This match may not feature heavily in the post-season highlight reel if Leeds United are to be promoted back to the Premier League, but it’s a night that most fans who witnessed it won’t forget. You’ll be sitting around a beer-soaked pub table with your mates in years to come, sifting through a bag of crisps as someone mentions the win on a Friday night at Oxford and you’ll inevitably say: “Oh yeah, big one. Joe Rodon was class that night, wasn’t he?”

And he was. As was Jayden Bogle, Manor Solomon, Ethan Ampadu and the two lads from the Shropshire Whites who sat on top of a bus to watch the match from the cavernous, non-existent Kassam Stadium west stand.

Leeds United travelled down south for the forty-third match of this 2024/25 Championship season, one upon which so much is riding. Thanks to Sky’s insatiable desire for televised Football League action, Leeds were the last of the three promotion contenders to play on Good Friday. Burnley had won at Watford, helped by their opponent having two players sent off within nine minutes of Burnley making it 2-1, which is how it ended. Then a crumbling Sheffield United managed to squeak past relegation-bound Cardiff, winning 2-0 and leaving Leeds to do it for themselves.

Everything we think we know about Leeds United has taught us that this year’s promotion run-in was always going to be chaotic, no matter how well Daniel Farke’s side played in the first thirty five matches. Nerves settle in and bodies tire as the immense physical and mental effort required to play a full, successful Championship season takes its toll. But the body gives in before the mind and, thankfully, the Leeds players have shown in the last two weeks that they have the mental fortitude to carefully navigate these difficult matches.

Oxford presented Leeds with a similar set of problems to that of Luton two weeks ago. Physicality and danger from set-pieces meant there was always a chance Leeds would have to dig in for a battle of muscle and, more importantly, will. Cameron Brannagan’s effort from twenty yards had to be tipped away from goal by Karl Darlow in the opening minutes, which gave the home crowd reason to be optimistic, but those hopes were soon extinguished as Leeds began to exert control on the match.

Joël Piroe played Brenden Aaronson in on goal for Leeds’ best chance of the opening half hour, but Aaronson’s strike was well saved by Oxford ‘keeper Jamie Cumming. When Leeds did score, there was nothing Cumming could do about it. The move began with Rodon’s defence splitting pass for Bogle to run into space behind the defence. Leeds’ right-back then played the perfect ball across the face of Oxford’s goal and Solomon was there to finish. The goal fits the template synonymous with Farke’s Leeds this year, much like Dan James’ goal at Middlesbrough ten days earlier. The Bogle-to-Solomon cross, wide players cutting out the middlemen – figuratively – and doing it themselves.

It proved to be enough on a night when chances were few and far between for either side. Leeds did their utmost to win the match without burning the candle at both ends, which meant a one goal win had to suffice as it has done in each of their previous two matches. Doing enough helped Leeds navigate through basic mistakes like losing the ball in midfield, or tripping over it inside Oxford’s penalty area as both Junior Firpo and Willy Gnonto did.

Patrick Bamford’s introduction allowed the team, fans and everyone in between to breathe a sigh of relief as someone with experience of winning promotion with the emotional powerhouse that is Leeds United came on. Bamford did the experienced Bamford things: winning smart fouls, holding the ball up and acting incredulous after unnecessarily clattering a centre-back. It’s Pat Bamford 3.0 and he’s here to guide Leeds over the line.

Solomon and Bogle might pick up the headlines as the creative force, but maintaining a lead in the final fifteen minutes of game week 43 in a promotion season requires a player who has navigated those dark nights of the soul. Winning cheap free-kicks is always fun, in a slightly different way than watching Rodon appear on the right wing as the match became increasingly frantic.

This match should be remembered as one of Rodon’s finest nights in a Leeds shirt. His vision helped create the goal and he defended every one of Will Vaulks’ long throws like his career depended on it. He has often been seen as an on-pitch manifestation of the fans and that was never clearer than seeing him celebrate winning a late throw-in like it was an injury time winner. He is doing his utmost to make sure Leeds get over the line this time, undoubtedly motivated by the pain of losing at Wembley last year.

Oxford manager Gary Rowett’s last throw of the dice saw Stanley Mills come on as they searched for an equaliser. The Everton loanee and footballing nepo baby son of Danny Mills, young Stanley looked to put himself about, presumably spurred on by a pre-match phone call with his dad. “They were nasty about yer old man for some things he said on a podcast once, so give ‘em hell, son.” Probably not, but play along with it. As well as injury time sub Josuha Guilavogui slicing a clearance on the edge of his own box, Mills offered Leeds a final moment of anxiety, steaming in at the back post and spooning a header over the bar in the 98th minute, the final half chance on a night that was to be Leeds United’s.

The 26th league win of the season required Leeds’ bravery and composure at the end of a long Good Friday, and it was a just reward for the travelling fans, including those who watched the match from the roofs of buses in the Kassam car park. It’s all about the marginal gains and, for Leeds, their biggest asset is the hordes that support them everywhere they go. The team will need everything and everyone to help them over the line in the next week or so. Farke said that even “the guys who sell the tickets and drinks” need to be on it when Stoke City come to Elland Road on Monday. Here’s hoping that he’s right and those selling the drinks end up with the most lucrative overtime shift of their young lives.⬢

(Photograph by PA Images, via Alamy)