Wolves 1-3 Leeds United: The spectacle of a goal

Nobody has had more opportunities to celebrate scoring goals for Leeds United than Peter Lorimer. Histrionics, however, weren’t for Lasher. On the 238 occasions he burst the back of the net for Super Leeds, he stuck to the same simple celebration almost every time, standing with both arms aloft and clapping his hands above his head. But Lorimer never seemed to be applauding his own finishing prowess. It was as if he was applauding the spectacle of a goal itself.

After all, goals are really fun. Goals are why we trudge to stadiums around the country or arrange our weekend plans around sitting in front of the telly for ninety minutes. Even in defeat, particularly away from home, goals can sometimes salvage a semblance of satisfaction. And Leeds United haven’t been scoring enough of them recently.

Luckily Leeds were visiting Molineux this weekend, and there’s something about that strange corner of the midlands that stirs a sense of madness out of United. It doesn’t matter which obscure Football Manager regens are lining up for the opposition or who is in the Leeds dugout, the sight of those orange shirts unlocks the latent delirium in this club. And it happened once again. We scored a goal! Three of them! Can we play there every week?

Each of Leeds’ three goals against Wolves had its own charm and significance. From Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s exquisite header to Anton Stach’s goal of the season to Noah Okafor’s precision. The only thing missing at Molineux was a clumsy cartwheel — although while Stach can strike a free-kick to rival Luke Ayling’s atomic volley, the downright weirdness of his Instagram posts suggest he’s got the goofball in him to ape Bill’s awkward acrobatics later in the season.

Yet it all started so inauspiciously. Wolves’ early opener gave me haunting flashbacks to the type of goal Leeds conceded towards the end of Marcelo Bielsa’s reign as manager. Joe Rodon following his man and getting dragged out of defence, Sean Longstaff failing to track his runner from midfield, Ladislav Krejci — nope, me neither — taking advantage of the big gap in the backline and finishing past Karl Darlow. Were Leeds falling apart again?

The answer was a resounding fuck no. Maybe the clue was in the opening seven minutes before Krejci put Wolves 1-0 up. Through Gabi Gudmundsson’s early chance after a neat one-two with Stach, Leeds had already created a clearer sight of goal than in any of their previous three league games, only for Gudmundsson to roll the ball across the six-yard box to nobody when he really ought to have just kicked it at the goal. As Daniel Farke half-joked afterwards: “We’d worked so hard on this topic all week to force a goal and then we have Gabi one v one against the goalkeeper and I was thinking, ‘What the hell was he doing?’”

Thankfully Gudmundsson hasn’t been signed to score the goals this season, and he more than atoned for his early misjudgement with an excellent defensive performance that, coming so soon after his “own-goal of the century” cost his team a point at Fulham, suggests a mental fortitude that should serve him well in a Leeds shirt. Junior Firpo’s reinvention as a false three might’ve been entertaining in the Championship, but Gudmundsson’s refreshing commitment to being a proper left-back is what Leeds need in the Premier League.

Midway through the second half and with Wolves desperately trying to force a goal that would have made the final twenty minutes excruciatingly nervy, Gudmundsson spotted Jorgen Strand Larsen overlapping behind him into the penalty area and kept one eye on the run and one eye on the pass before making a perfect intervention. I’m not used to witnessing a Leeds United left-back do such textbook left-backing, and that in itself was worth celebrating as much as any of the goals.

It was just one part of another — goal aside — encouragingly solid and organised defensive display. Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk once again held their nerve and did the dirty work when needed. Karl Darlow made the saves he needed to make when Leeds needed him to make them. Ethan Ampadu was all bite in the tackle and intuition between the ears, constantly in the right place at the right time. But while those players deserve credit, this game was all about what happened at the other end of the pitch with the platform they provided.

Calvert-Lewin played with a devil on his shoulder, battling and barging like a bastard, albeit with a sly subtlety where Pat Bamford used to give away cheap free-kicks. He dragged Leeds back into the game with a beautiful header after a deflection took all the pace off Jayden Bogle’s cross, meaning the striker had to loop it over Jose Sa and into the bottom corner, which he made look far easier than he had any right to. What is there to say about Stach’s free-kick? It was fucking brilliant! Sa was standing on the ‘right’ side of the goal but would’ve had more chance stopping the rain falling from the sky. Noah Okafor was helped by Wolves giving the ball straight to Stach in their half of the pitch, but his finish possessed all the assurance Leeds’ attack has lacked so far this season.

Those goals gave Leeds a 3-1 buffer at the break that meant the second half could be a slog that Farke’s team simply needed to grind out. Okafor, Calvert-Lewin, Longstaff and Brenden Aaronson were all replaced — alongside the injured Bogle — looking knackered from a hard afternoon’s graft. But with three new players now off the mark with their first goals for the club and no doubt walking into training on Monday morning with a spring in their step, Leeds fans around the world weren’t only toasting the tonic of three sweet points, they were celebrating the promise that there might just be more to come. ⬢