Leeds United performance v Preston slammed despite player’s ‘moment of madness’

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Leeds United lost 2-1 away at Preston North End in the Championship this afternoon, after a ‘moment of madness’ at Deepdale.

Leeds United headed to Preston North End today, looking to extend on their positive run of form and build on their impressive 4-0 win over Ipswich Town last time out.

Daniel Farke‘s side had lost just one of their last 10 going into today and sat in 3rd place of the Championship table ahead of kick off, looking to close what was a seven-point gap to Ipswich in 2nd at the start of the day.

Though it proved to be a frustrating day at the office for Leeds who played out a fairly uneventful, albeit close first half, before Illan Meslier‘s sending off in the 53rd minute changed the complexion of the game.

The Frenchman was shown a controversial straight red card after putting his hand in the face of Preston attacker Milutin Osmajic, with Alan Browne then heading the ball past substitute goalkeeper Karl Darlow just minutes later.

Pascal Struijk levelled things with a penalty in the 83rd minute, but a curling effort from Preston’s Liam Millar on the stroke of injury time sealed a win for the home team.

Beren Cross critical of Illan Meslier after ‘moment of madness’

After such an impressive win over Ipswich beforehand, this result will be a very difficult one for Leeds United and Farke to take.

And the German will no doubt be frustrated at Meslier’s sending off; possibly frustrated at both the decision from referee Josh Smith and at Meslier’s initial raising of the hand.

But journalist Beren Cross says Meslier has ‘let the team down’ following his sending off, posting on X after full-time:

Meslier to blame for Leeds United defeat at Preston?

Whether the sending off is soft or not is besides the point; Meslier broke the laws of the game and the referee had to react.

So like Cross says, Meslier has let his teammates down with a moment to forget in today’s game, and Farke will no doubt have something to say to the 23-year-old.

Thankfully for Leeds, Karl Darlow is a very capable and experienced replacement for Meslier and he now looks set for at least a three-game run in the side.

If he impresses then he could yet keep Meslier out of the XI, so it’ll be interesting to see how Darlow performs over the next couple of weeks.

Up next for Leeds United is a trip to West Brom on Friday night in what is a real crunch match in the Championship’s top six.