Leeds United 1-1 Brentford: Looking Up
Winning promotion to the Premier League with Leeds United is Pontus Jansson's dream. This season dreams might come true, and Jansson is recognising, after the World Cup made him a latecomer to Marcelo Bielsa's revolution, that the more serious he is, the more true that dream could be.
Never let it be said that Leeds United fans are not fair. When referee Jeremy Simpson gave a dubious free kick United’s way, after giving every other dubious thing to Brentford, the crowd sang that he didn’t know what he was doing, even now that his incompetence had, for once, gone for Leeds. A bad ref is a bad ref, and nobody wants a bad ref to ruin a good game. Jeremy Simpson is a bad ref.
So when Neal Maupay scored Brentford's unfair penalty and ran to taunt the South Stand, and was pelted with every object the fans there had to hand, that was probably fair too. Missiles are on trend right now, first a cabbage at Steve Bruce in midweek, and then a ‘marital aid’ at Brighton on Friday night (although it’s beyond me why you have to be married to buy a dildo; whatever his relationship status, George Graham bought David Robertson anyway). It's a trend that can only end in tears and ought not to be condoned, but the debris was raining on Maupay because he was like one of those thrill seekers who can't resist driving towards erupting volcanoes; he brought it on himself. He could have been booked for his provocation, but Jeremy Simpson would have had to approach the South Stand to do it, and his one good decision of the day was to judge that those fans were provoked enough already.
Instead it was Pontus Jansson who assumed control and restored order, gently but firmly ushering Maupay and friends away from danger. That was just one of many instances of outstanding leadership from Jansson, from his superb control of United's pressured back line, to his towering late header that equalised the score, to swearing on television and refusing to apologise, instead calling the referee a thief. "Do you think I should be happy?" he bellowed in the face of Sky Sports' hapless reporter, who quickly shifted the conversation onto what he thought would be safer ground, although for a moment after being asked about impending fatherhood I thought Pontus was going to deck the fellow for talking about his wife.
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