Our overall performance at the Bet 365 scarcely deserved all three points, but a spot kick 15 minutes from time gave us an excellent opportunity to take them. But instead it was Stoke City who were to grab the winner in the closing stages of the game.
Daniel Farke was keen to get his excuses in early when he spoke to Sky before kick off, complaining that before the weekend we would have the shortest recovery time of any team in the Championship. Last night we had the latest possible kick off time (8pm), which will be followed by the earliest possible kick off time on Saturday.
So it was understandable that he wanted to use the squad to make a few changes, but even so his starting eleven was a little bit puzzling. With all the chatter around Archie Gray playing three games for the England under 19s and then at Norwich we might have thought he was the player most in need of a rest, but instead he continued to operate at right back.
Instead Summerville was on the bench despite his heroics at Carrow Road, as was James, the man who engineered the first goal at Norwich. Kamara also stood down, and in came Gruev for his first start, while Anthony and Gnonto began the game on the wings. The league table might have suggested this was one of our easier fixtures, but after a difficult start to the season Stoke managed to beat Sunderland on Saturday.
And from the start it was clear that Stoke were drawing on the confidence from that rare victory, as they were eager to work hard an deny us space, while we had the air of a side who didn’t think they needed to give 100% to beat this lot and could save a bit of energy for Saturday. Stoke created more opportunities during the first half, but thankfully every shot they had on target was fired straight at Meslier.
The first of these came when Rodon let the ball pass in front of him with no attempt to block it, seemingly oblivious to the danger behind him, and was lucky to get away with this error. It took us half an hour to create any meaningful chances ourselves, but then Piroe was put through by an excellent ball by Rutter, only to be denied by the legs of Travers as he tried to shoot across the keeper into the far corner.
Travers was called into action again from the resulting corner, but Rutter’s downward header lacked power and he had plenty of time to get across and make the save. Throughout the game Stoke worked hard to deny us space, and had clearly been watching videos of Rutter in action, as he always had several players around him whenever he got the ball. We seemed to be spending most of the time passing backwards rather than getting into dangerous positions.
Farke must have had a few things to say at half time as we came out looking a bit more lively after the break. Anthony cut inside from the left and curled the ball just past the far post, then Piroe returned Rutter’s favour from the first half with an excellent through ball, but again the Frenchman’s finish lacked power and Travers made an easy save.
And when a careless Stoke backpass set Rutter free he couldn’t accept the gift, sending a shot across goal and wide of the far post. But otherwise our moves were breaking down through poor passing or players failing to control the ball once it arrived. Gnonto was getting frustrated and started moaning to the officials, before getting himself booked for a late challenge.
So it was no surprise that he was one of the players removed as we freshened things up with 20 minutes remaining. Anthony also came off, as Summerville and James entered the fray to run at a defence who must have been tiring after all their hard work during the game. But the case for the other change was a little less clear cut, with Piroe coming off for Bamford, though this did allow Rutter to drop deeper into a position that suits him a little better.
And only a few minutes later the substitutions seemed to have paid dividends, as Rutter did well to control a high ball before playing Bamford in on goal, before our centre forward’s progress was rudely interrupted by a clumsy challenge from behind. But as I began to rejoice at the awarding of the penalty, the thought occurred to me that we still had to score it.
What happened next has been the subject of a great deal of debate. Summerville fancied it, and it’s said that he begged captain Struijk to tell Bamford to let him have the opportunity. But Bamford stepped up to take it, even though he had missed his last two penalties, so keen was he to get his first goal since his latest return from injury. Yet he never looked confident, and after taking a very short run-up he sent the ball well over the bar.
Had the penalty been converted I’m sure we’d have gone on to win despite the home side’s earlier dominance, but the miss gave the crowd a huge lift, and the atmosphere fed new life into their team. And only five minutes later they were to grab a goal themselves. Wesley was first to an inswinging corner, and his header came down off the bar too fast for Struijk to get out of the way, so it bounced off him into the net for an own goal.
With five minutes left our manager made his final two changes to try to salvage something, with Byram and Gruev coming off. Apparently the Bulgarian had been impressive in training, but he hadn’t manged to reproduce that form in a game that had largely passed him by. Ayling and Poveda came on, which allowed Gray to get back to his more favoured position in midfield.
A neat one-two between Summerville and Bamford nearly conjured an equaliser, but a defender was alert to the danger and got across to make an excellent block. But five minutes of injury time weren’t enough for us to save the game, and we finished the night nine points below Ipswich, but somehow still in third place in the table.
I thought the Bamford haters might be out in force on social media, but what I saw was even worse than I expected. Some say that he’s finished as a Leeds player, we should give him away to anyone who will take him off our hands, and that he didn’t even care about his penalty miss. At least the last suggestion was dismissed by Daneil Farke when the Leeds boss spoke to the media after the game.
"Patrick is the most disappointed player in the dressing room. I don’t need to criticise him. (Maybe) he wanted it too much to prove the doubters wrong, that he can take penalties, but he doesn’t have to prove anyone wrong. He wanted to take the responsibility. I think he’s experienced enough to deal with all the criticism which comes.”
But he also said that Bamford won’t be taking our next penalty, and that he wouldn’t have had the chance this time if Piroe had still been on the pitch. After such a disappointing night we need to a much better result against the struggling dog botherers, and a win to get our campaign back on track.