Marching down in Cardiff

Oh Leeds, it can never be simple can it?

Seven points clear of third coming into the restart. Fulham losing the early kick off against Brentford to give them the opportunity to go 10 points clear. Midfielder Adam Forshaw assuring fans that they would ‘piss the league’ (to paraphrase).

A trip down to Cardiff kicked off Leeds’s restart on Sunday, but things did not exactly go according to plan. A 2-0 defeat at the hands of a ‘gruffball’ side, with plenty of possession and two passing errors in their own half leading to the goals.

This is a tad harsh on the Bluebirds, however. While Leeds swarmed them, Cardiff remained resolute. Their stern and organised structure made it difficult for Leeds to play through them, and was ultimately what helped force Liam Cooper and Kalvin Phillips into making errors on the ball.

As ever with Leeds, though, they still created openings, although not many that were completely clear cut. The best opening fell to Jack Harrison after tidy work from Tyler Roberts to feed a cross to his feet roughly eight yards out.

Harrison nonchalantly side-footed the ball towards the corner of the net but as he started to wheel away in celebration, discovered that his own player had managed to block the shot on the line.

The player, of course, was Patrick Bamford, who managed to ‘out-Bamford’ himself - in a similar fashion to how Roy Keane managed to ‘out-Keane’ himself on Friday - by inadvertently preventing his team mate from scoring a goal.

The whole affair on Sunday was basically Leeds’s very own kryptonite. Raring to go and with the chance go 10 points clear in the automatic promotion spots, only to find themselves against a well organised defensive side - prime party poopers - in Cardiff.

All hope shouldn’t be lost for the Whites, though. The lack of penetration was in part due to Cardiff’s incredibly well organised and resilient display, which did superbly to marshal the threats that Leeds posed. Against a less stubborn side, it could easily have been a comfortable victory.

In fact, Leeds are actually in a better position than they were before the restart. They were seven points clear with nine games to go, now they’re seven points clear with only eight games to go.

They play Fulham next weekend and while the Cottagers may technically be greater opponents, they will most likely end up leaving a lot more room in defence for Leeds to exploit. It’s also the chance to directly put more of a gap between them and their rivals.

So the dream is very much still a likelihood for Leeds. With eight games to go last season, they were a point behind Sheffield United in third. So things are much rosier this time around, with the stage still set for Leeds to claim automatic promotion.

Although as recent history has shown with the Whites, nothing is ever really a guarantee.