Leeds United suffered a 1-0 defeat to Stoke City away from home on Wednesday night and Patrick Bamford was at the centre of it, missing a penalty – and Jermaine Beckford gave his immediate verdict.
Daniel Farke made three surprise changes ahead of the game, bringing in Ilia Gruev, Jaidon Anthony and Willy Gnonto for Glen Kamara, Cree Summerville and Dan James. A decision that backfired on the boss.
Leeds were dire in the first half and although they had chances, they were nowhere near their brilliant best. The changes, made just before 70 minutes, immediately sparked some life into the Leeds side.
Summerville was one of those, curling an effort wide. But it was Georginio Rutter sliding Bamford in, that saw the England striker win a penalty. Clever striker play, using his body shape to win the spot kick.
He chose to take it himself – looking to put right what went wrong against Newcastle towards the end of last season. But he blazed it over the bar. Five minutes later, Stoke scored the only goal of the game.
Beckford gives immediate verdict, Bamford misses Leeds penalty
Leeds pushed hard towards the final whistle to get a late equaliser, Ian Poveda even coming off the bench for a rare outing. But, it was not to be and Leeds suffered their third league loss of the season.
Speaking immediately after the defeat to Alex Neil’s side on Sky Sports, Leeds icon Beckford said he felt sympathy for Bamford given what he has been through – but also declared himself frustrated at the loss.
“Frustrated. I feel for him. You’d hope for his sake he puts his foot through the ball, keeps it hard, low. That was the turning point. 75th minute, five minutes later and Stoke go down the other end and score.”
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
