Leeds United    1 (Struijk pen 88) ​

Blackburn Rov  1 (Batth 90)                                        

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1st  January 2025. EFL Championship

36,645.

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There was something predictable about the way Leeds and Blackburn played out a 1 – 1 draw this afternoon, after all, these two sides had played 16 consecutive games against each other without sharing the points. That sequence had to end at some point as did our terrific run of nine consecutive home victories and I did think once we started to see a few more of the top half teams arrive at Elland Road it was more likely we’d see a few draws and even the odd home defeat.

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Having said all that, boy is it disappointing to fail to win a game when you take the lead as late as the 88th minute! Pascal Struijk showed immense bottle to score from the spot when Mateo Joseph was clipped in the area and that should have been that, just close the game out. Game management lads, game management. We blew two points up at Sunderland with poor game management at the death and here we were again. A needless corner given away and then expecting Willy Gnonto to defend the back post against a much taller opponent was naïve at best, reckless more like.

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No team is going to win every game, we know that, but this was a game where we’d done the hard work and got ourselves so close to another huge three points that it’s just, well, galling. It had not been one of our better displays, dominant yes, bossing the possession as always and producing 12 goal attempts to only four from the visitors, but very few decent chances were created and, as we are always talking about, missing a few when they were. Probably the best of them fell to the man who is probably our worst finisher of all; Brenden Aaronson. He worked himself a great position in the inside left channel but then fired his powerful drive inches over the bar! Other than that we saw Pascal Struijk fluff a header from close range from a Joe Rothwell corner, our only real sight of goal in an underwhelming first half  and then Dan James hit a weak free kick that Pears easily stopped, Willy Gnonto thundered a volley just wide and Pears made one brilliant save to keep out a powerful Max Wober strike in the second half. It just wasn’t enough and maybe it was just that, being the dominant team on the ball every game, this was just one game too many in a short space of time to maintain our run.

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One strange decision was for Daniel Farke to withdraw two of his best front line attackers at a stage when we were still looking for that first goal. Taking off Joel Piroe and Manor Solomon at that point felt wrong to me but I suppose he was looking for fresh legs after a bit of a slog over the last two weeks and, maybe the fact that it was Mateo Joseph who won the penalty validates his choice. I’m not sure.

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As it happens, the point we gained today was enough to actually improve our situation at the top of the table, maintaining our three point lead over Burnley who could only draw at home against struggling Stoke City and stretching our lead over the Blades to three points as they went down at 4th placed Sunderland. Now the key is to go to relegation haunted Hull City and bring back three more points to pile on the pressure.

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Happy New Year everyone!