Birmingham City 1 Leeds United 0: YEP video verdict

Yorkshire Evening Post

Leeds United writer Lee Sobot with his verdict from the St Andrew's stands after a first defeat of the new Championship season for Daniel Farke's Whites.

Transcript

00:00 Hello there, Lee Sobot here at the Yorkshire Evening Post, here from Birmingham City FC

00:08 St Andrews, where Leeds United have fallen to their first defeat of the Championship

00:12 season via a 1-0 loss here at St Andrews. A 91st minute penalty converted by Lukasz

00:20 Jukkiewicz, absolutely smashed home after a foul from Dan James just inside the box,

00:27 caught Ethan Laird on his blind side, referee hesitated for a little bit and pointed to

00:31 the spot. I think as soon as the foul was made, I think we all sort of feared the worst.

00:35 And that was smashed home and that was that, and it's a 1-0 defeat for Leeds. I've got

00:39 to say, it doesn't in any way to me feel like a particular surprise, which might sound like

00:43 a surprising thing to say when Leeds came into this game as favourites, when they were

00:48 made second favourites from automatic promotion at the start of the season, although they've

00:51 quickly been overtaken by Southampton on that front. But, I mean, Daniel Farker said himself,

00:57 and he has done right from the very start, that August and the start here at Leeds would

01:02 be a bumpy ride, I think he said, or bumps in the road. And it's not difficult to expect

01:07 that the way things are going at the moment. Obviously, Leeds had a whole team of players

01:10 missing here today through injuries, but not all injuries. Willy Nonto, of course, news

01:15 revealed on Friday evening that he hadn't travelled, basically told Daniel Farker that

01:21 he didn't feel he could play both against Shrewsbury and also in this game after being

01:24 told he wouldn't be sold. So, I mean, that's a very unsavoury situation. It's the last

01:28 thing you should want to see, is a player basically refusing to play for the club. A

01:33 chance aimed at him from away fans, as you can imagine here. But, I mean, all these players

01:39 out injured and stuff and obviously Nonto missing. The other news is that Luis Sinisterra

01:43 also missed out today. There were rumours of this going around in the morning and we

01:47 had to wait and see really. But indeed, he wasn't here. Daniel Farker was asked about

01:50 him after the game and basically said he was unavailable and that's something we'll be

01:54 able to talk about at a later date. So that obviously doesn't sound great either. And

01:58 obviously Leeds missed his player. But, I mean, in terms of the game, I mean, the first

02:01 half was dreadful. Neverside had a shot on target, which says it all basically. It started

02:06 to come to life a little bit towards the end and it did feel like it was either going to

02:09 be 0-0 or it would be a 1-0 win. One team would nick it. Leeds had a couple of chances.

02:14 Dan James had a shot saved, but it wasn't an amazing chance. Sam Barham had a header

02:19 which took a deflection and flicked just wide of the post. But you've got to say Birmingham

02:23 had just as many chances themselves at the end as well. A free header sent wide, deflected

02:28 shot over the bar and then ultimately that penalty which they converted and that was

02:31 that. And obviously, it went wild. They were Tom Brady in the stands as well. Extremely

02:35 disappointing for Leeds. They're on one point out of six, which is nowhere near good enough.

02:38 It's nowhere near promotion for them, obviously. It's a very, very long season. As we all know,

02:42 the championship, you don't draw conclusions after two games. But they need to start going

02:45 soon otherwise they're going to start getting cut drift already. The teams are setting the

02:48 pace. West Brom next on Friday night. You're going to have to hope some players are back.

02:52 But Leeds need to be a lot, lot better than this. Daniel admitted that himself in equality

02:55 and they certainly do. They need help from the 49ers and they need investment. That's

02:58 it for now. Catch you soon.

Category

Transcript

Recommended