YEP reporter Lee Sobot reacts to Leeds' 2-1 victory over Watford at Elland Road
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00:00Hello there, Lee Sobot at the Yorkshire Evening Post here from Ellon Road where the mowers
00:12have just gone on, as you can see behind, which is about right as we start this broadcast.
00:18But it's relief here really as Leeds United have recorded a 2-1 victory at home to Watford
00:22which has sent them back into the automatic promotion places, into second place. They
00:27were heading top when they were 2-0 up but needed to win by two clear goals in order
00:31to do that. At the end of the day, three points is the most important thing and they got the
00:36job done here with a 2-0, 2-1 victory which basically was made in the first seven minutes
00:42after two nightmare moments really for Watford keeper Daniel Backman who played at the weekend,
00:49had a bit of an injury but played anyway. But he passed the fitness test and two real
00:53moments to forget for him with the two opening goals, particularly the first one. Just four
00:57minutes on the clock, it's basically Leeds' first attack. I'm sure Tom Cleverley will
01:02have come here tonight and said to them, just basically be solid, be strong for the opening
01:06exchanges, don't concede early. Obviously they're on the back of a 3-0 defeat at Luton
01:12Town at the weekend. They'd lost the last three away games by three clear goals, much
01:17better at home and they've got some good players who are obviously a good side but they just
01:20can't get it together away from home. But an absolute nightmare start for them, as I
01:24say, four minutes on the clock. Brilliant ball, through ball from Paschal Struyck down
01:29through the channels, down to Junior Firpo down the left. Played the ball back to Larger
01:33Amazani and when you watch it back actually, it wasn't particularly a powerful shot. It
01:38was more like it floated towards the top corner, towards the far post area and basically Backman
01:43should have saved it and for some reason just caught it and spilled it. It looked even from
01:47the crowd like where we were that it looked like it dropped over the line and straight
01:50away it was given us a goal. When you watch the replays back it's clearly dropped over
01:54the line. It's not particularly close really. So, real moment to forget for him there. That
01:58was 1-0 Leeds. Perfect start. They should have gone 2-0 up within one or two minutes
02:03after that. Willy Nonto, who was very good attacking wise in the first half, should have
02:09got a goal tonight really at the number of chances he had. He went through and whizzed
02:13one straight wide at the left-hand post. Very, very close indeed. But then it's like almost
02:18within another minute Leeds were 2-0 up and again Backman struggling to deal with Lacrosse
02:23this time from Nonto from the right flank. Sort of tried to parry it out. I don't know
02:28what he was trying to do really. Trying to deal with it but basically it went straight
02:30into the path of Brendan Aronson who on his birthday tonight made no mistake with a pretty
02:36easy finish from the middle of the box. And that was that 2-0 really with seven minutes
02:40on the clock. I mean absolute nightmare for Watford. God knows what Cleverley must have
02:43been thinking and you basically felt then that that was it. Job done but 2-0 is never
02:49enough really. But fair to Watford. They sort of dug in there and stayed in the contest.
02:53I think if it went 3-0 obviously they'd have been completely done and dusted. But they
02:57stayed in the contest. They had a few chances as the half draw drew to a close. Mellier
03:02made a very, very good save from Jordan Stryker, tipping the ball wide. They had a chance from
03:07a corner as well. It looked a bit of a threat at set-pieces. They were obviously sticking
03:10men on Mellier to try and put him off and header over the bar. But ended 2-0 at half-time.
03:16Needs a lot of chances as well themselves, it has to be said. Tanaka, who was brilliant
03:19tonight, I think he'll be most people's man of the match. Joe Rothwell got man of the
03:23match for most people of the week at the Friday night game against Sheffield United. But Jan
03:28Tanaka was superb tonight. Just loads of tackles, breaking up play just everywhere really. Very,
03:35very good performance from him in the middle of the park. Quite ironic really that at a
03:38time when obviously Ethan Ampadu and Ilya Gruev, the two first-choice midfielders, are
03:44both out injured, that the two replacements, if you like, are the two of the men who are
03:48really, really excelling at the moment. So that's obviously great to see, but it goes
03:51without saying that you can't really afford any injuries to those two. But an injury there
03:56has been tonight, and this is one of two blows really for Leeds. The first is an injury to
04:01Largi Ramazzani. As I'm speaking now, I'm not sure what it is. I mean, obviously Daniel
04:04Farke will give an update on that pretty much now he'll be speaking at his post-match press
04:08conference. But it went down from a challenge on the left flank, tried to play on. But it
04:13was soon apparent he was struggling. Basically, you could just see he wasn't moving properly.
04:18He went down again onto the turf and really thumped the pitch in frustration because I
04:22think he knew obviously that was it for him and probably knew that he's looking at a bit
04:26of time out. Hopefully it's not too bad. He did walk off unaided, sort of a bit gingerly
04:30and hobbled off, if you like, but he went off obviously. So that was the first blow
04:35for Leeds. Manes Solomon came on in his place and really struggled to get going, but much
04:39better than the second-half Solomon and did cause a threat towards the end.
04:43And the second blow was a yellow card for Junior Firpo, the fifth yellow card of the
04:46season. Coming into this game, you had Firpo, Rodon and also Bogle all on four yellow cards.
04:55So one more for any of them before I think it's the 19th game means a one-match ban.
05:00So I mean, with nine games to go, that's obviously going to happen, isn't it? Basically, you
05:03would think. And he got a yellow card, so that's a one-match ban for him. So they're
05:07the two blows obviously tonight. Second half, Watford pulled the goal back pretty much straight
05:13after the break. I mean, it was soft defending really. Pascal Stroot rounded too easily
05:19down that right channel and shot from the right side, blocked by Rodon, but back into
05:25the player's path and then that was put into the back of the net to make it 2-1. And they
05:29were nervous there then, to be honest, because obviously from being 2-0 up and should have
05:33been more than that, like not cruising, but sort of like you're thinking, that's it basically.
05:38Job done on the way to victory. All of a sudden, the back were within one goal of being level
05:41and they did threaten Watford there to go. Cleverley was like, you could see him really
05:44pushing them on. He was basically saying, look, just go for it, go hell for Leverne.
05:47They did go for it. And it was a bit nervy at times, but Leeds held in there. And I think
05:53really the thing with Leeds was that the substitutions sort of turned the tide a little bit towards
05:57the end. Matteo Joseph and Dan James both came on. Nonso went off, was one of the players
06:02to go off, as well as Joel Peru, who had a bit of a disappointing night. And those two
06:07really helped turn the tide. Like I say, lots of energy up front. James put in a lovely
06:12cross for Joseph, who should have scored. Freeheader, straight at the keeper. There
06:15were other chances as well. James had a chance as well himself, a couple of chances in fact.
06:19So, in the end, there were chances for both sides, but Leeds did finish the game on top.
06:24Then the last bit of drama you had was eight minutes added time. There were lots of stoppages
06:27during the game, a lot of injury, Watford players going down. Eight minutes turned into
06:31nine. I think it went into 10 in the end. And you could see Farke on the touchline sort
06:35of gesturing as if to say, what are we doing? Why are we still playing? And he thought,
06:38oh, God, here we go. We're going to get a 2-2. But they saw it out without too much
06:42alarm really, to be honest. And it looked like being a much more comfortable win than
06:46a 2-1 victory. But it doesn't really matter in the end. It's three points, which is the
06:50main thing. And as I say, that puts Leeds second. It's a shame they haven't gone top,
06:53I suppose. I mean, that would have been sort of like the real gloss on that evening. But
06:57here's what it is. It's three points. It's put them joint top with Sunderland, level
07:00on points to them. One point ahead of Burnley. I mean, at this stage, it looks like they're
07:04going to be the two teams to sort of like, you know, really battle it out with Leeds,
07:06who think at the top of the division. Difficult enough away games for them both tomorrow night
07:11away at Watford and Hull City. So obviously, Leeds will be hoping for a favour, at least
07:16one favour from one of those two teams. But it's still early on in the season, obviously.
07:20But, you know, they're looking pretty good, really. As I say, I mean, obviously goalkeeping
07:23errors with the thing here. But I mean, Leeds did play well again. I suppose the problem,
07:26the theme tonight, the worry would be they didn't really take as many chances as they
07:29could have done because they could have scored a lot more than two goals. But they got it
07:32done. It's back-to-back wins. The important thing was backing up that brilliant win against
07:36Sheffield United. No good doing that if you're not going to back it up. But they've done that.
07:39It's back-to-back wins. They're getting a good run together now. And, you know,
07:43there'll hopefully be a reasonable chance that they'll be in the top two as they go
07:45to Bristol City this weekend. I think that'll be a tough one. Bristol City haven't lost at home.
07:50Decent record down there. Although they haven't played anybody in the top 10 as yet.
07:54The other worry with that one is it's a 12.30 kick-off and Leeds, let's face it,
07:57haven't been brilliant at lunchtime kick-offs. So that could be quite a hard game. Obviously,
08:01they'll also be without Firpo. So you would think probably Byram or maybe Isaac Schmidt,
08:05I suppose, will come in. I mean, Ramazan, who we'll wait and see on the injury there. But,
08:09I mean, you'd be surprised if he was back in time for that one. So that'll be a choice of James or
08:14Solomon to come in. And on tonight's evidence, you'd probably say Dan James.
08:18Looks like he's definitely worth more minutes. But in the end, you know, it's a strange sort
08:22of night, like I say, because, I mean, 2-0 up after seven minutes, you think this could be
08:25anything. But in the end, it's finished Leeds United 2, Watford 1. But the bottom line is
08:28it's three points and it's Leeds back into the autos. That's it for now. Cheers. See you soon.