Roofe and Hernandez help Leeds down the Robins

Leeds came back from the international break with a bang, beating a lacklustre Bristol City in front of an amazing 34,000 at Elland Road.

My granddaughter Abi, who has yet to see her team lose.

Leeds maintained their push for a place in the Premiership with a unspectacular but important win over mid table Bristol City.

The turning point in the game, the sending off of Brownhill causing Lee Johnson to loose his temper at the post match interview. His comment that “Leeds got away with one” was wide of the mark as his side offered little to trouble the two debutants in the Leeds rearguard. Leeds stay third in the Championship.

Marcelo Bielsa brought in debutants Will Huffer and Aapo Halme into the defence because of injuries to Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Pontus Jansson. Jack Clarke replaced Tyler Roberts on the substitutes bench, surprisingly Samuel Siaz was again omitted from the starting eleven.

In a very forgettable first forty five minutes Leeds struggled to their their possession into an opening goal, Alioski passed up a good opportunity but at least he tested out the hands of the City keeper. Kemar Roofe so nearly gave them the lead but his deflected effort agonisingly went just past the post, Bristol offered little at the other end.

During the break Leeds legend Eddie Gray summed the half up in the ‘rest room’ with the comment “Too slow” as usual the winger was spot on. The likeable Scotsman is a pundit for LUTV and his honest assessment must have been echoing round the stadium.

The game was evenly balanced in the first ten minutes of the second half, then Brownhill upended Kemar Roofe in midfield and was rightly shown a second yellow card and that was the end of his afternoon. From then on Leeds moved up a gear, with Kalvin Phillips in excellent form they laid siege to the Bristol goal and it was only the brilliance of Maenpaa in the Bristol goal that denied Barry Douglas.

Leeds brought on Samuel Siaz and he was instrumental in the two goals that won the game, first he was part of the move that ended with the ball at Mateusz Klich’s feet, the Polish midfielder’s ball into the box found Pablo Hernandez who shot towards goal and top scorer Kemar🔥Roofe finished it off.

The second with only minutes left was a beauty, Samuel Siaz delightfully finding Pablo Hernandez who netted his third goal in three games. A deft header akin to the one at The Hawthorns.

Kemar🔥Roofe celebrates the opener.

The goal finished off the game as a contest and brought the thirty four thousand plus to their feet, included in those was Josh Warrington, ‘The Leeds Warrior’ with his Dad filming a documentary on him. Sometimes when you meet your heroes they can disappoint but not JW a lovely bloke who is ‘Leeds’ through and through. Pleasure to meet you both.

Josh Warrington.

Just a word or two about the two debutants, Will Huffer and Aapo Halme, they had decent debuts and didn’t look out of place in the first team. Well done lads👏🏻

Huffer and Halme

Leeds have looked a little ‘leggy’ in recent home games and the pace has disappeared, hopefully it will return on Tuesday night when lowly Reading are the visitors.

Man of the Match: Kalvin Phillips, He’s here, he’s there, he’s f****** everywhere.

Marching on Together’s YouTube highlights of the game.

By Keith Ingham