SOUTHAMPTON ADD TO LEEDS’ MISERY AS PAIR LAND IN CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFFS

On this evidence the best thing Daniel Farke could probably do is book his Leeds squad seats on a plane heading somewhere hot and let them lounge by a swimming pool until the first leg of their playoff semi-final at Norwich next Sunday. Five or six days of vitamin D looks the only hope for a side mentally and physically shattered by a season when they have collected 90 points but still miss out on automatic promotion.

There was the faintest hope of it at kick off but, as soon as Ipswich scored at home to Huddersfield, the motorway to the Premier League was effectively closed. It leaves Leeds third and facing a hazardous diversion taking in East Anglia and, should they make it that far, north-west London.

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Leeds could yet end up facing Southampton again in the Wembley final but if this was a dress rehearsal for such a showpiece the psychological advantage will rest with the smart counterattacking visitors.

Southampton arrived here on the back of three straight defeats but even though this ultimately turned into a bit of a phoney war they still showed sufficient quality to demonstrate why their own acquisition of 87 points was no fluke. West Brom will not be relishing their impending semi-final.

Thick cloud banked low in the skies before kick off and the home fans’ mood swiftly turned as grey as the weather. When Leeds failed, repeatedly, to clear Southampton’s first corner, Che Adams was allowed to cross in the direction of Adam Armstrong and the striker’s immaculately executed half-volley proved far too good for Illan Meslier.

Although Joel Piroe’s equalised thanks to a crisp right-foot shot after Southampton failed to cope with Wilfried’s Gnonto’s cross, the visitors swiftly answered back. Thanks to an amalgam of startling pace and extremely nifty footwork, the gifted right-back Kyle Walker-Peters performed wonders to keep the ball in play before crossing for the on-rushing, and slackly marked Will Smallbone to restore his team’s advantage courtesy of a first-time shot taken in the midfielder’s advancing stride.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis spent much of the game sharing duelling duties with Walker-Peters as they endeavoured to subdue Crysencio Summerville but Harwood-Bellis took time out from helping shadow the Championship’s player of the season to rattle the bar with a header. It highlighted the generosity of a home defence that seemed to spring leaks virtually every time Southampton counterattacked.

Admittedly, the news that Ipswich were two up against Huddersfield hardly served as an incentive but it was all too easy to see why a Leeds side desperately missing the injured Patrick Bamford have ended the season a run of one win in six games. They look all played out and Farke has to find a way of persuading Summerville and co to prove that while form may be temporary, class is permanent.

2024-05-04T13:59:29Z dg43tfdfdgfd