Leeds United writer Lee Sobot on Sunday's 2-2 draw against visiting Cardiff City in the curtain-raiser for the new Championship campaign.
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00:00 Hello there, Lee Sobot at the Yorkshire Evening Post here from Ellen Road where Leeds United's
00:07 first game back in the Championship against Cardiff City ended in a 2-2 draw but only
00:13 after a 95th minute equaliser from Crisenzio Somerville which salvaged the Whites a point
00:18 but salvaged them a point from a game which Daniel Farker described as a scandal that
00:24 Leeds hadn't won this game. I can sort of see where he's coming from really because
00:28 of the sheer number of chances they created although how long have we been saying this
00:32 for about it being a theme at Leeds about not taking the chances and it was again in
00:36 evidence today which is probably not a surprise because the three main strikers or three number
00:40 nine options anyway as it would seem in Patrick Bamford, Jorginho Router and also Mateo Joseph
00:47 obviously a youngster coming through the ranks but very well highly thought of here all out
00:50 injured so Willy Nonto more or less led the line, Leeds did change it about a fair bit.
00:55 He's obviously played that role for Italy before so he's no stranger to it and is a
00:58 class act player but just you know ultimately today didn't take enough of their chances
01:03 and the other issue was problems at the back which led to Leeds United being 2-0 down at
01:08 half time basically problems down both flanks. The first time Luke Ayling offered an awful
01:15 lot going forward it has to be said, plenty of crosses into the box and Leeds got the
01:19 ball out wide to him a lot. He did look you know he did offer a lot going forward but
01:23 did equally leave a big gap at the back when he went forward and that's how Cardiff got
01:27 their first by exploiting that space down the left hand side, Leeds' left hand side
01:32 and that led to 1-0. Obviously groans around this place, 2-0 was from the other side of
01:38 the pitch, the ball a 1-2 played in behind Leo Helder and Ayling unable to keep the ball
01:43 out of the far post as that was tucked in. So 2-0 down at the break and I don't think
01:46 anybody knew what to expect. We've seen comebacks here before and mad comebacks and more or
01:51 less we got one again and had the game going a little bit longer, I mean there was enough
01:54 injury time as it was, you probably would have fancied Leeds to get a winner but it
01:57 was a captain who came up with the goal to put him back in it, Liam Cooper with a bullet
02:00 header from a corner, real brave towering header. He injured himself in the process
02:04 and was more or less stretched off, he seemed ok but obviously I think it was his ankle
02:09 so you expect him to be out for a bit but that got Leeds going, chances continued to
02:14 come for him but just couldn't find the net, ball tipped wide, deflected wide, all sorts
02:19 of chances going amiss. Willy Nonto was excellent but just needed a goal really. But then just
02:24 as time looked to be running out, 95th minute, Crisensio Somerville, first time shot after
02:28 a Sinisterra effort was blocked into the bottom left corner, this place went wild and that
02:33 was 2-2 which saved Leeds from an opening day defeat which they definitely didn't deserve
02:36 and you probably say on the balance of play as Daniel said himself, the sheer number of
02:40 chances created, they deserved all three but you don't always get what you deserve and
02:44 quite simply they're going to have to take the chances better and improve defensively
02:47 to get out of this division basically because it's not going to be easy. It's finished 2-2,
02:52 obviously there's plenty of players to come back from injury, the transfer window remains
02:55 open and that's going to be crucial I think but on we go now to Birmingham away. 2-2 here
02:59 at Ellen Road.