Saturday’s defeat for Leeds United at Elland Road at the hands of fellow automatic promotion hopefuls Sheffield United wasn’t what anyone would’ve wanted.
Despite dominating and creating a hatful of chances, we failed to get an effort on target and closer than the woodwork, but for the less volatile amongst the fanbase – especially on social media – there were plenty of positives to take when it came to our spirit and the fact we were still the side on the front foot at the end of the game despite going down to ten men.
With Leeds having suffered the distractions of injuries, Spygate, burnout, fatigue as well as leading the Championship table for large parts of the season and having to set the pace, reacting to the defeat following the game, striker Patrick Bamford made an interesting point about the Bramall Lane outfit sliding ahead of us in the table.
Speaking to LUTV he explained.
“For once the pressure is off us as a club. We’re no longer in the driving seat. Sheffield haven’t had that pressure yet. They’ve always been the underdog. It’s a new thing for them. People aren’t going to be talking about if Leeds are going to do it. The majority of the focus is going to be on the other two teams.”
Arguably we’ve used our distractions as motivation – despite a few wobbles along the way – but a spell out of the headlines could do us an incredible favour now. Especially depending on how Chris Wilder’s side deal with the extra pressure they now face as a side.
Now obviously we won’t slip completely under the radar here, the change will be more subtle than anything, but it might help and turn into a positive.
Or I’m just being incredibly positive for no reason?