Heidi's blog WBA v Leeds 29.12.23 for what it's worth
After not getting the result we wanted at Preston, the game paled into insignificance once I heard Max aged 10 had fallen in the stadium before kick-off resulting in serious injuries. He was in HDU and in a bad way. Wishing him a speedy recovery, I wanted Leeds to put up a fight and #letsdoitformax. Sadly, even that didn’t work. After seeing a lone magpie first thing this morning my first thoughts were damn, but after seeing three together later, I thought we were in with a chance. Unfortunately for us the lone magpie brought us sorrow.
I want to say thank you to a Birmingham fan who recognised a few of us at our regular pub stop in Sutton Coldfield. I’d already gone back to the coach, but he gave us some Maltesers and orange Matchmakers to share with everyone on our coach which was a fantastic gesture. His comments were that not all Birmingham fans were bad. It’s nice to be appreciated. Thanks also to Pete for giving up his table for us as Nikki was in a wheelchair. On leaving the pub we ended up with our coach at the front of the queue on a road near the ground. With cars parked to the left of us and other cars coming towards us we ended up stuck with no one going anywhere. In the end, most people got off our coach and the other coaches following us and started walking the 10 minutes to the ground. Our driver asked me to tell the cars blocking our way forward if they could turn around and clear the road as it was blocked. Thankfully they were very reasonable and did this, so we got the coaches to the ground. I did think ours was going to stop for me, but it carried on. A group of us did walk past it as we headed to the ground and as we neared it, the police were trying to send us all back to walk the long way round to the away entrance. After a little persuasion and some WBA fans saying we could cut through the main car park, we reached our turnstiles and got in before kick-off. When WBA put photos of fans who had died up on the screen as The Lord’s my Shepherd was being sung, that really got to me. Although it is 15 months since I lost my mum, this time of year has hit home as it brought me to tears and was very moving.
Team: Darlow, Cooper (captain), Summerville, Gnonto, Rutter, Rodon, Spence, Ampadu, Byram, Piroe, Gruev.
Subs: James for Byram (60), Bamford for Gnonto (60), Anthony for Spence (60), Joseph for Summerville (90), Firpo for Ampadu (90).
Subs not used: Klaesson, Cresswell, Gray, Kamara.
Attendance: 25,409; 2,009 Leeds fans.
Leeds lost the game 1-0.
Referee: Graham Scott.
Booked: Gruev.
Leeds looked to have got off to a great start when we got the ball into the net from Byram, but the whistle blew for offside. When Gnonto was brought down in the penalty area, the referee played on, but replays showed it was a cast iron penalty. Summerville was fouled and stayed down but play continued. The referee refused him treatment which indicated that we weren’t going to get anything from him. Rodon took an elbow to the head which I think they got away with too. All this did was put the heads of our players down as WBA ran through us like a bull in a china shop. Darlow missed the ball when coming out to punch it away but luckily Spence was behind him to kick the ball off the line. Leeds had a great chance after constant pressure only for their keeper to tip Summerville’s shot over the bar. Shortly before the break they attacked and once again Leeds kicked it off the line. This time we weren’t so lucky, as the rebound from Rodon came back into the path of the same player who hit the ball into the net for them to take the lead. Deep down I knew it was going to be a hard game, but it was very frustrating to see WBA getting the run of the ball. You could say they made their own luck whereas it had deserted us.
The second half saw us looking very slow in our buildups but as we gained momentum, WBA slowed the game down with an “injury” where the trainers were allowed on. Why Summerville wasn’t allowed the same assistance, is anybody’s guess. I really wanted us to punish their time wasting but we were too predictable. Things did improve once we made our triple substitutions as Dan James had more impact in the short time, he was on the pitch than some of the other players. With another shout of handball on top of seeing a replayed incident of Rutter being brought down in the area, being denied even one penalty sticks in the throat. That early disallowed goal would have changed the momentum if it had stood but instead it gave WBA the incentive.
Apart from another cameo role of me being shown on tv in the crowd, there wasn’t a lot to shout about although the fans had given them a decent backing. It was a very frustrating game today as a Leeds United fan that’s for sure. I’m not going to slag anyone off as social media is already awash with comments, so I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and put 2023 behind us. Hopefully 2024 will be a better year for us all. LUFC - Marching on Together!