Middlesbrough 3-4 Leeds United: Something to believe in

Last week Daniel Farke invited Leeds fans to "be a believer", but as his players were defending the odd lead out of seven bastard goals against Middlesbrough's fucking goalkeeper in the sixth minute of stoppage time, I was struggling to believe what I was watching, or work out how to have faith in what looked like a team repeatedly punching itself in the face. Junior Firpo won the game with a big defensive header. It was great. I didn't like it. "I told the guys," said Firpo afterwards, "that this is a game that you win, or you're dead." He didn't like it either.

Another of Farke's recent commandments has been about how, with just a few games to go, Leeds shouldn't change how they play or what they're doing. So here were five goals shared in the first half, not something Leeds have done since being 3-2 up at half-time at Ipswich in the fourth game of the season. I don't know if anyone who knows Leeds expected them to glide serenely to the end of the season, whether that be to automatic promotion or into the play-offs, but as they traded goals with Middlesbrough, it was still hard to work out where all this chaos was coming from. It was as if all the disappointment of the last two games bringing a dour 0-0 and 0-1 to Elland Road had been distilled, reversed, and concentrated to make the first forty-five minutes on Teeside their exact opposite in every respect. United were back, but it was the wild and uncontrollable United of the last 105 years. Perhaps the players were feeling inspired by Port Vale's relegation at the weekend.

That thought consoled me, at least, as did the thought of fans and players at Leicester and Ipswich trying to take a quiet interest in how the Peacocks were getting on. Ipswich fans in particular have become used to swinging scorelines and wild late goals — for and against — but does that prepare them for the same from a team they care less about? Were Leicester fans ready for their place at the top of the league to be secured then taken away then reattached then snapped? Was anyone from Ipswich or Leicester prepared to be cheering Seny Dieng as the goalie came up for a corner in the 89th minute, trying to equalise and doing it purely for them? A point wouldn't have helped Boro in the league table. But taking two away from Leeds would have been a big help to our promotion rivals, and that was Dieng's only mission. It may also have been Jonny Howson's doubt. In 2020 Howson grabbed Mateusz Klich at the end of our win at the Riverside and told him to get promotion done. This time, perhaps picturing Luke Ayling after the game, he hit a low shot in stoppage time that Illan Meslier dived to save from the net and from Howson's future nightmares. 

A penny for Farke's sleepless nights if that had made it 4-4. He oversaw this win the way I least like, by gaining a lead then conceding possession, daring Middlesbrough to take that lead away. Such rope-a-dope has been a feature of the whole season, and at times it has been frustrating — it's hard to watch Leeds score then not touch the ball for fifteen minutes — and risky, because if an equaliser does come, the players can find it difficult to take the initiative again. This time, it was working perfectly. 

Middlesbrough's two first half goals came from Wilf Gnonto and Georginio Rutter losing possession and turning promising moves towards Boro's end into frantic, unstoppable attacks on United's. Isaiah Jones scored after a deflected through ball got away from Meslier and Joe Rodon, Emmanuel Latte Lath got the second by cutting inside against the backpeddling defence and cutting a snapshot surprise back across Meslier. That didn't prevent Leeds being 3-2 up at the break, when Farke solved the problem of forwards losing possession by telling them not to have any. Leeds switched to shepherding Boro into safe parts of the pitch, then counter attacking into the spaces behind them. It made for a nervous watch but it worked. After half-time Leeds had 21 per cent possession, one counter attack led by Junior Firpo, and one touch in Middlesbrough's box: Crysencio Summerville's trademark curling shot inside the far post. It almost worked again when, with five minutes left, substitute Dan James sped into the penalty area, but he was tackled before he could calm things down at 5-2. Instead, two minutes later, Rodon and Ethan Ampadu lost sight of Latte Lath when a ball went over the top, and Meslier was beaten by a deft header, surprising and brilliant, that looped into the goal. 4-3, then, and now Dieng was interested.

Dieng was beaten three times in the first half by attacking verve that was missing from United's recent games and a shame to have blunted in the second half. Summerville used a twelfth minute penalty to equalise Boro's sixth minute lead, after Rutter had dribbled to the edge of the penalty area and Anfernee Dijksteel made his foul obvious like Avril Lavigne. With new momentum, and an early feeling about the game that it was going to be chaotic anyway, it was just four minutes before Firpo swung in another of his big crosses for Teeside's least favourite ex-player, Pat Bamford, to shove in off the top of his thigh. The third was scored after Archie Gray, who didn't look as surefooted in his natural position against Blackburn, made the sort of midfield burst we want from him and that will increase his confidence, taking the ball from Summerville by the centre circle and giving it back to him on the edge of the box — just about. It was near enough to his heels, anyway, for Summerville to get the ball to Gnonto, and for him to clip in a great finish.

Gnonto was offside. The Middlesbrough fans had just been busy with some ironic cheers when the linesman at this end waved his flag against Leeds, because they felt he'd missed one before Bamford scored. So it was a sweet argument against VAR when, with Gnonto clearly offside, he kept his flag down. Perhaps Nottingham Forest are right and Luton Town fans shouldn't be allowed to officiate games affecting their favourite club, but I'm in favour of linos being allowed to take the piss. The true anti-VAR argument actually came in the second half, when Bamford had an effort ruled out that coulda maybe been ruled in, bringing on the foretold evening out of luck in one evening.

That's not likely the last we'll hear about luck, or getting what's deserved, before this season is over. After the game, Farke indicated that during the week since the Coventry - Sunderland - Blackburn nightmares, he has stayed as unflappable at Thorp Arch as he was on the touchline at Boro. "It was more or less, in terms of results, our first poor week in 2024," he said. "Sometimes you have to accept this, and you have to back the players and give them some trust and confidence back." It's how he has been all season, really, whether Leeds have been 4-0 up and scoring freely or 3-2 up and willingly ignoring the ball, steel-eyed and determined to indicate that he is in control of what is happening, that he is right, that this has worked before and will work again. Sometimes this is reassuring. Sometimes it is enraging. Sometimes, you have to accept that Daniel Farke is the first manager in several years to see the good in Junior Firpo and get two assists from him and a stoppage time clearing header, so he must know what he's doing. And sometimes, Farke also has to admit there are limits. "Yes, and then it's football," he said, about Boro making it 4-3 with three minutes left. "It's the Championship." Never truer words spoken. "I think all the supporters have enjoyed the game," he added. Hmm. I'm not so sure about that one, Daniel. "I was about to throw up in the second half," said Firpo. Now, that I can believe in. ★彡