Leeds United picked up all three points with a 2-1 win at home to Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, bringing them just eight points off league leaders’ Leicester City and Ipswich Town.
Daniel James opened the scoring in the 21st minute with a well-taken finish, following a poor clearance from the visiting side. Joel Piroe doubled the lead for Daniel Farke’s team just seven minutes later, bringing his goal tally for the season up to six, level with teammate Crycensio Summerville at the top of the Leeds goalscoring charts.
The Whites continued the rest of the half and much of the second half in cruise control as they looked certain to pick up their fourth win in five games.
Plymouth bagged up a late goal in the 84th minute through Ben Waine, which was enough to put pressure on Leeds during the game’s final minutes, but the home side managed to see out the result up to the final whistle.
The win for the Yorkshire side keeps up their title-challenging form with 18 points from a possible 21 in their most recent games. Most notably, they travelled down to Leicester last weekend and came away with the spoils after a second-half goal from Georginio Rutter.
Speaking to LUTV, the game-winner Piroe spoke very highly of their first-half performance. He said:
“I am very happy, I always want to score and so I’m glad that I’m back on the scoresheet.
“We all enjoyed it out there, we were very dominant in their half, pressing really well and creating chance after chance. It’s our fault that we didn’t put the game to bed.”
The 24-year-old also commented on the subsequent drop in performance from his team. He continued:
“We still created enough good chances and we should have just converted them, and then it would’ve been an easy afternoon. But we let ourselves down a little bit, but I think we showed a firm mentality.
Speaking on the opposition’s goal the Dutchman said:
“You always have at least one chance and they scored from it. They stayed in the game by us not finishing them. We should’ve just scored, it’s simple.
“No one missed a chance on purpose so we can’t blame each other for it, it’s good that we get in the right spaces and the right places… at the end of the day we got the three points and that’s all that matters.”
Leeds travel to Rotherham United after the international break as they look to continue their rich vein of form. A win on the road and a follow-up against Swansea City at Elland Road would give Farke’s side a perfect month in November as we approach the busy December schedule.
Writer’s View
Leeds’ performance versus Plymouth was similar to last time out at Elland Road against Huddersfield Town, with a dominant start before cruising to an eventual victory. No Leeds fan will have complaints with another three points at home and their unbeaten home streak remaining intact.
However, if they want to continue to climb up the table and return to the Premier League at the end of the campaign, then Piroe is correct, they can’t keep missing chances and need to just score, it’s simple.
