Leeds United 0-2 Hull City: True Faith 2019

As this match crept into injury time, Leeds United had one recognised defender on the pitch; he was playing up front. The fourth official raised a four minute warning on his LED display and that was enough for United's fans to look at each other, and say maybe. Maybe Leeds could still win this.

Leeds were losing 2-0 but the far-fetched idea of winning wasn't an impossible dream; it's what the players were still toiling to achieve. We've had more gifts than we deserve this festive season — seven wins, two incredible late wins, those videos of Kemar Roofe looking so serious in a Christmas jumper and sun specs — but perhaps the best present we've had from Marcelo Bielsa this year is a team that always plays to win.

In seasons gone by I would have been yearning for the final whistle so I could quit morose observance of such a drab winter's scoreline, leaving the Hull fans in the away end curling their hands in the air like children, opening and closing their gobs like fish, singing about cats like fucking idiots. The only sound more miserable than 'Leeds nil Hull two' is their mewling.

But even before the miracles of the games against Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers Bielsa has had us believing, even when the evidence hasn't supported our faith. 'Maybe' survived until the final whistle against Hull — in stoppage time Mateusz Klich scuffed his umpteenth shot, and Roofe had a good header saved — but it had to fight. We still had hope, but we couldn't take our chances really seriously, because the players couldn't take their chances.

Hope might have been enough in previous seasons, when its return became a theme; we praised Garry Monk for allowing us to hope again when he took us to the edge of the play-offs, praised Andrea Radrizzani for inspiring our hopes when he bought Elland Road back, praised Thomas Christiansen for those hopeful days when we played like the Beeston Globetrotters against Burton Albion and went top of the league. Soon each time we had to shrug our shoulders and say, well, at least we can hope now. It was better than what had gone before.

But Bielsa is moving Leeds beyond that and I don't think we're satisfied with just being able to hope anymore. There's a promise to deliver now, and in a harsh way losing to Hull was a breaking of the pledge. On one hand, winning eight games in a row would have been monumental. On the other, the odds Leeds had to overcome while beating Villa and Blackburn meant Hull City, despite their decent form, should have been beaten too.