Even though we went back to the top of the table Daniel Farke thought we should have won more comfortably, but we were more than good enough to beat a woeful Stoke City. For the third time in 2024 a Leeds win cost an opposing manager his job, after Narcis Pelach was called in to collect his P45 yesterday morning.
Pelach paid the penalty for getting only four points from 10 games as the Potters plummeted down the table, and although he set up a five man defence for this game his players weren’t good enough to stop Leeds cutting through them time after time. And we could well have won this game by four or five, but for some wasteful finishing from the many chances we created.
As Farke alluded to when he spoke to the BBC. "It was a good win and a good performance. Not one of our shiniest. We should have shown more cutting edge, but we had control. The games are coming thick and fast though, so you can't complain about an away win and a clean sheet.
"I am older than my players and have been through such situations so I didn't really feel any added pressure about going top tonight. But it's the first time my players have come under this sort of pressure. We don't have many title winners in our team, so they dealt with it well."
He caused a bit of a surprise by leaving Tanaka out of the starting line-up, but that was probably because it was his turn to take a break in the midst of the hectic holiday schedule. And if the manager was thinking that the team he did put out would be more than good enough to beat Stoke, he was undoubtedly right.
The hosts caused us an anxious moment early on when Koumas broke into the area and was denied by Meslier, but that was to be their only shot on target in the entire 90 minutes. A goal then might have boosted their confidence enough to keep us out as they sat back to defend, but as it was the biggest threat to a Leeds win was a possible abandonment due to fog.
I was amused to read this on a Stoke forum "for much of the game I didn’t have a clue what was going on, but for once this had nothing to do with team selection or tactics”. Leeds didn’t do us any favours by wearing the dark blue third kit instead of the usual away yellow, but if the plan was to sneak through a defence that couldn’t see us, it looked like it was working.
We soon took control of the game, and the chances mounted as a last-ditch clearance from Gibson stopped the ball reaching Solomon, then Johansson made the first of a number of fine saves to deny Aaronson. Bogle was having a fine game building as series of attacks down the right, safe in the knowledge that Stoke would do nothing to expose his dodgyness in defence.
As a cross from James bounced just in front of Solomon and caused our man to sent it over the bar with his knee, we started to wonder if it was going to be another of those nights, but Piroe finally got the breakthrough on 42 minutes. Johansson bravely dived at the Dutchman’s feet when he was first put through, but he collected the ball and turned, before calmly picking his spot as he drove the ball into the roof of the net.
There was just time before the break for Stoke to get a bit niggly, with a couple of sly stamps on the feet of Leeds players, which would have drawn a greater punishment than the one booking for Tchmadeu had VAR been in use. At half-time Stoke took their captain off, but it made no difference to the pattern of the game.
Piroe headed just wide from a corner, but Phillips produced a rare moment of danger from Stoke, when his header went pretty close. And just as we started to think we needed a second goal to make the game safe, it arrived on 63 minutes. Bogle set James away down the right, and with the defence allowing him time to look up and pick his pass, he played the ball across the face of goal for Piroe to score his second from close range.
From then on it was just about whether we could boost our goal difference. Solomon sent a shot narrowly wide, which was just about his final contribution, as the substitutions began for the last 15 minutes. First there was the usual swapping of the two wingers, then Joseph and Tanaka came on, and finally Schmidt got a token couple of minutes.
Joseph shot wide when he probably should have passed, but he is more in need of a goal than any of his colleagues. Aaronson forced another excellent save from Johansson, and that was about it. We had beaten both Stoke City and the fog, though the TV cameras would show that the visibility was better at pitch level, which is probably why they managed to complete the game.
Finally one of my late Dad’s terrible jokes had come pass. "We didn’t win by two clear goals because it was foggy”. Sorry about that. More importantly, Sheffield United’s defeat meant that we reached the halfway point of the season on top of the table. We won’t play many home teams as poor as Stoke, but if we want to improve our away form this is a good way to start.