In the future we will look back on this day as one of the greatest in the history of our club, as Leeds battered Stoke City by a six goals to nil, before the result from Turf Moor confirmed our return to the Premier League and the wild celebrations at Elland Road could begin.
I had expected a fairly tough afternoon against a side who had improved in recent months under Mark Robins, with four wins out of the last seven games, but who still needed a few points to be absolutely safe from relegation. But they the visitors had a few injury problems, especially at left back, where they had to make do with playing Wilson-Esbrand, who wasn’t fully fit himself.
At least the hapless Wilson-Esbrand was spared having to face Dan James, as the Welshman was absent from the matchday squad altogether after his hamstrings suffered a reaction to his cameo appearance on Friday. I called it at the time, that it was an unnecessary risk to bring him on at a time when we were ahead in that game.
It’s frightening to think how exposed the Stoke defence would have been if James had been playing, but Bogle was more than happy to take advantage of the space on offer down that flank. As a whole Stoke had no answer to the pressure a fired-up Leeds put them under, getting constantly caught in possession and unable to track the movement of our strikers in the box.
So we began the game with an unchanged side, and any tension we might have felt before the start soon evaporated as they stormed into a two goal lead inside the first eight minutes. Tanaka got a touch on the ball as Stoke tried to move upfield on their right, and after two of their defenders failed to clear their lines under pressure Gnonto took possession. He slipped the ball to Solomon on the left, and his cross gave Piroe the simple task of firing into the corner of the net.
And it seems Piroe goals are like the buses, you wait a couple of months for one and then two come along at once. This time Stoke were trying to play out of defence on their left, but it was the same outcome. Jun-Ho was caught in possession by Bogle, and his ball inside found Piroe in plenty of space once again. He took a touch to steady himself, before calmly side-footing the ball past Johansson.
We then had a spell when Stoke seemed to have managed to establish a foothold in the game, passing to each other inside their own half to remind themselves what possession of the ball was like, to calm themselves down with a view to staging a comeback later. But that cunning plan was dashed when Leeds got the third goal in the 20th minute.
Gnonto collected a through-ball from Tanaka, and although the chance seemed to have gone when he scuffed and attempted pass to Solomon, it came back to him and he moved inside and found space to shot with his left. Johansson got down to save it, but was powerless as the ball rolled to Piroe just beyond the far post, and the Dutchman made no mistake as he hammered the ball into the roof of the net from close range.
A so he became the first player in Leeds United history to complete a hatrick so soon after the start of the game, which wasn’t a bad effort for a striker who had seemed to have run out of form since missing those two sitters at Portsmouth. We had pretty much sealed the victory already, but there was no let-up, and the fourth goal arrived on 26 minutes.
Bogle eluded the most feeble of tackles from Wilson-Esbrand, and we then had a slice of good fortune on a day when we didn’t really need it. The ball bounced off Firpo’s shin as he stumbled towards it, before looping up into the net as Johansson dived the other way, in the direction he would have expected the ball to go if Firpo had hit it properly.
I once wrote an article about ‘funny goals’ and that one definitely belonged there, as I couldn’t help busting out laughing when I watched the replay. The scoreline could have been even more emphatic as we did have a few other chances. Such as when an attempted clearance from a corner hit Tanaka in the face and came to Gnonto, but Johansson was able to get down and push the ball to safety. But the fifth did arrive four minutes before half-time.
Once again the goal came from pressurising the defender in possession, and after the ball came back of Piroe he sent it goalwards, where Aaronson impeded Berger’s attempt to clear, without touching the ball himself. I thought Aaronson must have been offside, as he was certainly interfering with play at the least, but I can see on the replay that he ran from further back, so the goal stood.
We eased off a bit in the second half with the game already won, while Mark Robins replaced his three worst performing players in the interests of damage limitation, but to prevent a complete anti-climax we scored a sixth goal just before the hour mark.
Solomon worked his way into space to curl a cross into the box from the left, and once the defence had completely lost track of Gnonto’s movement in the area he was left with the simple task of heading past Johansson from close range. After that it was only a question of whether we could match or beat the season’s biggest win, the 7-0 over Cardiff.
That didn’t materialise as the substitutions began, with Piroe allowed to have his ovation as he left the field to be replaced by Bamford, and Ramazani came on for Gnonto, the Belgian seemingly back in favour after being publically criticised by Farke. Then the two full backs were rested after their hard work, with Byram and Schmidt taking to the field.
And finally there was an emotional moment as Harry Gray came on for his first team debut for the last four minutes, in place of Aaronson. Shortly afterwards the final whistle put Stoke out of their misery, and our ecstatic fans filed out to find a pub they could squeeze into to watch the game between Burnley and Sheffield United.
Only a win for the Blades could delay our promotion party, though I will admit that as that game went into injury time I was hoping they would equalise. On the grounds that a draw was still enough to confirm our promotion, and by then we had the luxury of starting to think about finishing above Burnley to claim the EFL Championship.
That didn’t happen, but it mattered not to the thousands who came back out to celebrate wildly in Lowfields Road, in the space in front of the East Stand, waving flags and letting off yellow, white and blue flares. We’ve suffered all the ups and downs of following Leeds over the years, but these are the days that make it all worthwhile!