Lost in Lancs

Leeds Under-23s lost to Blackburn and didn’t even scrap about it

Written by: Rob Conlon
Photograph by: Lee Brown
Lewis Bate warming up on the sidelines of the Newcastle game at Elland Road

Comfort isn’t on Leeds United’s agenda in 2021/22. Last season was a release from the stress of sixteen years in purgatory. The senior squad gatecrashed the Premier League, having much more fun than the regulars who’d been clogging it up for years, while the Under-23s made light work of PL 2 Division 2, winning the title by eleven points. But where’s the fun in that? A challenge isn’t a challenge unless it’s challenging, and neither the grown-ups nor the kids are letting us relax through another season.

Just as back to back Premier League wins had fans hoping for three more points against Newcastle so we could stop talking about the R word, the U23s ended two winless months with consecutive victories of their own. The injection of form couldn’t have been better timed. Against bottom of the league Blackburn on Monday night, Mark Jackson’s side could have moved seven points clear of Rovers and five clear of Derby, theoretically creating a much needed buffer to the relegation zone, despite having played more games than both their rivals. So Leeds lost 4-0, and will be overtaken by both clubs should they win their games in hand. How exciting!

Conceding four goals to Blackburn is nothing new for the U23s. They did exactly the same at the end of September. But that night Leeds had Joffy Gelhardt, Sam Greenwood and Cody Drameh to help them score four of their own and draw the game. They even had a fight for good measure. This time there was no such fun. Jack Vale scored the first of his brace after not much more than a minute had been played, beating Kristoffer Klaesson at his near post.

LUTV commentator Ben Parker is usually the U23s biggest fan, but he was criticising the Leeds’ players for their “testimonial game” levels of intensity when Blackburn scored their second, from a simple one-two that bewildered the defence. “I haven’t seen a poorer half in a long, long time,” Parker said, as Blackburn made it 3-0 before the break.

Blackburn named senior trio Bradley Dack, Harry Chapman and James Brown, but the defeat was all the more striking due to the strength of the side available to Jackson, who has spent the last couple of months relying on Under-18s to fill in for the Under-23s required by the first team, but had a bunch of them back for this game, including Leo Hjelde and Lewis Bate in the starting line-up. Leeds do lack depth at full-back now Drameh has had his mind poisoned by Steve Morison, and Stuart McKinstry had a go at right-back after Jack Jenkins was recently given a few turns at Bielsa’s request. That experiment lasted until half-time, when the introduction of Archie Gray in place of centre-back Jeremiah Mullen prompted the usual round of tactical Twister. Without Stuart Dallas to move wherever required, that one substitution meant six players switched positions.

Leeds at least had the good grace to concede the fourth goal nice and early in the second half, Bate making it abundantly clear this was a night when everything was going wrong by giving the ball away cheaply. There was some improvement for the final half hour, Amari Miller hitting the woodwork with a deflected shot after Bate, this time, picked a perfect pass, but even the eternal optimist Jackson couldn’t find anything to enjoy.

“Sometimes you can come away from games and defeats with positives, but I am struggling to think of any, which is surprising because leading into the game on the back of two wins we felt like we were in good spirits,” Jackson told the Yorkshire Evening Post. “We had good momentum. We had more experienced players coming back into the team and everything was pointing towards us being really competitive tonight in a really important game. We got off to a bad start, which happens, but you can’t let one goal ruin the rest of the game. We just didn’t get a foothold. They were on the front foot and more aggressive. We didn’t handle that.”

There is at least one straw to clutch. Actual January signing Mateo Joseph Fernandez made his debut off the bench, playing the last ten minutes and not really touching the ball. Emile Heskey’s cousin’s son is still eligible to play for the Under-18s, and Jackson says they might use that option to give the striker games while he adjusts to life at Thorp Arch. However long that takes, the boy can clearly finish. Judging by a video he posted to his Instagram story, not even three goalkeepers can stop him!

Fernandez’s finishing is going to be needed now Joffy is a fully fledged first teamer and his bezzie mate Greenwood is broken. Much like the first team, the U23s are refusing to let us relax, but just imagine how excited you’re going to be when Fernandez scores a great goal or three to keep us up. ⬢

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