please log in to view this image Before I start my blog today, I would like to issue a plea on behalf of Andrew Plenderleith. Emily Land is 21 years old from Leeds and has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) a type of blood cancer. She urgently needs to find a matching stem cell donor to give her the best possible chance at life. If you are aged 16-30 and would be able to join the Anthony Nolan stem cell register, please sign up now. The first step is filling in the online form and doing a swab. For more information and to sign up please go to anthonynolan.org/Join4Emily. Team: Meslier, Cooper, Rodrigo, Harrison, Kristensen, Aaronson, Roca, Adams, Struijk, Sinisterra and Koch. Subs: Bamford for Rodrigo (45), Klich for Harrison (76), Summerville for Roca (84), Gelhardt for Sinisterra (89). Subs not used: Klaesson, Llorente, Ayling, Greenwood, Firpo. Leeds lost the game 1-0. Attendance: 36,700 (highest attendance of the season), with 2,912 Arsenal fans. Referee: Chris Kavanagh. No Leeds players booked. As always, it was nice to meet up and chat with many of our fans including some of the Malta Whites before the game. After a trip to the Peacock, it was into the ground, down to the front to take some photos before heading to my seat. I had only been there for a short while when things on the pitch ground to a halt. When I saw the referee heading over to speak to Marsch, my first thoughts were that he was getting sent off again! Eventually with everyone taken off the pitch and the game suspended; the delay was blamed on a power cut in Beeston although news filtered through that it was because VAR was out of action. As far as I’m concerned, it could stay out of action, and we could carry on playing football as it used to be! If we thought our delay was bizarre, spare a thought for the delay at the Hull v Birmingham game, as it was suspended due to them having to reduce the height of the goal posts by sawing them off!! When play resumed after a delay of over 30 minutes, the game started with our throw in by the East Stand but the countdown on the clock started from zero. After a couple of early chances that went wide or were blocked, the first real chance came from a corner when Struijk’s goal bound effort was kept out by the Arsenal keeper. Straight to the Kop end and luckily for us, the shot from Arsenal went over the bar from a good position. Arsenal then took the lead from a Rodrigo mistake, when they came in from the left in front of us but instead of passing the ball, smashed it into the top corner of our goal. With a Harrison shot that went over the bar, Leeds went into the break losing by the one goal. Bamford replaced Rodrigo and straight from kick off Elland Road exploded as Bamford struck the ball into the net after sheer persistence from Leeds, only to see the goal disallowed for a push. Interestingly, there was no VAR replay, well, I didn’t see any! Undeterred Bamford came close again after pressure caused the Arsenal defence into an error, but their keeper saved the shot. Leeds kept up the pressure and with the crowd screaming for a penalty for handball, it looked like VAR had ignored this one too. As play carried on it came onto the scoreboard that it was being investigated and after the referee went to look at the screen, he awarded Leeds a penalty. Instead of being allowed to take it straight away though, the Arsenal players surrounded the referee and caused mayhem. He should have booked a few of them immediately which would have stopped them in their tracks, but they had done enough to put Bamford off as his resulting penalty went narrowly wide of the post in front of us. A golden opportunity missed though as that would have put us on level terms with Leeds on top of the game. Despite Arsenal being top of the league, Leeds were putting them under a lot of pressure. Despite Bamford not scoring, he had instilled some life into the Leeds attack as he had another shot saved by the keeper. As we continued to try and walk the ball in, I’d shouted for us to have a shot instead. Aaronson obviously heard me as he had a shot from the edge of the box that the keeper put out for a corner. That’s more like it Leeds, you need to take them by surprise. If we thought that was the end of the drama from the game, we were mistaken as a Leeds attack ended in injury time with Bamford clashing with Gabriel in the box. Although he’d pushed Gabriel, the reaction of the defender was to lash out at Bamford. After going over to speak to the linesman who had given a foul, the referee then proceeded to send off Gabriel and award Leeds a penalty. Instead of leaving the pitch, the Arsenal players surrounded the referee and Gabriel refused to go and eventually VAR told the referee to look at the incident again. That was it, the penalty was changed to a free kick to Arsenal and Gabriel was given a yellow instead of a straight red card. The latter should still have stood as far as everyone around me was concerned. With every chance Arsenal had to waste time by going down injured, the last few minutes saw Leeds trying to get the ball forward, but no one was getting into space, and we could have done with someone taking the bull by the horns so to speak and drive the game forward. It wasn’t a surprise then for the whistle to blow for full time and Leeds had got nothing out of it leaving us in 15th place in the league with a game in hand. I felt we deserved at least a point from today’s game though. With our next game on Thursday at Leicester, a school reunion in Leeds before leaving for the game, the Fulham game at home next Sunday and my mum’s funeral sandwiched in between, it’s going to be an emotional week that’s for sure. See you then, LUFC – Marching on Together! please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
