Long grass, dry pitch, loud crowd: Brighton earned a good point at Leeds
Going to Elland Road to face Leeds players fighting for their Premier League existence was never going to be easy for Brighton.
I wondered if the Albion would find it similar to stepping into a gladiatorial arena. More than 34,000 home fans made quite the noise over the BBC Radio Sussex airwaves in a reminder of just what a big club Leeds are.
Leeds had certainly pulled out all the stops to make things even more difficult for Brighton. Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall reported that the grass was long and not much water had been sprayed on it before kick off.
This had been done to go someway towards preventing the Albion playing their normal slick football and it worked to a degree.
Leeds needed to do something to make up for missing two key players through suspension, something that Everton will now experience after they picked up two red cards for reckless tackles in defeat to Brentford.
There is much to play for on the final day of the season with the title, relegation and some European spots still to be decided.
The sun was shining at Elland Road and we were also told that Tony Bloom was in attendance, enjoying the weather with his shades in tow.
Leeds came flying out of the traps like greyhounds and Brighton seemed to be caught by surprise, making mistakes in possession.
It took the Albion 10 minutes or so to settle but once they did, they began to control the game despite the pitch not being in their favour.
Solly March had the Albion’s first chance but he scuffed off target the sort of shot you would expect him to normally score.
Three more chances came and went with luck not being on Brighton’s side, otherwise they could have put the game to bed in the first half.
Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Trossard produced some great play to create a close opportunity. Moises Caicedo was on the deck and just failed to get the ball over the line and Pascal Gross followed that up with another near-miss.
Not only would a goal give Brighton the lead, but it would also damage Leeds morale and shut up the loud home crowd. Danny Welbeck provided the moment in the 21st minute with a goal brilliantly set up by Yves Bissouma.
The Albion kept having chances. Mac Allister had a header which landed on the roof of the net and he then fired wide after Trossard moved the ball well into a dangerous area.
Leeds came back to finish the first half strongly. They had several corners to up the pressure. One of these attempts led to the first of three brilliant saves from Robert Sanchez, nothing less than superb goalkeeping.
1-0 at half time was not the score that Brighton deserved for their performance. Unfortunately, those missed shots were now history.
I expected Leeds to come out all guns blazing in their battle to avoid relegation, and if they did that then the worry was that Brighton would live to regret not taking at least one of those golden chances.
Raphinha was the man to step up for Leeds under the gorgeous Yorkshire sun. He came close to bringing the game level early in the second half and then had a free kick which Sanchez produced an outstanding save to keep out.
The ball looked certain to go into the top right corner until Sanchez made a cat-like leap to save the day. Years ago they used to call Peter Bonetti of Chelsea the cat; well, I think that nicknamed needs to be resurrected for our own dynamic goalkeeper.
Marc Cucurella was next to deny Raphinha with a recovery and interception which prevented perhaps another goal. By now, it was starting to sound as if the Albion were hanging on.
They still had a chance to make the game safe though in the final five minutes. Good play down the left resulted in a switch to the right and cross into the box for Welbeck to head home number two. Unfortunately, he headed just wide.
And then Leeds got the goal they needed. Joe Geldhardt just about managed to get the ball over to the back post where Leeds substitute Pascal Struijk nodded in.
Brighton had come within minutes of a 1-0 win and yet had to settle for a point. It just goes to show that in the Premier League, a one-goal lead is never enough and it is not over until the fat lady sings.
The result meant Leeds climbed out of the relegation zone ahead of the final weekend of the season. Brighton sit 10th with 48 points and one home game left to play against West Ham, where we will see if we can break the 50 points barrier in the Premier League for the first time.
It has been an excellent campaign and fingers crossed we can end it on a high. Onwards and upwards and Up the Albion!
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony
