Leeds United 2-1 West Ham United: A night to remember
This game almost produced one of the goals of the decade. It's just over twelve years since the last one, and just about the only chance I'll get to compare Brenden Aaronson, favourably, to Rudy Austin.
27th October 2025 marks the anniversary of David 'Soldier' Wilson's death, at Elland Road, playing for Leeds City. This is the story that, afterwards, was forgotten.
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These are not the glory days of Leeds United Football Club but on Friday night Elland Road hosted an inglorious match to remember, not for its quality but its dogged weirdness. Wins will be precious this season and the fixture list means we'll hopefully be remembering this one for the right reasons right at the end. Away to West Ham, in the sunshine of late May, we'll look back to beating West Ham at home, and laugh. Right?
Maybe we'll still be laughing at West Ham. Crikey, but they're a bad team at the moment. They don't have a midfield, which feels like an oversight, and it's a shame Leeds were so flummoxed by the space in front of West Ham's back four: Ethan Ampadu ran to there from his own half, got confused, and put the ball out for a goal-kick; Ao Tanaka shot over from there; Sean Longstaff passed from there then immediately regretted not shooting. That's one big problem for new manager Nuno Espírito Santo to sort out.
Nuno has got a good player to use, but this problem is how much the rest of the team must hate him. Lucas Paquetá let Joe Rodon head the Peacocks' second goal in from a corner and, rather than look contrite about his pathetic marking, went straight back to moaning at his teammates for not reading his audacious lay-offs. In the second half he decided to drop deep between the centre-halves like a dictating quarterback and, as West Ham passed the ball around in defence, they quite pointedly bypassed him, not giving him a touch or a chance to indulge his Pirlo fantasies until he wandered off upfield again. Stoppage time was excellent. Leeds were worried after letting the Hammers have a late goal, but Paquetá did great defensive work on their behalf. His petulant foul, with twenty seconds left, is a joy to replay on the video: Paquetá pushes Jayden Bogle, the referee blows, ten pairs of West Ham arms are thrown to the sky as ten West Ham mouths all scream at him. It was wonderful stuff.
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It was also getting on for half past ten. The night's other influential wazzock was the referee, Stuart Attwell, the zombie of our FA Cup defeat to Sutton United in 2017. He needs to get eating some brains because on this performance he ain't got none. There are new rules for this season, about sending players to the touchline for thirty seconds to prevent them faking head injuries, but common sense is forever if a player, Ethan Ampadu, only goes down holding his head because a referee, Stuart Attwell, has clotheslined him. Ampadu got up and was fine, and it could have been laughed off; instead Attwell sent him to stand at the side while Crysencio Summerville set up Jarrod Bowen for an overhead kick that Lucas Perri did well to parry.
This had other repercussions, too. In the second half Ampadu took a ball full in the face but immediately got groggily to his feet so Attwell wouldn't have another reason to force a time-out: not, I'd suggest, a brilliant approach to the problem of concussions in football. Ampadu also had to intervene when Attwell tried ordering Gabriel Gudmundsson off for treatment on his back, pointing out this was none of the referee's business. The same referee had let West Ham's Oliver Scarles lie prone on the edge of the penalty area for several minutes despite him being so obviously so badly hurt he was eventually taken off huffing oxygen.
All this and some VAR delays meant an unholy thirteen minutes of first half stoppage time, which upset Nuno most of all as he was anxious to get his players off the field and yell at them. It didn't seem to include any time added for the long pauses left between fouls and fouls-given by Attwell's pipe-and-slippers refereeing style. I assume he's adopted this slumberous demeanour to disguise the time it takes to engage his pea-sized brain. His lowest point was in the second half, when everyone had already been out for too long in the pouring rain and everyone was wishing they were home in their warm beds, and he busied himself with striding over to move the ball a millimetre into the quadrant for a West Ham corner — twice. By this point, I was begging. Please, Attwell. Please just let the footballers play football, so we can all go home before tomorrow.
Moaning about referees is standard boredom but it's relevant because Attwell's performance gave Daniel Farke problems to solve that West Ham weren't. Farke had enough on his plate coaxing his players through their own difficulties. Leeds started superbly, and while there was a degree of hopelessness about the Hammers for the first goal, it was well made. Ampadu took immediate advantage of the space in midfield by driving forward through it, and while Longstaff was an early victim of misunderstanding the zone outside the D, he still flicked the ball to Brenden Aaronson who passed it on and wide for Bogle. His deep cross was headed powerfully at goal by Noah Okafor, a new weapon Leeds might make more of, and while that was saved Aaronson did well to overtake two static defenders and force the ball over the line. There were three minutes on the clock. Ten minutes later Rodon headed in Longstaff's corner and all was well with the world.
Leeds could have made a much easier night for themselves by burying just one of their chances to score more in the 45 minutes left to play before half-time. There were the opportunities from outside the box, another for Aaronson overtaking defenders inside the box, a shot from Bogle and several possible chances that weren't quite created. The game was not one way enough, though, especially after Callum Wilson replaced Scarles and added a new dimen... well, a dimension to West Ham. Paquetá had the ball in the net but was offside. Tomáš Souček had a free header, from open play, but put it wide.
As bad as West Ham were, the 2-0 scoreline was too dangerous and the whole night was too weird. The conditions were awful. The players had spent too long playing the first half — Okafor, deemed fit for a half, was out for an hour, and even if a quarter of that was spent standing around it was too long and he was replaced by Jack Harrison. Leeds' training had been disrupted by illness and injury so Farke had a bench full of shivering, puking, aching players with which to change the game. Gudmundsson had already been forced off, James Justin replacing him on his less favoured side. Speaking of changes, Perri was back in goal and parrying for all he was worth, Jaka Bijol was making a one-footed but strong-headed debut and easing his way into Premier League football, Tanaka was in for Anton Stach and trying to earn his place by trying to tackle like him. Farke seemed to decide the team had enough problems to be going on with, without him throwing in new players or demanding a slew of goals. Be careful, conserve energy, hit them on the counter and let's all go to bed.
This spoiled the spectacle but almost produced one of the goals of the decade. It's just over twelve years since the last one, and just about the only chance I'll get to compare Brenden Aaronson, favourably, to Rudy Austin. At the end of August 2013, at the end of a game against QPR, Austin controlled the ball on his chest and whacked a spectacular half-volley, 35 yards from boot to Gelderd End crossbar. It's one of the greatest goals I've ever seen that didn't happen.
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From 2013, my match report — and video! — all about Rudy Austin, Tony Yeboah, and hitting the bar at the Gelderd End
On Friday Aaronson started even further from goal, taking a pass outside his own penalty area. He held off Andy Irving. He skipped around Souček's slide. He didn't have a hard time surging past Paquetá (see above). I'd also suggest for a laugh watching El Hadji Malick Diouf's determined fast then slow running, trying to look involved while trying desperately not to get involved. Calvert-Lewin made a great run to take Jean-Clair Todibo out of the way but Max Kilman wouldn't be dragged and it was his boot, when Aaronson had reached the penalty area and decided to shoot, that deflected the shot onto the crossbar and prevented not just a great goal but a glorious moment.
Aaronson, the usual misthought final passes included, was in his element and played very well. Nights like this are the times when he can really help. Which is, in its way, what's frustrating about him, and Leeds, and about nights like this. West Ham were so bad. So bad. So, so bad. Diouf backheeling to nobody was a highlight, especially as he did it so badly the ball went out for a throw anyway, especially as he did it right in front of his distraught manager. They were so bad that on another day, in crisp sunshine, with a settled team, after a steady week of training, another team could have played them off the park with slick creative attacking and dead-eyed finishing. Instead we had Aaronson getting deserved ovations for hassling West Ham into giving away throw-ins; one of the best balls of the night, for me, was when Harrison booted it long out of our penalty area and Calvert-Lewin forced a throw that eased the pressure.
But these are not the glory days of Leeds United. These are the days when Leeds have to do exactly what they did here — which they didn't manage a few weeks ago against Fulham and Bournemouth. They had to take a game on its own terms, see out a good result, and bank some points. Eleven now, from nine games, 1.22 on average, winning one game in three so far, up to 15th in the table, six points clear of 18th. It'd be nice to hammer the Hammers, but perhaps Newcastle can do that next week, and it'll be just as helpful to our cause. And we'll have another chance on the last day of the season when, if things stay steady from now until then, we can revel with the comfort that if we might have missed out on Sunderland's delirium our side was never as bad, at least, as West Ham. ⭑彡