Leeds United secured a 2-0 win over Millwall on Wednesday night to re-assert their dominance in the race for automatic promotion and the Championship title.
After drawing against West Brom and losing to Portsmouth, Leeds had surrendered a five-point lead over Sheffield United. But The Blades left Chris Wilder furious on Tuesday, unable to beat Bristol City at home.
Leeds had the chance to go two points clear with a win against a Millwall side that had beaten Leeds on two occasions already, this season. But The Whites did just that, scoring early on through an own goal.
Manor Solomon’s cross was deflected into Millwall’s net first by Jake Cooper, then by Lukas Jensen. Ao Tanaka finally got Leeds’ second, curling home from the edge but Joel Piroe was left frustrated last night.
Joel Piroe’s Instagram post after frustrating night for Leeds man
On Sunday, Piroe missed two golden chances to score as Leeds could only watch Portsmouth cruise to a 1-0 win at Fratton Park. He will have been desperate to add to his tally on Wednesday, and he almost did.
He found the back of the net only to see the linesman have his flag up. Frustratingly, replays showed that Brenden Aaronson was onside when he laid on an assist – prompting Aidy White to criticise the officials.
It would have been a gorgeous goal and see Leeds score a second in the first half, though it was ruled out. Despite that, Piroe posted a three-word message on Instagram that Leeds fans will absolutely love.
He said: “9 more finals”.
Another reason for Joel Piroe to be frustrated on Wednesday
Norwich City suffered a 3-2 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, but Borja Sainz was in among the goals once again for The Canaries as the Spanish winger opened the scoring at Carrow Road.
Joel Piroe’s stats for Leeds in win vs Millwall:
- 89 minutes played, 7.2 FotMob rating
- Two shots, three touches in Millwall box, one (unfairly) disallowed goal
- 44 touches, 24 successful passes, 30 attempted
- Two defensive actions, four recoveries
- Two duels won, two duels lost
It sees Sainz go to 16 goals for the season, one above Piroe. Had there been VAR or the officials had not made a mistake, Piroe would have been sitting on the same amount of goals – very hard done by.
But Piroe is a laid-back character and he will get over this ahead of Saturday’s trip to face QPR. A crucial game now, that Leeds need to win to remain top going into the March international break next week.
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
