Leeds United’s game against Newcastle United tonight was like the end fight in a Rocky film. Like Balboa they were battered around the ring for 15 rounds, yet found a KO punch to even things out a little.
In truth, Newcastle could lay claim to the fact that, over the 90 minutes, they were the crisper, more focused and more fluid side. Extending the boxing analogy, it this had have been a prize-fight, the referee would have stepped in early and stopped it – in doing so saving Leeds an unnecessary beating.
But football is not played over 90 minutes. It is played to the sound of the last peep on the referee’s whistle and that proved to be Newcastle’s undoing. From a Jonjo Shelvey booking at a corner for time-wasting, to a break downfield by Kemar Roofe and a foul and booking for Jack Colback, Leeds United worked their opportunity.
Leeds threw everyone up front, even central defender Kyle Bartley up there when substitute Hadi Sacko played a hopeful ball in only for it to be headed back out as far as Pablo Hernández. The diminutive Spaniard dropped a shoulder and beat his man, playing a neat ball to the feet of Kemar Roofe. Roofe dinked a right-footed ball in over Jamaal Lascelles and Chris Wood ghosted in to dink the ball past a stranded Karl Darlow for his 25th league goal of the season.
Like Rocky Balboa, you can be smashed against the ropes and out on your feet, but it only takes that one lucky punch to bring you right back in to the fray. Chris Wood landed that ‘punch’ which got Leeds a point from their hardest game in the run-in to the end of the season.
