Preston North End 2 Leeds United 1: YEP video verdict

Leeds United writer Lee Sobot with his verdict from the Deepdale stands on Boxing Day's 2-1 defeat at Preston North End and Illan Meslier's red card.

Transcript

00:00 Hello there, Lee Sobot at the Yorkshire Evening Post here from Deepdale, Preston North End

00:06 FC where Leeds United have fallen to a 2-1 defeat in a game which really exploded after

00:12 the break in the second half with a straight red card for Hila Mellier which was obviously

00:17 the talk of this match and basically completely changed the game. Hands up into his opponent's

00:23 face who did make a mill of things going to the ground but if you're putting your hands

00:27 in an opponent's face then you're asking for trouble and that's exactly what Mellier got

00:32 with a straight red card which will now have him looking at a three match ban and the whole

00:36 complexion of the game obviously changed at that point as Daniel Farcuk obviously had

00:40 to make a substitute bringing on Kyle Darlow in to net. As Joel Pirro was sacrificed 1-0

00:48 down, Mangotlas at the time this was 1-0 down probably about 5-10 minutes later through

00:52 Mejeda, Leeds on 1-0 down looking under the cushion. What you would say is that Leeds

00:56 did rally really well after that considering they only had 10 men and the spirit they showed

01:01 was pretty decent and they were roared on by a filled up away end here and eventually

01:07 drew level and you kind of wondered are they going to leave with a draw or maybe even go

01:10 on to win the game. Dan James winning a penalty, Pascal Strojko of all people stood up to take

01:14 it and an excellent finish really, really cool into the bottom corner but really the

01:19 best player on the pitch by a mile was Liam Miller who then scored the winner with I think

01:23 the 89th minute down the left-hand side, cutting inside, beating Archie Gray who had a real

01:28 afternoon to forget. Terrific talent, we all know how fantastic he is but Miller was just

01:32 brilliant today and just caused him all sorts of trouble. That was a 2-1 victory for Preston

01:36 and a massive chance gone for Leeds obviously after that brilliant win against Ipswich and

01:41 what you need to do is build on that into the next game and that's not what happened

01:45 here so the show goes on for Leeds. Obviously now on to West Brom, the game is coming thick

01:50 and fast and then Birmingham on the New Year as well but in terms of this game today, as

01:57 I say it totally changed with the Melier red card. What he would say is Leeds weren't good

02:01 at all in the first half, they just couldn't get any attacking swagger going. They started

02:05 to gain a little bit of control as the half wore on and I thought my gut instinct feeling

02:10 was kind of like in the second half they might just about get away with this and maybe get

02:13 things going and get a go on the second half but as I say once that red card happened it

02:17 just changes the whole complexion of the game and really all the fingers will be pointed

02:21 at Melier who I'm sure will obviously regret his actions. As I say it was a soft red, it

02:26 was a red that gave the referee the option and you can see why he was sent off which

02:30 in the end has cost Leeds massively dear. It's a real rollercoaster this championship

02:35 as we know, as I say that was a big opportunity missed in terms of trying to build on the

02:39 Ipswich game but you move on to the next one and hopefully this one can be soon put to

02:43 bed but it's a missed opportunity for definite as it's finished here. Preston North End

02:46 two Leeds United one.