Leeds United v Huddersfield Town | 28th October 2023 | Elland Road
I’d already put the Stoke game behind me by yesterday and moved on as I find it’s a good coping mechanism. There’s no way you can change the score or what happened and sometimes stewing over it does more harm than good. After seeing Leeds advertising for an SLO, I’ll admit if I was younger, it is something I would have liked to have applied for but it’s too late now. Maybe it’s best that I have autonomy with my blog.
After going via Wakefield with my granddaughter to pick my daughter up, by the time we got to Elland Road, once again it was too late to go to the Peacock. After hearing Alfie Haaland was in there earlier although it was good to hear, it was mixed with disappointment that I missed him. As well as seeing photos of those with Gary Kelly, it’s good to see our ex-players mixing with the fans.
I will always maintain that our best form of defence is attack and we should always come out of the starting block at the first whistle rather than waiting until the second half. With Huddersfield turning us around at the toss, as one of my friends was asking what that was all about, I said, it doesn’t matter because we are going to win. I don’t think anyone, me included, expected us to be leading 4-0 at the break and also have a goal disallowed. After time wasting for so long, once we’d scored our first goal, it's surprising but Huddersfield stopped doing it, I wonder why?
The first half was a sensational performance from Leeds United and when the ball hit the back of the net after 10 minutes of the game, the roars of the Leeds fans were quickly subdued as the linesman put his flag up and the goal was disallowed. The disappointment didn’t last long as Leeds took the lead on 20 minutes after a fantastic build up from the back. Rutter with great skills once again sent a fantastic ball for Summerville to run onto and as he neared the penalty area, he passed to James on the right. James caught everyone out by hitting a great shot straight away into the bottom corner of the net. Huddersfield could have got straight back into the game as their player got the better of Shackleton on the edge of the box, only for Rodon to make a last gasp challenge where he looked to hurt himself, to keep him from scoring.
Leeds didn’t take long then to go further into the lead when Piroe passed to Summerville on the left. His teasing footwork saw him hit a low to the right of the keeper and into the net. As he ran to the West Stand to celebrate, with not wearing my glasses I thought he’d been stopped by a Huddersfield player before realising it was Gnonto celebrating with him. Three minutes later we saw Summerville running at a fast pace with the ball down the middle of the pitch with the options of James to the right of him and Piroe or Rutter to the left. He passed the ball to James who took a touch to the ball before hitting another great low shot into the bottom left of the net to give us a third goal. The drama was not over yet as deep into injury time, Rutter with a fantastic run on the left-hand side after a backheel from Byram, saw him pull the ball back to Summerville in the penalty area. Summerville went right, then left to get away from his marker and as James jumped out of the way, put a low shot into the right of the net to send the Leeds fans wild. What a first half performance from Leeds and exactly the right comeback after the disappointing midweek performance at Stoke.
There was a great buzz downstairs at half time with lots of happy, smiling Leeds fans. I know I was looking for more of the same in the second half as improving our goal difference was important to me. Sadly, it was more of a damp squib. With Huddersfield having a rare attack, their man let fly with a great shot from outside the area which bounced back off Meslier. Their man got there first to the rebound to hit it into the net. I was looking for an offside but with the linesman not up with play, the goal was given. After our goal was disallowed in the first half for offside, it was a disappointment that it was given. In the end, I feel we went for damage limitations rather than have a complete performance but getting a 4-1 win at home and another three points was the main thing.
Onto Leicester next Friday which is a crunch top of the table game. As long as we put in a performance like the first half, we will get something out of it. I am hoping to make it still knowing we get dropped off outside the turnstiles plus I’ve moved my seat to the front of the stand, as I won’t be able to stand for long periods. I know I am putting myself under pressure to get there with having my gall bladder out beforehand, but as with my recent hip replacement, it is an incentive to keep going and not miss a game.
See you there, LUFC – Marching on Together!
Leeds won the game 4-1 with James (20, 34) and Summerville (31, 45+5) both getting a brace
Team: Meslier, Struijk, Rodon, Kamara, Summerville, James, Byram, Shackleton, Piroe, Rutter, Ampadu.
Subs: Ayling for Byram (59), Gnonto for Summerville (59), Cooper for Rodon (injured 63), Anthony for James (79), Bamford for Rutter (79)
Unused Subs: Darlow, Gray, Gruev, Poveda
Attendance: 36,813 (2,900 Huddersfield)
Referee: James Bell
Booked: None from Leeds, four Huddersfield
not many on here look at my topic 
