It was the proverbial ‘would have taken a draw at the start’ but the night ended in crushing disappointment after we came so close to beating Sunderland.

At the end of my report on the Norwich game I speculated whether our manager would again be happy with a point from a difficult away game, especially as we were facing the leaders. And at the end Farke insisted that he was, despite the way it came about.

There were two changes to the starting lineup. Joseph was rested after managing only one goal so far, while Piroe’s strike rate earned him the right to lead the line, in the unfamiliar role as a lone striker. While Gruev’s injury meant that Rothwell had to start.

It was the hosts who looked the better side in the early stages, with a couple of dangerous moves down their right. The first was crossed to Bellingham junior, who shot over the bar from outside the box, but Leeds failed to heed the warning. A few minutes later the ball was crossed from right on the goal line, and although Meslier made the initial save, Rigg was on hand to score from close range.

At that stage I thought we might get overrun, but we grabbed an equaliser in the 22nd minute, after the ball came back to Gnonto, and Piroe nodded into the corner of the net from the excellent cross. He might have been ruled offside if we had VAR in the championship, but it’s swings and roundabouts, as VAR would also have given us a penalty for the foul on Gnonto at Norwich.

After that we threatened to take control, with Gnonto and Ramazani going close, while Aaronson got in the way when Firpo was poised to shoot, much to the Dominican Republic man’s frustration. But at the other end Bellingham sent two shots just wide, the second after a deflection that could have gone anywhere.

And ten minutes into the second half we went in front. A free kick deep inside our own half was played forward to Ramazani, who played an excellent ball out to the left to set Firpo free. He in turn found Gnonto, who cut inside and returned the pass, before Firpo fired the ball into the far corner.

After that it began to look increasingly likely that we would come away with a vital win, as the home fans drifted away in significant numbers as their team didn’t look like scoring. Aaronson could well have put the game out of their reach as we broke down field, but he was denied by a last minute block.

Piroe was replaced by Joseph as Farke tried to freshen things up, but as time ran out his other two subs were defensive, as Byram and Schmidt replaced our two wingers. Five extra minutes were announced, but this was extended because of the substitutions, while Joseph tried to keep the ball in the corner.

Bogle conceded a needless free kick, but after it landed on the edge of the area and a hopeful flick forwards deflected off Firpo’s head, it seemed a routine catch for Meslier. But somehow the ball went past him into the net, leaving all of us in total disbelief. Had we really seen what we,d thought we’d seen?

There was still a bit of time to play, and twice Meslier launched the ball down field in the desperate hope that one of his colleagues would bail him out of trouble with a winner. But to no avail, and his many social media critics were already reaching for their keyboards as the final whistle sounded.

When Farke spoke to the BBC after the game he said that Meslier was virtually in tears in the dressing room, but that Struijk told him that the ball had taken a freak bounce off a divot, leaving Meslier no time to react. Be that as it may, that is the incident for which this game will be remembered, and thanks to the international break it will have had two weeks to fester in our young keeper’s mind.

That game is at home to Sheffield United, which is now looking like an important game to win. Farke can justifiably say that our three draws away to top seven opponents were good results, but we need to start winning some of these key games, especially on our own patch. Whether Meslier retains his place to face the Blades remains to be seen.

Reuters

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