Struijk and Joseph strikes end Blades unbeaten run
By Lewis Hannah
Leeds United made it 16 Yorkshire derbies without defeat on October 18, a run stretching back to January 2020, as second half goals from Pascal Struijk and Mateo Joseph ended Sheffield United’s unbeaten start to the season.
The game was marked by the tragic death of Former Sheff Utd defender George Baldock, with Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu and Blades captain Jack Robinson both laying wreaths in memory of the Greek international.
The first half was cagey, As Leeds were generally the better team, but Sheff Utd’s Hamer did manage a shot at goal after a mazy run through the defence, though it was blocked. The first real chance of the game came from the hosts, as Joe Rothwell played in Largie Ramazani, whose shot hit the outside of the post. Ramazani then forced a solid save out of Blades’ keeper Michael Cooper after dancing past the Sheff Utd backline.
Blades’ keeper Cooper and Kieffer Moore were both culpable for giving Brenden Aaronson and Willy Gnonto respectively the ball away in a dangerous position, but Aaronson’s effort was blocked by De Souza Costa, saving Cooper’s blushes, whilst Gnonto’s effort was gathered by Cooper, saving Moore from a poor moment.
Aaronson then fired over at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, whilst Sheffield Utd’s Harrison Burrows had a shot blocked by Joe Rodon, before Rodon was called into action yet again, blocking a shot from Ollie Arblaster, going behind for a corner in the early stages of the second half.
The deadlock was finally broken by the Whites, and from a corner no less, as Rothwell’s delivery was thumped in by Pascal Struijk, who scored his second goal of the season, as Leeds ended their run of failing to score directly from a corner in the championship. Coincidentally, it was Struijk who netted from a corner last, in Leeds’s 4-0 thumping of Ipswich at Elland Road back in December 2023, Leeds’s 222nd corner since saw them end that run.
Despite Chris Wilder making many changes, including a triple substitution when the game was still 0-0, nothing clicked for the Blades, and Leeds sealed the win in the 90th minute, as a perfectly weighted through-ball from Joel Piroe found substitute Mateo Joseph, who held off Sydie Peck, firing past Cooper to seal the three points for the Whites.
Sheffield Utd hadn’t conceded a goal in the Championship since August, with Michael Cooper racking up six consecutive clean sheets prior to tonight’s derby, but they were outdone by the Whites, as their unbeaten start to the season has ended.
Leeds and Sheffield Utd are now both on 19 points, the Whites in second on goal difference, and will take huge confidence in how they won in a dominant fashion. Meanwhile, Wilder will need to regroup with his team and work out where they went wrong before they travel away to Middlesbrough on October 23, while the Whites welcome high-flying Watford to Elland Road the day before.
