Leeds United v Sheffield Wednesday | 19th January 2025 | Elland Road
Thank you to all those who have taken the time to speak to me, offer their sympathies, follow my blogs and are generally just there for me because as always, it is greatly appreciated. There are so many others going through their own traumas with losing their loved ones or going through personal health battles that mean more to me than worrying about mistakes made by our players. Maybe I am looking at things differently since the death of my husband but what happens, happens, we have to deal with it and move on. I’ll admit, I don’t cope well when things happen in the background at the moment and have taken a back seat on social media.
I learnt a long time ago that everyone will have their own opinions on things which they are entitled to, but I honestly feel that as long as we unite as a team, we’ll come back stronger. Seeing little Jayden Bamford’s face on the screen today and the applause around the ground in tribute to him, puts things in perspective for me. My opinion may be controversial, but I still think Meslier is our number one keeper, but I would love to see him working with Nigel Martyn in the background though.
Leeds got off to a fantastic start when Aaronson got near enough to the keeper to make him spill the ball. Solomon was there to pick it up and place his shot in between two Wednesday players to score an early goal. That was just the start we needed but Wednesday were soon on the attack which showed it wasn’t going to be easy. A few times they had players spare on the wings plus the referee was giving them free kick after free kick even when they were just being challenged for the ball. When has football become a non-contact sport? To make things worse, he didn’t even blow for two blatant hand balls during the game, after a foul on one of our players, then immediately blew for one of their players going down.
When decisions go against you it always gives the opposition the impetus who go from strength to strength, so it is to our credit that we were able to overcome this today. We nearly put ourselves in trouble when the ball should have gone out for a goal kick but to be safe Bogle put the ball over the line. It was a bit of an anxious moment but thankfully we eventually cleared the ball away. Despite them losing, their player took a while whilst taking a corner to the left of us and was told to move the ball onto the line. Despite pretending to move the ball, I’m not actually sure he ever did do it. The game had been fast paced and James brought two saves out of their keeper as we went in one goal in front at the break.
The second half saw their keeper make another save from James, but all the time Wednesday looked dangerous, and my nerves started to kick in. Their speed put us on the backfoot but thankfully Meslier pushed the ball wide for a corner. We needed a second goal that’s for sure. As we were getting ready to make two subs, one of the Wednesday players was down getting treatment. My first thoughts were, are we going to bring them on now or wait? As it was, we brought them on, and Joseph was immediately into the action being brought down. From the resulting free kick, Gruev saw his shot go narrowly over the top.
Despite the referee putting a line across where the Wednesday players had to stand, they still stood in front of it even when this was pointed out to the referee. When we made our next two subs replacing both wingers in James and Solomon, my stomach churning got worse as I didn’t want things to backfire for us. I needn’t have worried because our second goal came very quickly when Ramazani picked up the ball at the edge of the box. He looked to have missed an opportunity to shoot before turning and sending a lovely ball into the corner of the net. I caught part of his somersault celebrating his goal, but phew, that was just the break we needed. With seven minutes of injury time, I was still very nervous, but it was us who got the third goal to put the game beyond Wednesday when Tanaka backheeled the ball into the opposite corner away from their keeper.
The final score makes the game look a lot easier than it was, but I will take the welcome win, three points and another clean sheet. See you on Wednesday when we are back at Elland Road for the Norwich game.
LUFC – Marching on Together!
Leeds won the game 3-0 with goals by Solomon (3), Ramazani (88), Tanaka (90+6)
Team: Meslier, Ampadu, Rodon, James, Bogle, Byram, Rothwell, Solomon, Piroe, Aaronson, Tanaka
Subs: Gruev for Rothwell (70), Joseph for Piroe (70), Gnonto for James (83), Ramazani for Solomon (83), Guilavogui for Aaronson (90)
Subs not used: Darlow, Firpo, Schmidt, Wöber
Attendance: 36,685 (2,847 Sheffield Wednesday Fans)
Referee: David Webb
Booked: Bogle
