Leeds United 0 Southampton 1: Play-off final YEP video verdict

Yorkshire Evening Post

Leeds United writer Lee Sobot with his verdict from the Wembley stands on more Whites play-offs woe via a 1-0 defeat to Southampton in the Championship play-off final.

Transcript

00:00 Hello there, Lee Sobot at the Yorkshire Evening Post here from Wembley, where it was the conclusion

00:07 that we all feared as Leeds United's season has ended with defeat in the play-off final

00:11 against Southampton, for whom a 1-0 victory has sent them back to the Premier League at

00:15 the first attempt and the only goal of the game. No surprise who got that, Adam Armstrong,

00:20 who was favourite to score first and to be quite honest, a result that is pretty hard

00:24 to argue with, even though Leeds did come very close at the end. When Dan James hit

00:29 the crossbar, I think it speaks volumes that Dan James, who only came on well over halfway

00:35 through the second half, was probably Leeds' best player and obviously wasn't even on the

00:40 pitch for that long. Just one of those games where the Whites that have blown teams away

00:45 this season just didn't turn up on this occasion and that's now a hat-trick of victories for

00:49 Southampton against them this season. So in a way, it is no surprise that they got the

00:54 job done. They just seem to have Leeds' number and you say congratulations to them for going

00:59 up and obviously now the inquest will go into Leeds' United season. To me, it really felt

01:04 like it went wrong when they missed out on all of that promotion, to be quite honest.

01:07 It was in their own hands with a few games to go and stealing that would have been easier

01:11 obviously than going up through the playoffs. We know obviously the club's history in that.

01:14 That's now six attempts of the playoffs without going up through them and back in the Championship

01:19 now next season and the gut feeling really is that if Leeds are going to get out of that

01:22 division, they need to go up in the top two. So that will obviously be the aim next season.

01:27 Of course it will, but obviously questions will go on now throughout the summer and

01:30 there's bound to be lots of ins and outs, which will be a lot harder for Leeds to deal with

01:34 as a Championship club than if they were in the Premier League. But they're not in the Premier

01:37 League. That's now a million miles away at the moment. As I say, in terms of this game,

01:41 they did start quite well. Archie Gray really got everyone going. Youngest Leeds player to play

01:46 in the Champions... playoff at Wembley, sorry. Got going down the right wing, put one from right

01:52 back, put it wide. They had a few chances early on, but they were not like brilliant chances

01:56 really. Lots of forays forward and then Southampton sort of hit back. Leeds sort of saw that one off

02:01 and then in the end it was just a through ball from Will Smallbone behind the back line,

02:05 caught out, Mampadu. And you know, he was basically one on one, one touch, bang, far corner.

02:11 1-0. As soon as he went through, you kind of thought he'd score. I think he had 21 goals

02:14 before the end of the season. 24 it is now and that was the 24th minute. And as I say,

02:19 that proved the only goal of the game. Leeds often puffed and tried to get back into it.

02:23 The second half, they had lots of possession, loads of possession, but didn't really do anything

02:26 with it. Few chances, but nothing particularly amazing. As I say, Dan James came on, absolutely

02:32 thunderous strike from him that rattled the underside of the bar. That was the sort of

02:35 decisive moment, if you like. I was inches away, obviously, from going in. But he didn't. A clash

02:39 of heads with Dan James. I think it was 11 minutes added time in the end. But I mean,

02:43 Southampton really, apart from the odd foray, saw it out relatively without alarm. Fantastic

02:48 support here at Wembley. Absolutely amazing Leeds support, as always. But it soon cleared

02:53 out, as you can imagine. The players were down on their knees. It's finished here. Southampton

02:58 1-0 Leeds United. Another season with the Championship.

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