Heidi's blog Fulham v Leeds United 13/9/25
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Fulham v Leeds United 13th September 2025 at Craven Cottage
Hopefully everyone has had a good international break. I took the opportunity to go to Germany to visit relations because when we were not allowed to go there for our preseason tour, I decided life was too short and I needed to do things whilst I can. I managed to spend quality time with them this way, some who I hadn’t seen for a long time. As always, I wore my Leeds things with pride all over Germany without any issues, plus my beret from AOF continues to attract lots of comments, in a good way.
After hearing we had injuries again it was going to be an unknown again for me, but I was happy to see Ampadu back in the team. With the game being in London, I said the team needed to think they were playing in Yorkshire to break the capital hoodoo, but I wanted a good performance from us.
Team: Darlow, Ampadu (captain), Struijk, Rodon, Gudmundsson, Aaronson, Okafor, Bogle, Longstaff, Stach, Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Nmecha for Calvert-Lewin (68), Harrison for Okafor (68), James for Aaronson (77), Gnonto for James (injured 89).
Subs not used: Meslier, Gruev, Tanaka, Bijol, Justin.
Leeds lost the game 1-0 in injury time with an own goal by Gudmundsson.
Attendance: 27,327, 2,700 Leeds fans.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Booked: Stach, Okafor.
It was good to see Leeds start off very well, carrying on with the battling performance against Newcastle. With the international break often causing us to lose focus when we returned to the domestic fixtures, it was a nice surprise. Calvert-Lewin had an excellent chance, but his header was straight at their keeper. Not sure whether it would have counted if it had gone in, due to one of our players being offside. Longstaff then had a long range shot that rattled the crossbar with another chance.
The second half saw Fulham come out a bit stronger as they started to put us under pressure, with Darlow pulling off a great save from a free kick awarded to Fulham. Darlow caught a header that went straight to him as Fulham tried to step up the pressure. They had an even better chance with their player in front of goal missing an open target then another great strike tipped over the bar by Darlow. Leeds should have been awarded a free kick, but the referee played on and the shot from Fulham came off Darlow, hit the post and away. In the closing minutes of the game, the ball had gone out for a throw to us but then the referee awarded it to Fulham instead after their manager complained. This decision came back to haunt us as from the corner the ball came to Gudmundsson, and his header flew past Darlow into the net. What a blow that was with two minutes of injury time left, as Leeds had played well and didn’t deserve to lose the game but sadly, we didn’t get the point we should have had. With Fulham getting the rub of the green with many decisions in that last quarter of the game that was frustrating, but I still thought we had done enough to get something out of it.
After a warm welcome by many of our fans to me today, this meant a lot. The atmosphere was excellent as we gave 90 minutes of vocal support from the terraces, and I had really enjoyed the day apart from the last couple of minutes obviously. The home support had been very quiet all game, and we only heard them when they scored. It was noticeable to see some of our fans to the left of us which brought some banter from our fans behind the goal. After being seen on TV in the crowd, I received plenty of messages from fans in Nigeria, Portugal, Malta, Finland/ Sweden plus others in this country showing the far reach of our support.
To come away from the game empty handed was a blow, but then the journey home by coach saw us hit by a traffic jam where we didn’t move for over an hour due to an accident, then another delay near Sheffield. As we got near Leeds, the heavens opened with a torrential downpour which meant dodging puddles back to the car. With lots of standing water on the way home I took it steady but got home safely. After getting up at 5.20am in order to get to Leeds for the coach, arriving home at just gone midnight, this meant it had been a very long day of 19 hours. The things we do to follow our team cannot be it underestimated. With another away game at Wolves next week, it’s imperative we get at least a point so see you there, LUFC – Marching on Together!
https://www.followmeandleedsunited.co.uk/
Sponsored by Clearwell Pest Control
https://www.clearwellpestcontrol.com/
Hopefully everyone has had a good international break. I took the opportunity to go to Germany to visit relations because when we were not allowed to go there for our preseason tour, I decided life was too short and I needed to do things whilst I can. I managed to spend quality time with them this way, some who I hadn’t seen for a long time. As always, I wore my Leeds things with pride all over Germany without any issues, plus my beret from AOF continues to attract lots of comments, in a good way.
After hearing we had injuries again it was going to be an unknown again for me, but I was happy to see Ampadu back in the team. With the game being in London, I said the team needed to think they were playing in Yorkshire to break the capital hoodoo, but I wanted a good performance from us.
Team: Darlow, Ampadu (captain), Struijk, Rodon, Gudmundsson, Aaronson, Okafor, Bogle, Longstaff, Stach, Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Nmecha for Calvert-Lewin (68), Harrison for Okafor (68), James for Aaronson (77), Gnonto for James (injured 89).
Subs not used: Meslier, Gruev, Tanaka, Bijol, Justin.
Leeds lost the game 1-0 in injury time with an own goal by Gudmundsson.
Attendance: 27,327, 2,700 Leeds fans.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Booked: Stach, Okafor.
It was good to see Leeds start off very well, carrying on with the battling performance against Newcastle. With the international break often causing us to lose focus when we returned to the domestic fixtures, it was a nice surprise. Calvert-Lewin had an excellent chance, but his header was straight at their keeper. Not sure whether it would have counted if it had gone in, due to one of our players being offside. Longstaff then had a long range shot that rattled the crossbar with another chance.
The second half saw Fulham come out a bit stronger as they started to put us under pressure, with Darlow pulling off a great save from a free kick awarded to Fulham. Darlow caught a header that went straight to him as Fulham tried to step up the pressure. They had an even better chance with their player in front of goal missing an open target then another great strike tipped over the bar by Darlow. Leeds should have been awarded a free kick, but the referee played on and the shot from Fulham came off Darlow, hit the post and away. In the closing minutes of the game, the ball had gone out for a throw to us but then the referee awarded it to Fulham instead after their manager complained. This decision came back to haunt us as from the corner the ball came to Gudmundsson, and his header flew past Darlow into the net. What a blow that was with two minutes of injury time left, as Leeds had played well and didn’t deserve to lose the game but sadly, we didn’t get the point we should have had. With Fulham getting the rub of the green with many decisions in that last quarter of the game that was frustrating, but I still thought we had done enough to get something out of it.
After a warm welcome by many of our fans to me today, this meant a lot. The atmosphere was excellent as we gave 90 minutes of vocal support from the terraces, and I had really enjoyed the day apart from the last couple of minutes obviously. The home support had been very quiet all game, and we only heard them when they scored. It was noticeable to see some of our fans to the left of us which brought some banter from our fans behind the goal. After being seen on TV in the crowd, I received plenty of messages from fans in Nigeria, Portugal, Malta, Finland/ Sweden plus others in this country showing the far reach of our support.
To come away from the game empty handed was a blow, but then the journey home by coach saw us hit by a traffic jam where we didn’t move for over an hour due to an accident, then another delay near Sheffield. As we got near Leeds, the heavens opened with a torrential downpour which meant dodging puddles back to the car. With lots of standing water on the way home I took it steady but got home safely. After getting up at 5.20am in order to get to Leeds for the coach, arriving home at just gone midnight, this meant it had been a very long day of 19 hours. The things we do to follow our team cannot be it underestimated. With another away game at Wolves next week, it’s imperative we get at least a point so see you there, LUFC – Marching on Together!
https://www.followmeandleedsunited.co.uk/
Sponsored by Clearwell Pest Control
https://www.clearwellpestcontrol.com/