West Ham United 3-1 Leeds United: Almost time
Leeds have ninety minutes of trying left but few of their games lately have gone that far. We’ve had six weeks of waiting for second halves to be over, wishing for less time even when time felt like the only hope.
Time was always against Sam Allardyce at Leeds United, but this weekend the problem was too much of it. He was given four games to try to keep the club in the Premier League. By the end of his third, he looked as sick as those of us who have been watching this all season. A match that started well went on too long, like the season, like the club post-promotion. Allardyce will talk the talk about playing Tottenham next weekend, and who knows, who knows. But even if a miracle keeps Leeds up, Sam and all the fans will be glad when this is over.
West Ham’s players brought their children with them onto the pitch. After their families were subjected to a lot of hoodied posturing at the end of their successful Conference League semi-final in the Netherlands, the Hammers were making up for it with bring the kids to work day. Declan Rice was possibly, probably playing his last home game and the Premier League was straining to make something of this sterile moment, cameras searching for tears in the eyes of the boyhood Chelsea fan, about to leave the antiseptic shopping centre that replaced West Ham’s heritage. He’s moving like West Ham moved, in pursuit of even more riches elsewhere. You’d weep, because if you didn’t, you’d be letting the brand down.
Against their distracted hosts, Leeds started well and took the lead, as they did against Newcastle. The goal put extra flavour in Big Sam’s Wrigley’s, as Weston McKennie’s long throw into the penalty area was forced home first time by Rodrigo. He celebrated by running to the arms of assistant coach Robbie Keane, and the moment seemed to be about confidence, Rodrigo going to the source of the self-belief that helped him finish.
Like last week, the start didn’t last. Allardyce’s time in the job is short, but the games are too long. His approach has been to make Leeds United’s time on the pitch as free as he can from incident. Long stretches of time have passed in these three matches as if we were under hypnosis, when Leeds were making sure that nothing was happening. If nothing is happening, nothing bad can happen: that’s what Allardyce gets from statistics. At Leeds, though, there is always time for something to happen, and everything always seems to happen at once. And everything seems to happen to Pat Bamford.