There comes a point in every season when many supporters’ minds wander to matches elsewhere in the country.
The relevance of what is happening in front of them falls subservient to rival scorelines. By the 70th minute at Elland Road, one home fan turned around and asked the watching media what the score was at Home Park: “1-0 to Sheffield United” came the reply. Eyes rolled.
That is the price of being a football fan during a run-in. You are not only held hostage by your own team’s fate but by events elsewhere in the country. The statistics suggested Leeds United’s South Yorkshire rivals were barely justifying their lead at Plymouth Argyle. Conversely, the Elland Road outfit’s own data suggested they should have been out of sight.
Do Leeds do it any other way: underperforming while their adversaries stumble into results? Taking the lead twice inside nine minutes early in the first half, there was the promise a third Leeds goal would be along in short order. The chances kept flowing, but the finishing dried up.
United ended the match with an expected goals (xG) tally of 3.7. Joel Piroe ended the game with seven shots and 1.5 of that accumulated xG but did not hit the target once. It was not his day. The promise was there. The crowd was desperate to breathe, to relieve the pressure and enjoy the game, but it stayed on the edge until the end.
Preston North End finished the game with an xG of 0.3. They never provided a meaningful threat, and yet there was no reasoning with a Leeds fan whenever the visitors wandered into the final third. The anxiety was audible, punctuated by celebrations — bordering on goal levels — for every catch goalkeeper Karl Darlow held onto. The reliability he has brought since replacing Illan Meslier is palpable across pitch and terrace.
The prospect of turning three points into one, from a position of such dominance, was terrifying for Leeds supporters. How many times have they seen it down the years? At 2-1, all it takes is one error or one dodgy deflection for it to finish 2-2. In a season when available points are ebbing away and the race is so tight, taking one point from a home game such as this would have felt disastrous.
That is before you even get to the euphoria stage of the afternoon. Plymouth, bottom of the table with two wins from their past 10 games, were forgotten about as a lost cause once they went behind to a wounded but vengeful Chris Wilder outfit. But you could feel the electricity of Argyle’s seven-minute double salvo, struck in the 81st and 88th minutes, surge around Elland Road.
To Leeds fans’ credit, they had already been channelling their nerves into positive energy for the players. Their chants grew in frequency and volume as the second half wore on, but it was like a goal had been scored when the Plymouth news filtered through. This felt like promotion — not just Saturday’s win — was on a knife edge. There are moments in every contender’s run-in which need to be seized, and this was opportunity knocking for Leeds.
Leeds fans celebrate after the final whistle against Preston (George Wood/Getty Images)
The pain of a Preston equaliser would have been hard to take, losing two points but letting Sheffield United off the hook in Devon. This was the image of a united Leeds. You had Patrick Bamford, hero of the week, taking care of the ball in the final third, a normally hidden Christopher John (coach) hanging from the dugout, calling for more from the John Charles Stand and Daniel Farke trying to keep everyone calm in the middle of it.
The two-time Championship title-winner knows what sliding doors moments look like in springtime. He was asked about the crackle of the crowd and how aware he was of events elsewhere post-match.
“A little bit because you sense the reaction of our supporters,” he said. “I didn’t know the (Sheffield United) scoreline, but I was aware it could be an important step for us today.
“It led to a situation where we were even all a bit more on it and everyone could sense in the stadium we needed to win the three points, and we were really on it.
“On the other hand, I also wanted to make sure we were not overexcited, stayed cool and didn’t forget what we had to do, not just thinking about what happens on other pitches.”
It was all so unnecessarily stressful. Leeds had enough chances to win two or three matches, but in this one — the one to put daylight between them and third — they just had to hover through six additional minutes with a one-goal advantage. It’s the Leeds way.
How quickly do things change in football? In the space of seven days, Bamford has gone from a forgotten crock to a must-start on Good Friday, and a despairing draw at Luton Town that left Leeds in the play-offs has given way to promotion timelines. You can do the math, but we will save those jinxes for another week. For now, the main thing to know is that Leeds are top of the Championship, level on points with Burnley and five ahead of Sheffield United with four games to play.
Two weeks ago, chairman Paraag Marathe was giving a thousand-yard stare from the front row of the directors’ box after Meslier’s nadir. This time, director Peter Lowy was reaching over for high-fives with the general public. Angus Kinnear raised his applauding hands as high as he could for Farke to see on the celebration lap back to the tunnel.
It is all about the ups and downs, the agony and ecstasy, and digging out draws on the road if you can’t win.
(Top photo: Pat Scaasi/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)