Leeds United v Millwall | 17th March 2024 | Elland Road
A big thank you to everyone for their hugs and comments today on what would have been my daughter’s 33rd birthday. Not everyone can say they had their birth announced live on tv by Greavsie like Charlotte did. Missing my first game in 7 years due to giving birth, I’ll always be grateful having this memory to remember her.
As we reached the Peacock there was a queue to the garden and a bouncer told me it’s because Luke Ayling put £5,000 behind the bar for Leeds fans. When I asked if he was still here, I was told that’s what the queue was for before seeing Luke stood in front of us. I told him it was good to see him which he thanked me for, and my granddaughter got her photo taken with him.
There were a lot of stop/starts which made it quite frustrating with a lot of fouls from Millwall. Gnonto got into a spat in the right-hand corner and think he retaliated as the Millwall player launched himself at him. This ended up with them both being booked, and it was nice to see Bamford have a quick word with Gnonto. Keeping our cool was going to be hard with some of the challenges coming in but we couldn’t afford to have anyone sent off. Around the half hour mark, Gnonto received the ball from Rutter on the right of the goal, ran forward, cut inside and unleashed a ferocious shot that hit the back of the net in front of the south stand. As Elland Road erupted with us in the lead, it was as if to say, mess with me at your peril and this is what you get! Summerville saw his shot saved by the keeper.
When Firpo was booked my first reaction was that he would receive a red card, so it was a relief to see a yellow card shown. When Rodon went down under a challenge in the penalty area, everyone was shouting at the referee as he didn’t stop play with a head injury. Replays later showed a knee in his chest from the Millwall player and his head bounced off the ground on the way down. The referee realised he’d dropped a clanger as Rodon was still off the pitch as Millwall had their corner after play had continued. He gave a free kick to us once it was taken which showed to us that he knew he had made a mistake.
The second half saw Summerville brought down and another booking for Millwall before they made four subs at the same time. After this they started to attack, but I’d no need to panic as we were unlucky not to get a second goal when Rutter saw his initial shot saved as well as his second shot pushed onto the post by the keeper with the underside of his leg. Meslier made a great save to keep them out, but the flag was up for offside. They had started to look dangerous, so it was good to see us make changes with James on for Gnonto and a few minutes later Anthony for Summerville. This had an immediate impact and Rutter once again with some great play got to the byline and crossed the ball for James to put the ball into the net to double our lead. That crowned a good week for him as his wife had a baby boy a few days ago so congratulations to them both. He also hit the post shortly afterwards.
I couldn’t join in at first with the chants of Leeds are going up and being top of the league until the dying minutes as I didn’t want to jeopardise the score, but it was good to know that we had indeed gone top. With Ipswich winning Sheffield Wednesday 6-0 yesterday and Leicester not playing due to the FA Cup, it was still a lovely position to be in at the start of the international break. It is very tight at the top and no doubt there will be many swings and roundabouts before the end of the season, but we will enjoy it whilst we can.
See you at Watford on Good Friday, LUFC – Marching on Together!
Leeds won the game 2-0 with Gnonto (33) and James (79) scoring the goals.
Team: Meslier, Ampadu (Captain), Rodon, Gray, Kamara, Firpo, Bamford, Summerville, Gnonto, Rutter, Gruev
Subs: James for Gnonto (69), Anthony for Summerville (74), Joseph for Bamford (90), Roberts for Kamara (90), Piroe for Rutter (90)
Unused Subs: Darlow, Cooper, Cresswell, Byram
Attendance: 34,814 (896 Millwall Fans)
Referee: Stephen Martin
Booked: Gnonto, Firpo, Gruev
