We made hard work of winning this game, but we finally put the match beyond Queens Park Rangers with a second goal deep into injury time, sending the visitors to the bottom of the table.
When I popped onto the forum of our sister QPR site last night, I was amused to see the thread for this game was titled ‘Biggest Club in the World vs QPR’. It’s true that we’re never knowlingly undersold by our own fans, but if you really want a club with an inflated view of it’s own importance, try a different United across the Pennines.
Before the game, I was with a mate who is one of QPR’s less sarcastic fans. It seems we had both expected them to do much better this season after they pulled clear of trouble last time once Marti Cifuentes was appointed. Apparently, their current woes have much to do with poor recruitment by others and a growing injury list.
We do of course have a few injuries of our own, but better options in our squad to be able to deal with it all. It might have been Dan James’ niggling hamstrings that led to Solomon coming in as one of our three changes, but at least he made the bench. Firpo’s surprise late suspension meant that Byram was beck in, while the third change was tactical, as Joseph was in for Piroe after Wednesday’s poor showing at Millwall.
Not that it produced any notable improvement in our ability to convert our possession into decent chances. Solomon again struggled to live up to the promise of his debut performance, and Aaronson added to our catalogue of woeful free kicks, inevitably sending it straight into the wall from a decent position.
But on 19 minutes the American produced our best effort so far, working his way to the edge of the area and then smacking a fierce shot against the crossbar. But we were in front only a minute later. Rothwell crossed from the left after a fine run, and there were howls of frustration as Solomon stretched to take the ball when it would have dropped perfectly for Gnonto.
But it was played back into the six yard box and came through to Bogle, who waited for what seemed like an age till he’d got the ball in just the right spot. I was thinking "for god’s sake just put it in” and eventually he did just that. The goal had been coming and at that point we seemed to be heading for a comfortable win, but from then on we seemed a bit too sluggish to really get a grip on the game.
The visitors had their first chance when Dunne met an Andersen free kick. From my seat in the corner of the East Stand I couldn’t see how close it was, but assumed it was well wide as Meslier never moved. It was a bit of a surprise to see from the TV highlights that it actually went just past the post. Before the break we had a goal disallowed for offside for the second match running, Byram being flagged before he sent over the cross that Solomon put into the net.
The pattern continued in the second half, with Leeds struggling to kill the game off, although Gnonto forced Nardi into a decent save. And while it remained 1-0 there was always the nagging fear that the Rs could snatch an equaliser and deny us the win we needed to get back on track. This could have come to pass when Cook’s cross found Field, but his shot came down onto the roof of the net rather than passing under the bar.
On 72 minutes Farke tried his usual freshening up of the front line, with Solomon and Joseph making way for Piroe and James, suspect hamstrings notwithstanding. And when that had no immediate impact the other two subs were more defensive, Guilavogui for Rothwell and finally Schmidt for Gnonto.
But even then we contrived to present QPR with opportunities by giving the ball away with careless passes out of defence. The best of them fell to Celar, who curled his shot wide after being put through into space, for which he’s getting pelters on the Rangers’ messageboards. There was surprise when six additional minutes were announced, but that might have owed much to the age that it took Gnonto to slowly amble off the pitch.
Thankfully it was Leeds who took advantage of the additional time, and Piroe finally made the points safe by curling the ball home with the outside of his left foot from a fairly tight angle. This game didn’t rival Cardiff as the least impressive 2-0 win I’ve ever seen, but it’s hard to see how this performance would have been good enough against the top sides in the division.
And I’m not the only one feeling oddly dissatisfied. I’ve received one email that said "Thought Leeds played as if they were hungover, too good for QPR but never really on it”, and I’ve seen similar comments on social media. But Daniel Farke seemed a little bit happier when he spoke to Radio Leeds.
"Of course it should have been more convincing but I am just happy with the win and I have to give many compliments to my lads. To deliver such a performance in the third game in seven days and to respond after a loss is never easy to answer in the next game with a win, but that is what we did”.
"That was an electrifying first half and we fully deserved to go into the lead although we were a bit wasteful with our chances. QPR are struggling a little bit but they are much better than their position in the table. They are always an offensive threat. But when you don’t bury the game you have to stay focused and concentrate and that's what we did so I’m very happy with the performance, the win and the clean sheet."
In other news, Sunderland could only draw with Coventry after being 2-0 up, and if Sheffield United fail to beat the useless Wendies in the Steel City derby we will go into yet another international break in second place. We then go into a relatively easy run of fixtures in the weeks that follow, but can the team we please be a bit more clinical to spare the nerves of the rest of us.