17th May 2026. English Premier League.
Is it my imagination, or have the football gods generally been kind to Leeds lately?
It’s almost as if the fiasco we witnessed at Crystal Palace when Dominic Calvert-Lewin fluffed his penalty and then referee Thomas Bramall mistakenly gave Gabriel Gudmunsson a second yellow card; has since been weighing on the minds of the football gods, who have done their best to make amends!
Okay, they didn’t help us much at Wembley, but in the league, there have been a few instances where maybe the rub of the green has just been in our favour! Today, it needed an awful mistake by the Brighton defence right at the death to make the difference.
They do say you make your own luck, though, and once again, despite fighting against all the odds with a depleted starting XI and then losing both Anton Stach and Brenden Aaronson to further injuries during the game, Leeds’ grit and determination won out in the end.
The first half remained goalless largely due to the efforts of both keepers. Karl Darlow was, once again, faultless throughout the match, including two blinding saves in the first half, both from the boots of Pascal Gross. First, he had to readjust diving to his left to keep out a swerving left-footer, and then he had to go full stretch to palm away a similarly swerving right-footer from the Brighton midfielder. At the other end, a careless attempt at a clearance from one Brighton defender smacked Lewis Dunk on the shoulder, and that was sending the ball into the top corner until Bart Verbruggen intervened. Despite the lack of clear chances in the first half, it passed very quickly with plenty of decent football on show from both sides, but Brighton bossing most of the possession.
After the break, it was the Seagulls that almost took the lead when Danny Welbeck spun in the box and lashed a shot at goal that Ethan Ampadu did well to head clear off the line and then, as Brighton continued to press, Diego Gomez should probably have done better as his wild swing from 12 yards out sent the ball into orbit somewhere over LS11.
It couldn’t be said that Leeds were exactly sitting back towards the end just defending, as we had DCL, Joel Piroe, and Lukas Nmecha on the pitch as we moved into the final 15 minutes, as well as Willy Gnonto looking eager to please and the enforced introduction of Sean Longstaff when Stack was unable to continue. Piroe almost broke the deadlock with a classic Piroe attempt, hitting a curling shot first time with his left boot that just missed the top left corner. All that was left was for those football gods to intervene and give us a helping hand to close out our home programme in style.
Jan Paul Van Hecke it was who the football gods had it in for, as he was persuaded to make a needless, reckless blind back pass looking for Lewis Dunk. It was a poor pass anyway, but he’d obviously not seen DCL lurking behind Dunk, and as soon as the ball left van Hecke’s boot DCL was away – showing the sort of sharpness he displayed earlier this season when he went on that six or seven-game streak of scoring. Dom had a yard or two start on Dunk and cleverly took the ball round Verbruggen before stroking it into the empty net just as Dunk came steaming in to clatter our man to the turf. It was classic DCL, and when he’s as alert as this, he really does look a class act.
And that was that, only our third win against the Seagulls in 21 meetings, home and away. It reminded me very much of our clash in 2013, the first day of the season in the Championship, when Luke Murphy popped up to score the winner in the 90th minute!
Everyone played a part in this slightly backs-to-the-wall performance – we even had a chance to say a probable farewell to Sam Byram, who came on for the last few minutes, and he played a part in the move that led to van Hecke’s ricket.
Leeds are unbeaten in eight league games now (4-4-0) and wouldn’t it be the perfect end to the season if we could make that 9 at West Ham next Sunday? It seems to be a trait of Daniel Farke's teams to finish the season on a high – remember last season when we reeled off six wins on the bounce, culminating in that incredible last-gasp win at Plymouth to claim the Championship title?
The sort of West Ham we come up against will depend on whether they still have a chance to avoid the drop, and that, in turn, depends on how Spurs get on at Chelsea on Tuesday night. It would be good to have a few players back from injury, too.
For now, let’s bask in the glory of another terrific three points… 50 for the season would be good though!
Premier League
Leeds United 1 (Calvert-Lewin 90+6')
Brighton & Hove Albion 0
Leeds: Darlow (GK), Ampadu (C), Rodon, James (Gnonto 60’), Calvert-Lewin, Aaronson (Nmecha 60’), Bijol, Stach (Piroe 75’), Tanaka (Longstaff 60’), Bornauw (Byram 90'), Justin. Subs not used: Perri (GK), Chadwick, Cresswell, Lienou.
Brighton: Verbruggen (GK), Dunk (C), van Hecke, Minteh (March 90'), Hinshelwood (Kostoulas 82’), Baleba (Ayari 82’), Welbeck (Rutter 65’), Kadioglu, De Cuyper, Groß, Veltman (Gómez 65’). Subs not used: Steele (GK), Milner, Boscagli, O’Riley.
Venue: Elland Road
Referee: Michael Oliver
Attendance: 36,880
Booked: Calvert-Lewin (Leeds)
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