Millwall 0-3 Leeds United: YEP reaction
Millwall 0-3 Leeds United: YEP reaction
Transcript
00:00 Hello everyone, welcome to the YEP on Facebook, Twitter, Dailymotion or wherever you might
00:06 be watching us. We're here at the Den, the dust has settled on a fantastic Leeds United
00:11 win, away against Millwall, a cracking game, really entertaining from start to finish.
00:20 Leeds end up taking all three points in London, as luck would have it. Typically not a place
00:25 where Leeds have been blessed with good results or good refereeing decisions in the past,
00:30 but today they got the job done. They were absolutely clinical, goals from Joe Piro and
00:34 Jorginho Ruta, Piro getting two. It's starting to look like Daniel Farke's team, I think
00:42 it's fair to say. They were ruthless on the break, clinical as I said, in front of goal
00:49 and defensively they were pretty solid. Weathered an early storm, there were a few moments,
00:55 but primarily Leeds did really well at the back. Joe Rodan I think did particularly well
01:01 today. And then you're also looking at the attacking set-up as well, the quartet that
01:06 started the game, Piro at number 10, Nonto and Somerville in the wide areas and then
01:12 Ruta playing as centre forward. It looks as though they've been playing with each other
01:17 for a lot longer than a couple of months, or in Piro's case a few weeks. It's very,
01:26 very positive, really positive signs. Anyone who's in that away end today will agree with
01:33 me and say it was a fantastic atmosphere. Obviously both sets of supporters playing
01:38 their part. The entire stand that Leeds were in was packed out, the upper tier. And then
01:47 the rest of the ground was very vocal, very interesting to say the least. It's the press
01:53 box where I'm sat currently, positioned right slap bang in the middle of the Millwall fans.
02:01 It was a great game to be at. I'm sure many of you will have watched it on Sky. The goals,
02:07 first half, Leeds go 1-0 up, Joe Piro leads to win it back on the edge of their own box,
02:13 play forward and there's some really nice interplay between Willy Nonto into Jorginho
02:18 Ruta who then passes it to Piro who applies the finish, one touch with his left and then
02:24 slots it under Bielkowski, the goalkeeper with his right. Second half, again weathered
02:29 an early storm. Millwall came out of the blocks the quickest. And then it was a case of, well,
02:35 do you gamble, if you're Gary Rowett, do you gamble and try and take Leeds to task and
02:41 level things? He did, 60 minutes, made a triple sub. He admitted afterwards that it was a
02:47 succession of subs which he knew would leave them vulnerable. And it did, 77 minutes on
02:52 the clock and Leeds go forward. Dan James finds a bit of space in the right-hand channel
02:58 and plays it to Ruta. You think, two-footed striker, inside the penalty area, he's going
03:02 to take a shot. He doesn't, squares it back to James who looks like he should score, goes
03:08 to shoot, scuffs his effort but fortunately for him, falls into the path of Piro who taps
03:13 in and he won't score an easier goal this season. And then the third was just four minutes
03:19 later. Again, Millwall pushing bodies forward at a corner. Ayling wins it on the edge of
03:23 Leeds box and punts it forward. Dan James, with that pace to burn that we know he has,
03:30 gets down the right-hand side and crosses for Ruta. It's not the best low cross in the
03:34 world but it takes a slight deflection. Wrong-foot's the man who's been marking Ruta. He takes
03:39 it and then shifts it onto his left and hits the back of the net. It was, yeah, I mean,
03:46 a very, very clinical, as I say, performance. Ruthless. And, you know, in recent weeks where
03:50 Leeds have struggled to break teams down and maybe, especially, I'm thinking the Salford
03:55 game in particular, had a lot of opportunities but just couldn't hit the net. That was the
04:01 complete opposite today. And I think it's definitely going to make Mondays a lot easier
04:06 when you've won on a Sunday afternoon.
04:09 Daniel Farker after the game had a little bit to say. He confirmed that Jed Spence has
04:15 unfortunately suffered a knee ligament injury. Says it's probably going to be weeks rather
04:20 than months because he said at this stage the defender won't need surgery. Liam Cooper
04:25 is going to be back in the next couple of games. But overall that was sort of the only
04:30 negative from today, I think. No players getting injured. I mean, Joe Roden got a cut above
04:36 his eyebrow but carried on, Terry Butcher style, with a bandage around his head. And,
04:42 yeah, Ampadu took a knock late on but it looks to have been a bit of an impact injury more
04:48 than anything. And Farker said hopefully it's just a bruise and he's able to play again
04:52 on Wednesday because it's Hull away on Wednesday, another away game. Hull doing reasonably well
04:59 this season. I think they beat Leicester, who've been quite impressive. So it won't
05:03 be an easy game there at the KCOM or the KC or whatever it's called now. And then on to
05:09 Saturday when Watford will be up at Elland Road. So, yeah, things are looking up for
05:15 Leeds. Looking up the table, no longer in the bottom half, a valuable three points.
05:23 And, yeah, if they can play like they did today at Hull on Wednesday night and then
05:29 find a way to break Watford down, if that's how they set up on Saturday, then you've got
05:36 to be looking at that and thinking Leeds are the form team. Back-to-back clean sheets now,
05:41 that was a big one from today. And, yeah, hopefully, you know, following on from three
05:48 points at Ipswich, a point against Sheffield Wednesday, three points here at Millwall,
05:52 carrying on this unbeaten run. Thanks for tuning in. Appreciate you giving us your time
05:58 on this Sunday afternoon. And, yeah, we'll speak to you soon. If you haven't already,
06:05 listen to the Inside Elland Road podcast with myself and the YIP's chief football writer,
06:10 Graeme Smith. You'll be delighted to hear if we break through our next target on the
06:16 podcast of listeners. So, yeah, do get on over to whichever pod app you listen to your
06:22 podcasts on and search Inside Elland Road. I've been Joe Donoghue. Thanks for tuning
06:28 in. We'll see you in midweek. Bye for now.
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