Aaaand breathe! One point would have been enough to lift Leeds back to the top of the Championship on Wednesday night, but all three were required for the sake of everyone’s sanity. Because let’s face it, you were nervous, weren’t you? I know I was, anyway. Losing to Portsmouth was easy to write off as a blip as long as Leeds won their next game, which only begged the question… what the hell would happen if we didn’t win? After all, we are officially at the stage of the season when players are referring to the remaining fixtures as ‘nine more finals’.

In theory, Millwall were the worst possible opponents to test that question against, already victors against Leeds in the league and cup this season and so often the bane of our Champo purgatory. But Millwall under the lights no longer feels as ominous as it once did for Leeds, particularly when their meagre away following has shared a taxi to get to Elland Road. Likewise, the home crowd only got a couple of minutes to worry about the prospect of Leeds fucking this up before Manor Solomon’s cross deflected off Millwall’s giant captain Jake Cooper and was palmed into his own net by ‘keeper Lukas Jensen. Were we really worried about this lot?

With Millwall gifting Leeds an early opener, the rest of the first half was hardly enthralling. Daniel Farke said afterwards that having lost at Portsmouth he wanted to use the opening 45 minutes to “return back to our best defending”, so consider it a mini-repeat of Norwich (A) in last season’s play-offs, only with some bozo from Bermondsey giving us a goal. And to be fair to Leeds, their defending was much better than it was against Portsmouth, Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk playing with a combined calm that we haven’t seen since Ethan Ampadu’s most recent injury.

The first half would have also felt much more exciting had Joel Piroe’s slaloming run and finish not been ruled out for a marginal offside call on Brenden Aaronson in the build up. After initially saying he “could be relaxed” about the decision in his post-match presser, Farke then went on a rant that boiled down to: with Leeds having received an apology from the EFL earlier in the season for the same official incorrectly ruling out Wilf Gnonto’s late goal against Coventry, the lino should have wound his neck in against Millwall. Still, it was just nice to be reminded of the existence of Brenden Aaronson; after two anonymous performances in his last two games, he was much improved against Millwall due to the simple fact that I noticed him playing and getting on the ball.

If the first half was used to reset, then the second half thankfully showed more glimpses that were recognisable as this Leeds side at its most effective. What could have been an apprehensive 45 minutes was instead an emphatic suffocation of the opposition, Joe Rothwell and Ao Tanaka returning close to their usual high standards and dominating the midfield both in and out of possession together. Rothwell’s tackle and driving run forward was instrumental in the opening goal and he was involved again in the slick keepball that led to Leeds’ second, Junior Firpo’s cutback from the left eventually met by Tanaka on the edge of the box cracking the ball into the top corner.

Tanaka celebrated by polishing Firpo’s left foot, but the goal was all down to the magic of Ao’s right. The strike was so sumptuous it made the 85 preceding minutes worth the wait, and made Farke punch the air and shout “woo!” on the touchline. Maybe we all need to remember to be a bit more Ao Tanaka for the remaining nine games of the season. Of course, these last few weeks are going to be stressful, but just imagine how much more nervous you’d be if we didn’t have the coolest footballer in the division. ⬢

(Photograph by Owen Humphreys, via Alamy)