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Leeds arrived in good form and in the automatic promotion spots, being one of the favourites this season for a return to the Premier League.
In the opening 10 minutes or so you could see why, as they confidently moved the ball around in dangerous positions and took the lion’s share of possession.
However, North End did not look intimidated and started to get into the match themselves, culminating in possibly the finest counter-attacking move of the season so far that led to the opening goal.
Brad Potts started and finished it, with a pass out of defence to Milutin Osmajic who spun past his defender and set off with blistering pace down the right wing before executing a peach of a whipped cross into Potts’ path to score from close range.
Game on, and it was only a few minutes later that anger erupted from the Leeds fans and their dugout for a challenge by Ben Whiteman just outside the box.
Whiteman had already been booked for a routine professional foul and as the Leeds player rolled around clutching his leg the cry for a straight red, never mind another yellow, went up in the away end.
Equally vehement was the cry from all around me as we clearly saw Whiteman take the ball and were adamant it wasn’t any kind of foul. It seems the truth was somewhere in-between as the talk from the replays at half-time was of ball first and follow-through after and so maybe Whiteman was lucky to stay on the pitch.
Given the controversy, just about everybody predicted his substitution for the start of the second period as Leeds started to take control again. This did not mean the men in white shirts played badly, or looked nervous, and a glorious opportunity was provided for Emil Riis which he fluffed with a weak header at their keeper.
Other counterattacks just lacked that bit of final-ball quality needed to get the second goal, but this fan was feeling optimistic as the game went into 4 minutes of stoppage time.
Cue three minutes into it and an unfortunate own goal was conceded by Jack Whatmough to deny the victory that had seemed so close.
Despite this I did not feel as despondent as I may have expected which, upon reflection, is perhaps due to improving performances over the last few matches.
Given the strength of the visiting squad and the overall play, it was probably a fair result on the day and one to build on. There is no doubt that turning some of our many draws into wins is what we need going into and through the festive run.
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