Leeds go down to gut-wrenching defeat at Newcastle
Thursday, 8th Jan 2026 21:31 by Tim Whelan

Leeds took the lead three times with a spirited performance at St.James Park, so it’s desperately disappointing that we ended up with nothing from this game at Newcastle United.

Daniel Farke made two changes to his starting line-up for this game. We knew that Ampadu would be back from his one match suspension, but it was a surprise that Rodon returned from injury so soon, when we thought he’d be out until the middle of the month. We lined up as a 4-5-1, which suggested a fairly negative formation, but the way we played throughout the game was anything but.

We had the better of the opening period of the game, troubling the home defence with some neat passing moves, but more than once they broke down with an overhit cross that was far too deep for anyone to do anything with. One that did drop into the right spot was a free kick from Gudmundsson that Struijk headed just over the bar.

Newcastle did manage to put us under a bit more pressure as we approached the mid-point of...