Leeds United 2-1 Watford: This much happening

Full-time eventually stunned Elland Road almost into silence, partly because the speakers weren't working so there was no Riot Predicting or Together Marching on the final whistle, partly because Illan Meslier had just been dribbling the ball back towards his own goal like a farmer chasing a hen. Even if he was calm about it, nobody who remembered the last time Leeds were 2-1 up in the ninety-plussed minute — three fricking weeks ago — needed that in their lives.

Leeds should have won this game easily without having to worry about what the goalie was doing or about anything, but a few things changed after going 2-0 up in the sixth minute. First, Watford's keeper Daniel Bachmann remembered he was supposed to be helping Watford win, although it seemed to keep slipping his mind as the night wore on. And someone in the Hornets' pleasing yellow shirts red shorts combo, by the name of Festy, put Largie Ramazani out of the game with a hefty tackle. Ramazani had scored the opening goal and looked ready to score a few more, and the tackle — although just about fair — was meant to put him in his place. Festy followed that up by crashing through Pascal Struijk's legs in a way that definitely was not fair, and when he wasn't teararsing up the wings he was looking around for more to maim. Of course he was also the long throw specialist and of course he's on loan across the Watford family business from Udinese. It was a relief when he laid down hurt, although frustrating because one of his mates had only just got up and the Hornets were having their own timewasting game of inverse whack-a-mole — you had to keep dragging them up — despite being behind. It was a weird night that way.

There are midweeks like this in the Championship. At the same time as Leeds were surging ahead against Watford, in Preston a Sam Greenwood penalty was helping Peter Ridsdale's club to a 2-0 lead over Norwich in the first fifteen minutes; they ended up drawing 2-2. Down in the tolerable non-Port Vale parts of the Potteries, Stoke City went 2-0 up against our next opponents, Bristol City, in the first fifteen minutes. Nakhi Wells scored twice in two second half minutes to finish things 2-2. Aston Villa can dress up their Champions League win over Bologna all they want, no amount of pre-game fireworks can outdo the random anthemlessness of a Tuesday night watching goalies going half-Rachubka or Nakhi Wells bagging a brace. Elland Road's broken PA meant legendary right-back Paul Reaney's half-time 80th birthday appearance was like a silent comedy as he stole a pitchfork from the groundstaff and waggled it around. TNT Sports have binned off James Richardson and his erudite crew from their goals show, and if presentation is half the battle the EFL could do worse than put them onto a worldwide feed of everything happening in the Football League everywhere all at once.

At the Old Peacock Ground what happened first was that, after Junior Firpo held up a good pass from Struijk and put the ball on the corner of the penalty area, Ramazani put his faith in a very unFarke's Leeds idea that if you shoot you might score. His strike was pretty much right at Daniel Bachmann but he grabbed at the ball, lost it, punched it away from the net, and had to give up when the referee's wrist wobbled for a goal. Ramazani celebrated with Wilf Gnonto by skipping around in the south-east corner like it was the Yellow Brick Road, while somewhere nearby Festy watched and fumed. The second goal began when Joe Rodon won a tackle in United's penalty area and, after Struijk and Firpo tidied up, Ao Tanaka started a forward move by blessing Jayden Bogle with possession. Bogle raced with it in the direction of Beeston then pinged it that way for Gnonto. Gnonto's crossing, head up and looking, has been much more dangerous this season and while this one was helped by a deflection and just evaded Joel Piroe's toe it simultaneously foxed Bachmann's fingers: he palmed it to Brenden Aaronson who eschewed his love of shooting into the sky with a steady sidefoot bouncer into the back of the net. It wasn't even eight o'clock yet.

At this point Aaronson was perilously close to dictating things because, despite lining up in a defensive 3-5-2, there seemed to be a Hornet consensus about leaving the little tousle haired birthday boy on his own in space. Maybe there's some logic to this, because sometimes Aaronson looks as surprised as anyone when he gets on the ball and does something calm and good. But it's also a stupid thing to do because, even if it seems surprising, Aaronson can do things on the ball that are calm and good. Besides, Watford had a lot of players of size to snap him, but he made an early chance for Gnonto by muscling Moussa Sissoko off the ball in midfield and was looking up for a productive night and maybe a scrap if he got carried away.

The third thing that hampered Leeds from letting off what Daniel Farke calls 'a firework of football' was not Watford stopping Aaronson, although he had to revert to being industrious rather than creative to get Leeds through the game. Instead, after Ramazani went off and Bachmann got his act together, Leeds got a little trapped in the psychology of leading so early and so easily and couldn't retain their early hotness. That's natural, but needn't have meant conceding in the second minute of the second half. Kwadwo Baah made a strong drive off the right wing, going around Struijk while Firpo ran behind them both to tackle nobody. Baah's pull-back was beyond Meslier's foot, pinged off Rodon back to him and in.

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Afterwards Watford manager Tom Cleverley was chirping about his players supposedly dominating this part of the game, but what actually happened was that his half-time rollocking got them winning a lot of tackles against Leeds players who had thought the game was pretty much won but, after the goal, they didn't hit another shot on target. They were solid but not really threatening, befitting a team that has won four of five at home but now lost five in a row away, home sickness that would make sense if it wasn't such a well-known relief to leave Watford.

Leeds recovered themselves to end strongly with fresher legs from Dan James and Mateo Joseph, who combined for a chance that should have been a goal: James crossed with the outside of his boot and Joseph, realising at the wrong time that he had enough time and space to bring the ball down, forgot to concentrate on heading the ball in. Special mention also to Bogle, who after hitting the post with one cross-cum-shot gave that another decent go, like he'd discovered a new way he might score.

There were explicable off-nights holding this back from being a classic performance. Piroe was fluffing chances, Firpo was Firpivating, Gnonto had one of those games when he pisses everyone off with wayward passing and tired tracking. Joe Rothwell started well but ended plodding, and everyone missed the fun way Ramazani started the night. Some post-international jading combined with easing off from early impetus because it had worked too well meant a natural tapering into ho and hum.

Aaronson and Tanaka, the two players who played and travelled most in the last couple of weeks, must be playing on pure adrenaline. Aaronson was all energy, but what is Ao Tanaka? Sublime, in this game, doing the work of three midfielders in one, controlling, attacking, defending. His eye for teammates and the care with which he gives them the ball has already looked a level above, and I get the feeling that players around him are passing the ball better because they want to impress him. He's brought a new style of zipping triangles out of danger that, while I wouldn't have minded some hoofing when it got close to Meslier's goal, has more pace and pleasure than the old Ampadu to Big Joe and back again stuff. Against Watford he showed awareness of danger, getting into positions to tackle in the penalty area before anyone else realised there were problems.

Afterwards Farke said the other players are calling him Tiger after the James Bond character; instead I might call him Easy because that's how Tanaka makes football look and it's harder to believe than the average 007 plot. The game can't be this easy to play, can it? And what can explain his presence? Surely Leeds can't just buy a midfielder for a modest fee and put him in the team and he's brilliant. No. What's the hitch? Where's the crocodile pit? The shark tank? ⭑彡