SADLY : Liam Cooper has been suspended due to what …………
The first half at Elland Road was fairly well balanced with Leeds equalising after the visitors’ second-minute goal from a well-worked set-piece, as Dan James headed in a perfect Junior Firpo cross. However, challenges started to fly in with Preston picking up two yellows before the break for Ben Whiteman and Ali McCann, the second being for a shoulder charge on Dan James that would have been penalised heavily in rugby, never mind football. After the interval, Preston went into their shell a lot more despite having some joy in the first half, and as the game wore on, challenges became more and more aggressive, boiling over in the 85th minute when a horrid, high challenge from behind on Ilia Gruev by Ryan Ledson somehow
Ryan Lowe, the manager of Preston, was clearly upset throughout the game, but he didn’t have much to say because referee David Webb was arguably too forgiving of his team, who tried their hardest to disrupt the game with time-wasting and cynical attempts to stop Leeds’ momentum. He was especially upset about the penalty given because Joe Rodon might have fouled his man during the build-up, but his stand-in goalkeeper David Cornell might have received a red card earlier for handling the ball outside the box in the 49th minute while closing down James, as shared under a Leeds supporter’s Preston social media post:
