Heidi's blog Leeds United v Fulham 17/1/26
After waking up early with so many things swirling through my mind, I got up and started typing things up on the computer. Stupidly though, I didn’t sit properly and by the time I stood up I was in agony. Note to myself, Heidi one thing to remember is, sit up and don’t slouch! After having a bad reaction to new meds this week, that’s all I needed though. Those who are following our Billy Bremner fundraising for a statue in his hometown of Raploch, Stirling, we have the date now confirmed for our Gala Dinner at Elland Road on 23rd May 2026 starting at 12.00pm. Further details about the event will be given in due course. I appreciate some of our fans will have already set off for our last game of the season at West Ham, but we chose this one as we knew that the date wouldn’t change. Thanks to all those who bought the Billy badges today as they are still proving very popular. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Just a heads up that I’ll be doing something for Fanalysis shortly that will be shown on Sky Sports News in due course. I’ll keep you posted.
Before the game today there was a tribute to Terry Yorath with a round of applause plus the players wore black armbands as, “There’s only one Terry Yorath” rang out from the fans. On the 67th minute was another tribute and round of applause for Colin Wood, the Leeds fan who tragically died at our last home game. Thoughts are with both families at this sad time.
Team: Darlow, Ampadu, Rodon, Gudmundsson, Bogle, Calvert-Lewin, Okafor, Aaronson, Gruev, Struijk, Justin.
Subs: Gnonto for Okafor (70), Nmecha for Bogle (81), Bornauw for Bogle (90+3).
Subs not used: Perri, Byram, Piroe, Longstaff and new signing Facundo Buonanotte.
Leeds won the game 1-0 with a winner scored by Nmecha (90+1).
Attendance: 36,300, approximately 2,800 Fulham fans.
Referee: Christopher Kavanagh.
Booked: Ampadu.
It was good to see Fulham go home empty handed after their time-wasting tactics all through the game and kicking lumps out of our players. How their player never walked after bringing Gudmundsson down, I’ll never know as he was past him when brought down from behind. As I’ve looked at the highlights, as he wasn’t the last man that may be why. Also, Ampadu was unlucky to be booked as he kicked the ball back a short way only to be penalised for kicking the ball away. It’s a shame the referee and linesman didn’t do the same to the Fulham player who kicked the ball far away earlier. With five of their players booked, at least he clamped down on the fouls.
The game took a bit of starting again with the first 20 minutes being fairly mundane with the crowd a bit the same. The game roared into life, and we really should have taken the lead after Aaronson broke through but instead of hitting the ball low and hard, he blasted it over the crossbar. Apart from the missed opportunity he had been playing well, as had Gudmundsson who got back to protect Darlow in goal by shielding the ball well. The rest of the half was one of those frustrating ones as Fulham had come for a draw and we were struggling to get through them. I was ready for falling asleep as the whistle blew for half time but was hoping for a better second half.
As the second half had a slow start too, I was thinking we needed to change things. As Farke didn’t, I said I’d be happy to be proved wrong. Things did improve as the fans got behind the side and Aaronson was very effective with some good footwork today plus; he wasn’t getting bullied off the ball which was good to see. Calvert-Lewin and Gudmundsson came close with chances, but when we were on target, their keeper saved them easily. He was very effective and probably their man of the match for me. When Nmecha hit a wayward shot from the side of the pitch I automatically said. “What the f*** was that?” without thinking, oops sorry! He more than made up for it because when four minutes of injury time was put up on the board, we were all groaning that the time wasting hadn’t been taken into account, when he hit the ball into the net to send us all into raptures with Elland Road exploding. He had another chance shortly after, but we were thankful of not much injury time then even though more than four minutes was added on, as the referee blew the whistle.
To me that was just desserts for the time wasting that Fulham did all game, but it was another three welcome points. We have a bit of a rest with playing Everton a week on Monday where I’m looking forward to visiting a new ground. See you there, LUFC – Marching on Together!
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