They will have heard the roar all around Yorkshire. At 3.50pm yesterday Elland Road sounded as though a squadron of jumbo jets was doing a fly-by.
At that point, two minutes into stoppage time, the substitute defender Pascal Struijk had strained his neck to head a Joe Gelhardt cross down and over the line, just, of the Brighton & Hove Albion goal.
At that moment Leeds came back to life. People tumbled over seats in pure joy. Struijk ran to a corner and was mobbed by supporters and his team-mates. Substitutes from the bench raced to join in. A white flare was thrown on to the pitch.
Leeds United moved to 17th in the table, nudging ahead of Burnley, who had lost away to Tottenham Hotspur two hours before. There is a game in hand for Mike Jackson’s side, against Aston Villa on Thursday, and then there will be a final day shoot-out.
“They emptied their tanks and got that point, which could be a massive moment for us,” Jesse Marsch, the Leeds head coach, said. “We’ve given ourselves a chance going into the last match. I could see on their faces at half-time that we did not 100 per cent believe we could do it. I looked in their eyes and said we have to have no doubts, and push, and they did it really well. We’re alive for the last day regardless.”
Talk about a change in emotion. In the 85th minute the stadium had resounded to the chant of “Sack the board” and the name of Marcelo Bielsa, the head coach fired in February, when the team were 16th. It was a confused atmosphere — desperation for survival paired with irritation at being in such a precarious predicament.
Leeds were poor in the first half and energetic in the second. If they could have thrown a kitchen sink at Robert Sánchez in the Brighton goal in that second half, they would have. The goalkeeper had almost handed Leeds an opening goal when he dropped a corner with only two minutes gone. It ended with the Leeds captain, Liam Cooper, inadvertently clearing off the Brighton line from Gelhardt.
But once that moment had gone, Sánchez would threaten to break the hearts of those in white. There were two world-class saves, one in each half. Each time Leeds thought they had scored. Mateusz Klich smashed a shot from 20 yards through a crowd of bodies late in the first half. Sánchez somehow got across his goal and saved with his left hand.
It was just past the hour mark when Junior Firpo let fly with a rocket of a free kick, 25 yards from goal. This time Sánchez went flying to his right and just managed to get a strong hand to the ball, underneath his crossbar, to preserve his side’s lead.
They were massive moments. Leeds’s supporters know better than most the danger of falling out of the Premier League. They were relegated in 2004 and did not return until 2020.
They were marching on together before kick-off, when stars of yesteryear were paraded on the pitch. It helped raise the volume level of a ground always volatile and vociferous.
But this was a day when the patience felt like it had almost run out. For all that noise, there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. Losing three games and three players — Stuart Dallas to injury, and Luke Ayling and Daniel James to suspension — had eaten away at belief, and faith. On the one hand there was real volume in the crowd’s backing, especially from the hour mark, but then there were chants for the club to be sold. There had also been jeers for Rodrigo when he was robbed in a tackle by Yves Bissouma, and with some justification.
That was in the 21st minute, and the passage of play led to Danny Welbeck putting Brighton ahead. When Bissouma dispossessed Rodrigo, there was no sense of urgency, so the Brighton midfielder ran for 40 yards, unchallenged, and then slipped a through-ball to Welbeck.
Welbeck brushed aside a weak challenge from Diego Llorente, and then dinked a delightful chip over Illan Meslier from close range. When Rodrigo misplaced a pass three minutes later, he was jeered. When play stopped for Welbeck to get treatment and Marsch spoke to his players, Kalvin Phillips hurled his water bottle off the pitch in anger. Then came sarcastic cheers from the crowd for Rodrigo making a tackle.
Leeds found life after the interval. Raphinha and Jack Harrison shot over the bar, and Raphinha was narrowly wide after a flowing move with a cross from Rodrigo. There were no jeers then. Energy built, Gelhardt shot just wide in the 75th minute, and then, when two minutes of the six added on had been played, he did brilliantly to get around Lewis Dunk and cross to the far post, where Struijk was waiting.
“We fought for everything in one of the most hostile places you’ll get,” the Brighton head coach, Graham Potter, said. “In the first half we were really strong, attacked well and maybe could have got the second, which we needed. The second half was better for them than us, they had some opportunities. I can’t say the point wasn’t fair. Give Leeds credit. They pushed for their lives.”
