mizouni 89’), Helik. Subs not used: Ingram (GK), Phillips, Rodrigues, Kioso.
Leeds: Darlow (GK), Bogle, Firpo, Ampadu (C), Rodon, Piroe (Bamford 75’), Aaronson (Guilavogui 90’), Solomon (Schmidt 87’), Tanaka, Gnonto (James 75’), Gruev. Subs not used: Meslier (GK), Ramazani, Joseph, Byram, Wober.
Referee: Dean Whitestone
Booked: Placheta, Vaulks, Helik, Mills (Oxford) Gruev, Bogle (Leeds)
Venue: Kassam Stadium
Attendance: 11,537