Star's return and youngster presence heads Leeds United positives from play-off final woe
Sunday’s play-off final defeat was a bitter pill to swallow - but there were some positives to glean in defeat.
The dust is yet to fully settle from Sunday’s gut-wrenching play-off final defeat, yet some Leeds United positives can be picked out from the Wembley gloom.
A huge regret for Leeds must be that the biggest of them only got 34 minutes plus stoppage time on the pitch. But Dan James made an impressive and admirable return from injury in Sunday’s defeat to Southampton which bodes well for the future.
Only the frame of the goal denied the Wales international winger a late equaliser, his thunderous strike crashing back off the underside of the crossbar to the agony of the huge Whites wall of Leeds fans behind that goal.
There was much more to his display than that too, James continually looking for the ball and clearly determined to make something happen in the bid to cancel out Adam Armstrong’s strike which proved the only goal of the game.
There was, ultimately, for James and Leeds no breakthrough, despite a warrior display from the 26-year-old who soldiered on after a nasty clash of heads with Kyle Walker-Peters. Post match pictures showed just how bad the blow clearly was, James having the battle scars to show from Sunday’s reverse.
But when the dust settles, James can be very proud of a season which featured 13 goals and seven assists, not bad for a player for whom ‘end product’ has always been questioned.
His display, other than United’s amazing support, was the undoubted main positive in defeat but there were others, most of which centred around youth.
Archie Gray was left in tears by the defeat yet began the game impressively, seemingly holding no fears of performing on the big stage. It’s very easy to forget that he is still only 18 years old and his potential remains huge. As too does Mateo Joseph’s who once again had to settle for a very late appearance from the bench as an 83rd-minute substitute.
Again, yet again, he impressed and the Spanish under-21 international forward must surely be destined for more minutes next term. He is, after all, incredibly, still awaiting his first league start.
James, Gray and Joseph aside, the positives from Sunday become harder to pick out, Joe Rodon’s usual battling display aside perhaps. After all, the only thing that mattered on Sunday was Leeds United getting back to the Premier League.
They haven’t and must now start all over again in the 2024-25 Championship season for which the bookmakers have quickly made the Whites favourites to win the league. Another positive? Not really. The odds can often mean nothing. Leeds were long odds to seal automatic promotion as the season entered the home straight.
There are, though, still at least some positives to take from Sunday’s defeat, let alone the season as a whole ahead of what is now a huge summer at Elland Road.