What a superb afternoon yesterday at Elland Road! Leeds dismantled a hapless Cardiff City side to run up a 7-0 scoreline, our biggest win since the famous victory over Southampton in 1972.

As I made my way to the game I was confident that we would come out on top, but I thought they might be one of those sides we found difficult to break down. After a change of manager they had improved from the awful side I saw down there in September, and with 30 points from the 23 games since they had climbed out of the bottom six.

There were two changes to the starting line-up. Rothwell came back in for Gruev, so either the Bulgarian was still feeling the knock he took in the last few minutes at Burnley, or Daniel Farke thought he didn’t need to protect his back four in a game when we were going to have most of the possession. The other saw Firpo back in place of Sam Byram.

And any thoughts I had of a tight game were swept aside in the opening quarter of an hour, with the Cardiff defence constantly troubled by the pace of our attacks, and our constant willingness to win the ball whenever they tried to break out of their own half. And it took only six minutes to get ourselves in front, after Piroe’s superb through ball sent James racing clear.

James seemed to get slightly knocked off balance after a slight touch from the keeper as he went past, but instead of going down he steadied himself to find Aaronson in the centre. The American still had to pick his spot between the defenders who had raced back onto the line, but found the back of the net to put Leeds one up.

The second arrived seven minutes later, and also came from a ball from Piroe to James, this time down the right, with James’ cross was converted by Solomon at the far post. I had to look at the linesman before celebrating, but given James’ pace it was no surprise that he’d run through from being onside when the ball was played.

After the two early goals I was already starting to think about record scorelines, but then dismissed those thoughts as we went through to half time without any further scoring. It wasn’t for want of trying, with James going close with a couple of curling left foot shots after cutting inside, and Alnwick forced into a couple of decent saves.

We also had a goal disallowed, which a few of the fans in line with the offside call thought was the wrong decision. Cardiff did get forward a couple of times without troubling Meslier, and it now seems strange to say that at half time I thought we might need to get a third goal to properly put the game to bed.

But thankfully that arrived only five minutes into the second half. Solomon spotted Firpo racing down the left in front of him, and his excellent cross found James again running in behind a static defence, to put the ball into the net from close range. At the other end Meslier annoyed his social media critics by making a good save from Cardiff’s one decent attack, but normal service was soon resumed, with the fourth goal on 65 minutes.

Once again Leeds regained possession as Cardiff tried to play out, and after Solomon had turned to try to find an opening on the edge of the area, he fed Piroe. The Dutchman’s shot was saved, but James had his heel clipped as he raced through to get to the rebound, and the penalty was given. Prioe calmly stepped up to place the ball into the corner of the net, and Alnwick wouldn’t have saved it even if he had gone the right way.

With the game well and truly won, Farke began to make some changes, with an eye to our tricky midweek trip to face an in-form Coventry. Teams often take their foot off the gas in these circumstances and cruise through the rest of the game, but unfortunately for Cardiff a couple of our substitutes were in need of a goal, so there was no let up in our intensity.

Gnonto collected the ball on the right and ran past the disheartened Cardiff defence, and just when I thought he was being selfish by shooting from over 20 yards, the ball sped through a defender’s and past the unsighted Alnwick into the net. Soon after it occurred to me that we’d had goalscorers from five different countries, and there were several options still on the field to add to this stat.

So I was delighted when a sixth nationality was added to the list on 88 minutes. Stuijk was making a welcome return off the bench, and threaded and excellent ball between two defenders to find Firpo racing down the left, and another excellent cross gave Joseph the opportunity to score with a proper poacher’s finish, after his striker’s instincts had taken him into just the right spot.

Could we make it seven different countries? Belgium’s Ramazani seized on a defensive error to race into the box, but his shot went agonisingly past the far post. The announcement that five more minutes was greeted by a great roar form a crowd who knew that Cardiff were on the ropes, with cries of “we want seven!” and the team obliged right at the end.

Firpo managed his third assist of the day, this time from the middle of the field. Although I was yelling at him to shoot (to get his country on the board), he sensibly chose the much better option of playing the ball through to Piroe, and the Dutchman rolled the ball past the keeper into the far corner to complete the rout.

It was a shame we couldn’t have scored the seventh a bit earlier to allow for a passing move all round the field with the crowd shouting ‘ole’ at every touch, for the benefit of those too young to have seen that Southampton game in person. But I musn’t grumble after an otherwise perfect day.

With two of our promotion rivals also playing teams near the bottom I thought this win had merely maintained our position, but there was a bonus as I overheard a conversation on the way out. “I see Burnley drew again”. “Was it 0-0 by any chance?” It was, which must have delighted their long-suffering fans.

More importantly, that means we’re now five points clear of third place. Hopefully we can hand out a few more tonkings in the matches to come, to reduce the anxiety levels and help secure our place in the top two, but for now we can just take delight in this almost perfect performance.

reuters

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