Once again we dominated the possession in an away game, but struggled to make it count. That was before a superb team goal in the 79th minute finally broke through the Derby County defence, and that proved to be enough to ensure that we finish 2024 on top of the Championship table.
Daniel Farke made four changes for this game as he continued to try to keep his players fresh over the hectic holiday period. He began with the two wingers who finished the game at Stoke, while Joseph took his turn up front and Tanaka came back as Rothwell was rested. Overall I thought this eleven was slightly weaker than on Boxing Day, when this was likely to be the harder of the two fixtures.
From the start we were on the front foot, but initially found it hard to create clear-cut chances against yet another side who were content to adopt a very defensive formation for a home team. An early opportunity came when Aaronson played Ramazani in on the left side of the area, but Joseph should have done better with his finish.
The young Spaniard needs a goal, and this could have come when Aaronson sent him through, but when he took the shot early from the edge of the area, Zetterström was able to get down to make the save. And it wasn’t all one way traffic. There was an anxious moment when a cross from Jackson seemed to be curling in towards goal, and if it had crept in, Meslier’s critics on social media would have been out in force once again.
The game got a little tetchy as half time approached, with Harness getting the first yellow card of the evening after catching Ampadu in the head with a high boot, before Ampadu himself went in the book after totting up a number of fouls. And Derby thought they should have had a free kick in a dangerous position when Struijk took an opponent out, so they would have been furious if we’d scored in the breakaway that followed.
But Aaronson had the decency to send the ball well over the bar after Gnonto and Joseph combined. And just before the break a low ball across the face of goal from Joseph forced Phillips to make a quick interception to ensure that the sides went in level at the break. Leeds came out looking even more determined, and created two outstanding chances at the start of the second half.
The first came after a slightly lucky ricochet set Ramazani down the wing, but as the ball came through to Aaronson the American took too long to get his shot away, waiting for the ball to run across to his right foot instead of hitting it first time with his left. That gave Zetterström the time he needed to get across his goal to make the save. Then Joseph’s finishing was again wasteful, shooting over from the edge of the area.
It was starting to look like the template for all our disappointing away results, and my inner pessimist was saying that this was usually the time that the opposition grab a goal. Which could have come to pass from a corner, as Phillps’ header looped up in the air after bouncing off Rodon, but Meslier was able to claw the ball away.
At the other end we went close again after a rather messy passage of play. Bogle sliced his cross, which bounced off a surprised Gnonto, and as it came through to Ramazani the Belgian seemed to slip as he shot, so couldn’t get the power he needed, with Zetterström quite strangely opting to swat the ball away with his left hand.
As we got to 70 minutes Farke decided he would need to put the A team on if he was going to win the game, as the two wingers plus Joseph hadn’t managed to give us the impact we needed. So James, Solomon and Piroe entered the fray. And the two new wide men nearly created the breakthrough, as a superb cross-field ball from Solomon sent James through on goal.
With the form the Welshman has been in we expected him to score, but Zetterström stood firm to make a great save with his legs. That said, James shouldn’t have given him the chance by sending his shot so close to the keeper. Ampadu then went close from a corner, but the breakthrough finally came on 79 minutes, and it was a goal that was well worth waiting for!
A superb move involving 10 passes and 6 different players ended with Prioe’s ball through to set Aaronson racing through into the box, and the American kept his head to curl the ball round Zetterström and into the corner of the net. That goal was always likely to be enough, and we managed to get through the remaining time with no further alarms.
Bamford was allowed to make a brief appearance off the bench, and finally Guilavogui came on to give the defence a bit more protection and get us over the line. I’ve read today that he’s now our first ever player to be on the winning side in all of his first eight appearances for the club, though that is partly down to his role of always coming on when we have a lead to protect.
There were three and a half minutes of injury time to see out, but finally we got there. And when it was all over Daniel Farke told the BBC "I think it was a fully deserved win. We were in total control because we expected them to be on it and to try press us. But we didn't allow them to press us because we had good solutions today.”
"Perhaps in the first half we didn't have enough clear-cut chances to score, but we didn't allow them anything. In the second half my feeling was that at some point we missed too many clear-cut chances to win such a difficult away game”.
"Normally you can't miss so many chances to win points in such a difficult place but then obviously we scored, for me, the goal of the season. It was an unbelievable team goal. I'll put it straight away into my poetry album, I loved this goal I have to say. It was a perfect team move and Brenden also came up with a perfect calm finish."
It was a great day for Leeds all round, as we were the only winners in the top 8, with some of our rivals dropping points in games we would expect them to win. And for the first time we would have been top anyway without Sheffield United’s points deduction, so perhaps they might stop moaning about it now.
There are some tough games to come, not least the New Years Day game with Blackburn, who are in danger of becoming a bit of a bogey side for us, but we finish the year on top of the table, the same as we did in our last successful promotion campaign on 2019, and with the same number of points.