Our defeat to Blackburn Rovers has caused plenty of moaning on social media, while Daniel Farke has blamed our hectic fixture schedule. But it was a shame the team picked the game with our biggest travelling support of the season to serve up one of their worst away performances.

Away games against teams in the top half of the table are always going to be difficult, but this time we had the backing of a third of the crowd, an official allocation of 7,501. Plus we know from a brief disturbance there was at least one Leeds fan at the other end, and there were probably a few more who didn’t give themselves away, because the team gave them nothing to jump up and celebrate.

Yet Blackburn seemed determined not to take advantage of the bigger crowd by making any money from catering. Only one of the takeaways opposite the stadium was open, and inside the kiosks were closed because of a problem with the tills. Apparently taking good old-fashioned cash wasn’t an option. Such are the wonders of modern technology.

There were two changes to the starting line-up, with Firpo back from suspension, and Gnonto preferred to Solomon, despite the Israeli’s decent showing in the last couple of games. The pattern of the game was soon established, with Leeds having more of the possession, but failed to convert it into decent chances, while the fans got frustrated by the ponderous build-up.

And it was Blackburn who were closest to scoring early on. A deep cross was played back into the area by Brittain, where Ohashi outjumped Rodon to send a header crashing off the bar, with Beck putting the rebound narrowly wide. A couple of the best chances were presented to us by the Blackburn defence.

Gnonto intercepted an underhit pass from Pears as Blackburn tried to play out, but the keeper was quickly off his line to atone for his error, narrowing the angle in time to make the save. Gnonto had time to pick his spot and should have tried to steer the ball into the acres of free space on the other side of the goal instead of just blasting it.

A few minutes later Gnonto cut in from the left and got plenty of power into his shot, but again sent it too close to Pears. In these tight games the first goal is often crucial, and if goes to the opposition they grow in confidence, while dropping deeper into the formation we find it so hard to break down. This time the key moment in the game came on 20 minutes.

Dolan came down the Blackburn right and went past Struijk, before running into Tanaka just inside the box, as the Japanese came across to see if he could help. And despite our efforts to put him off, Cantwell sent the penalty right into the corner. For half a second I thought Meslier was going to get to it, but it was so well placed that it was just out of his reach.

The goal finally woke the Blackburn fans up. Their fanbase is so sparse that even after giving us the whole of the Darwen end the top tier of the opposite stand was still closed, but they did manage to find a hard core of about 20 fans to rush down to the front from the boys pen in the corner to our right so they could gesticulate at us. That must be what passes for Ultra culture in these parts.

About half an hour into the game the tannoy announced that the tills were finally working, as someone had put a black pudding in the meter. So the man to my left took a break from telling me every two minutes how rubbish Bogle is, and went off to get a pint. He didn’t miss a great deal, apart from when another poor backpass set up Piroe, but again Pears was quickly off his line to make a save.

Just before half time there was a move down the length of the field, which started with Tanaka winning the ball by our corner flag, so it’s a shame that it ended with Aaronson sending it over the crossbar. And the game continued in much the same vein in the second half. Though we did come close to a rare goal from a free kick when Struijk got above the defence to get his header on target, but once again it was too close to Pears.

On 69 minutes Farke did his usual reshuffle of his forward line when things aren’t going to plan. Bamford, Ramazani and Solomon came on for Piroe, Aaronson and Gnonto in a triple substitution, with Joseph replacing Rothwell later on. But all of this made little difference.

In fact soon afterwards Blackburn twice came close to getting further in front. Cantwell blocked successive attempts to clear by James and then Firpo to find himself right in front of the goal, but scuffed his shot wide. And the same player was denied as Struijk was there to make the block as the ball came to him in front of goal, and luckily the ball spun over the crossbar.

At the other end we finally did get the ball in the net, following a corner. Bamford managed to turn to get to Rodon’s knock-down and shoot despite being held, and after Pears had blocked it on the line, Ramazani was there to turn the ball home. But the linesman’s flag brought our joy to a swift end, as Bamford had been in an offside position.

We could thank the other linesman for making a similar decision to spare Meslier’s blushes after our keeper rushed out and kicked the ball straight against Dolman, leaving the Blackburn man with an open goal. Dolman having been offside when originally played through. But we couldn’t take advantage of this let-off, and although nine minutes of injury time were played, it was the proverbial “we didn’t look like scoring if we’d played on for another 90”.

And so I bring you the annoying stat of the day. John Eustace has now won the last three games he has managed against Leeds by 1-0 (including Birmingham at the start of last season) with two of these games being decided by penalties. Perhaps he knows how to set his teams up to frustrate Leeds.

While our own manager was quick to get his excuses in when he spoke to the BBC. “Blackburn had the better start and for that they deserved to win the game. We started too slow and gave too many unnecessary free-kicks and fouls away. The penalty was the same. Lazy is perhaps too harsh but we should have had a bit more aggression and been quicker in the head”.

“I was not happy with our start and we have to be ready and quicker and do the yards that are really hurting and we didn’t do that. Due to their postponed game they had more or less one game in the last 10 days whereas this was the third in six days for us and an early kick-off as well." And on the official Leeds website Rodon has admitted the performance was nowhere near the required standard.

So we finished the day in third place, after Sheffield United and Burnley both won. Burnley have gone under the radar with their recent one, probably because they’re too boring for anyone to want to take any notice of them. It’s worrying that it could be developing into another three horse race for the two automatic slots, and when that happens it tends not to end very well for us.

Photo: Action Images

Leeds United Polls