The goalscoring was confined to an eight minute period towards the end of the first half, but Leeds were so dominant throughout the entire 90 minutes that Plymouth Argyle didn’t manage a single shot on goal.
There was one enforced change to the starting line-up, as it was Bogle’s turn to be suspended, so Byram moved across to right back as Firpo returned on the left. There was much talk in the build-up that Dan James was likely to miss the game because of hamstring issues, but in the event he was deemed to be fit to play.
It didn’t take long before the pattern of the game became clear. Leeds dominating possession, Wayne Rooney getting constant abuse from the crowd, and his team offering no tactics other than to get eleven men behind the ball and hope for the best. The first chance came from Tanaka’s ball into the area which Piroe scooped over the bar, having had to stretch backwards to reach the ball.
Further chances came when Gnonto worked his way inside and got plenty of power into his shot, but dragged it just wide of the near post, then Piroe went closer, actually hitting the post with his volley. As the half hour approached I started to fret that it might be one of those frustrating games when Leeds fail to break down a packed defence, but I needn’t have worried.
Bang on 30 minutes a corner was only cleared as far as Gnonto just outside the area, and he slipped the ball sideways to James. The Welshman might have slightly mis-controlled with his first touch so he had to reach for it, but he still managed to fire a powerful shot across Grimshaw into the far corner of the net. And three minutes later we were two in front.
A James cross was cleared out to Tanaka just outside the box, and when a defender made a hash of dealing with his bouncing ball back into the six yard box, Piroe was there to turn the ball into the net. We had to check that the linesman hadn’t raised his flag, but the Dutchman was probably onside when Tanaka originally played the ball forwards.
Our goals were just like the buses, you wait half an hour for one and then three come along at once. On 38 minutes Piroe controlled James’ ball into the area, and when his attempted backheel, it fell kindly for Aaronson as the American raced into the six yard box. There was an element of fortune about it, but if you create enough chances, sooner or later you are going to get lucky.
The second half was a lot less frantic, as Leeds pretty much declared at half time with the game already won, having half an eye on Wednesday’s visit to our dear friends in South-East London. While Rooney got his defence slightly better organinsed, opting for damage limitation rather than chasing the game at the risk of an absolute hammering.
But we did come close to a fourth when Aaronson’s through ball sent Gnonto clear, but Willie dragged his shot across the face of goal and just past the far post. Shortly afterwards Aaronson was one of the first to be substituted, while James was allowed to take his hamstrings for a well-earned break. On came Solomon and Joseph, with Piroe dropping back to the deeper ‘number 10’ role.
With 15 minutes remaining Rothwell and Gnonto were allowed to take a break, and we had our first glimpse of Sam Chambers and new signing Josuha Guilavogui. Which might be a record for the age gap between two substitutes coming on at the same time, but a Google search of that question gave me all sorts of rubbish, so I can’t confirm this. Guilavogui is certainly a ‘big unit’, and he might be able to improve our woeful record at set pieces if used to good effect.
And on 86 minutes young Welsh international Charlie Crew became our third debutant of the afternoon, and it would have been wonderful if he’d scored a debut goal to mark the occasion. His long range shot was dipping just under the bar, but he sent it a bit too close to Grimshaw, and the Argyle keeper was able to make the save.
Soon afterwards the final whistle put Argyle out of their misery, and we had moved up to second place in the table, at least for now. Where we will remain unless Burnley beat Millwall by a three goal margin this afternoon at the New Den. And for the second successive week QPR helped us by holding a promotion rival to a draw, this time Sunderland,
Meanwhile a hapless Argyle dropped into the relegation zone, amidst all the bleating on their forum about their extensive injury list, etc. But despite the quality of the opposition, we can still take this as a sign that this team is really starting to gel, as Daniel Farke told Radio Leeds after the game.
"I'm not sure if I was ever involved in a game at this level with such statistics - I think there were nine shots goal and their expected goals was 0.0 and 0 corners for them. Yes we were in total control of the game, this was what I love when you are so dominant and have a really complex performance.”
"We needed 10 or 15 minutes to find our tactical positioning between the lines and our offensive roles behind the striker in order to create a few more gaps and chances against a back six in front of them. Afterwards we were all over them, created many good situations, scored three really good goals and could have done a bit more second half.”
Long may it continue.