Leeds, Sheffield United and 12 crazy minutes that changed the race for the Premier League

ELLAND ROAD, LEEDS — The cliché states that a league season is a marathon not a sprint and with 46 matches the Championship is a relentlessly uphill course. Yet the question of which Yorkshire club joins Norwich in the Premier League next season may have been settled in a dozen minutes.

On a sunlit spring Saturday, time was draining away. Leeds were losing 2-1 at home to Millwall while 45 miles further south, Sheffield United were beating Bristol City by the same score. Had those results held, Sheffield United would have gone four points clear of Leeds with seven matches remaining.

The results did not hold. With 19 minutes left, Luke Ayling equalised for Leeds while at the same time, Andreas Weimann scored his second for Bristol City. The timing of Weimann’s third and Pablo Hernandez’s second for Leeds was almost identical. The twin 3-2 results represented a six-point swing. Where Sheffield United might have led by four, they now trailed by two.

Championship table

With 20 minutes left…

At the final whistle…

The argument that both clubs are guaranteed a place in the play-offs does not wash in Yorkshire. Between them, Leeds and Sheffield United have entered the end-of-season lottery 10 times and never emerged winners.

Facing a Millwall side dangling precariously on the edge of the relegation zone and who ought to have been crushed by the manner of their defeat to Brighton in the FA Cup quarter-finals, a sold-out Elland Road was a mixture of aggression and nervousness. Before kick-off, the East Stand held up cards that spelled out the word “Believe”. Clubs that are confident of their own destiny do not need to believe. They know.

When David Martin, whose error had cost Millwall a place at Wembley, saved Patrick Bamford’s penalty, Leeds began to wonder. Liam Cooper conceded a spot-kick, Ben Marshall converted it. Millwall were leading, Sheffield United were leading, the gap began to yawn.

The good, the bad and the Leeds

Marcelo Bielsa is a coach who analyses every statistic the game has to offer. Before kick-off, he had pointed out that this season Leeds had missed 250 chances. “The top clubs convert one in three, the bottom ones take one in five,” he remarked. On Saturday, Millwall had three chances and scored from two. Leeds had 18.

The theory about Bielsa’s teams is that they are so intensely drilled that they fade as the season reaches its climax. However, what brought Leeds their win was the sheer intensity of their play in the closing 20 minutes.

Read more: Will Leeds United’s form implode – or is ‘Bielsa burnout’ just a myth? An investigation

The cross, delivered by Barry Douglas, that produced Ayling’s equaliser was from a ball that Millwall’s defence thought was going out of play. There was similar commitment from Tyler Roberts, whose sister was at the game as a mascot, to produce the winner for Pablo Hernandez.

The 33-year-old was said by Bielsa to be a man of few words and they did not extend to suggesting that his two goals were a deft answer those who wondered why he was not in the EFL’s team of the year.

Hernandez’s team-mate, Pontus Jansson, whose inability to shut up after being booked risked reducing Leeds to 10 men, took to Twitter to make the point for him.

SKY: Pablo not in team of the year
Pablito: Ok, hold my beer
pic.twitter.com/k9NoEtKg1K

— Pontus Jansson (@PJansson5) March 30, 2019

A fortnight before, after they had beaten Leeds in the rain at Elland Road, the intensity of Sheffield United’s celebrations had angered the home dressing-room. “Hearing the Sheffield boys, it was as if they already think they’re up,” Bamford had said. “Nothing is written in stone yet.”

It still isn’t but the final places are being sketched out and the ink is beginning to dry.