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United undone at home by Burnley

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As the news of Sam Byram returning to the starting line up began to break around Elland Road there was a new optimism ahead of the match, and the inclusion of El Hadji Diouf also added to this, the next 45 minutes didn’t go exactly to plan. 

Right from the off Leeds looked very narrow and whilst enjoying a lot of the football we didn’t really create anything meaningful until just after the 15 minute mark when Ross McCormack found some space to cross for Luke Varney who found space in the middle but missed the target with a poor header. On the 18th minute Scott Arfield gave Burnley the lead after Sam Byram’s tackle broke kindly and Arfield prodded past Paddy Kenny, who arguably could have done better after being beaten rather to easily at his near post. Varney again had a good chance and his instinctive turn created himself some space and then he fired straight at Tom Heaton in the Burnley goal. As the half went on it seemed like going in just 1 behind would have been the best thing but on 42 minutes, former Leeds loanee Sam Vokes doubled Burnley’s advantage. Vokes managed to go almost seemingly un noticed in the penalty area to win a free header and then crash home the rebound from Paddy Kenny’s save. The goal was a harsh reminder of Leeds last season with errors and mistakes making it easy for Burnley to double the lead. A few minutes later Aidy White went off on a run into the Burnley box and was seemingly bundled over in the box but, again, we only get shit refs so obviously it wasn’t penalty.

Dom Poleon was introduced and added some much-needed width and pace to the team, and Paul Green replaced the returning Sam Byram at right back. Poleon looked to have the beating of his man every time but opportunities for him to attack the penalty box were seemingly ignored on the best chances he had to get in and cause problems. Matt Smith was introduced for the last 15 minutes and in truth caused problems for Burnley and proved to be a handful, which was all credit to him. Smith pulled one back with a back post to add some excitement and pressure to the final ten minutes of the game. In truth Burnley did panic and Leeds did have chances to steal something from the game. The skipper Rudy Austin was wasteful from the edge of the area with a slice wide and goalkeeper Tom Heaton made an exceptional save from a Diouf header.

Leeds short falls were all to obvious in this match though, wasted chances and a lack of movement and presence in the penalty box proved that we needed a prolific striker and someone who has the presence to cause trouble in the box too. Width, well, I don’t need to go into that as it’s been obvious for weeks. All in all it was a bad result and hard to swallow after the defeat in midweek too, but it’s important to keep going and all stick together, 26,000 was a decent gate so hopefully we can better that for our next weekend home game against Birmingham.

Now though, we have to move onto to Newcastle and hope we can cause an upset and get into the next round of the cup. Please leave comments on here, our twitter @LeedsAllOver or indeed my own twitter @StuFoo29. Look forward to hearing you.

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