Szmodics goal denies Leeds chance to go top

Sammie Szmodics’ late goal gave relegation-threatened Blackburn Rovers a shock victory as Leeds United again failed to take a chance to go top of the Championship.

Keeper Aynsley Pears’ long kick was flicked on by Sam Gallagher to Tyrhys Dolan, whose excellent pass put Szmodics through.

Szmodics coolly slotted past keeper Illan Meslier to leave the Elland Road crowd stunned and lift Rovers six points clear of the bottom three ahead of the 15:00 BST kick-offs.

For the second time in the space of a few days, leaders Leicester losing handed both Leeds and Ipswich chances to go top.

Leeds failed to take that opportunity in midweek, managing just one shot on target during a goalless stalemate at home to Sunderland on Tuesday and Ipswich also drew 0-0 at home to Watford 24 hours later.

The Suffolk side will, however, go top if they get at least a point at home to Middlesbrough later on Saturday.

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Following Leicester’s 1-0 loss at Plymouth on Friday evening, Leeds were determined not to fluff their lines again.

But Blackburn were also looking to make amends, having been thrashed at 5-0 at Bristol City and they defended well, frustrating the raucous home crowd.

Pears kept out first-half strikes from Willy Gnonto and Connor Roberts, while Ilia Gruev missed a decent chance for Leeds when he headed wide of the near post after good work on the left by Crysencio Summerville.

The visitors were happy to defend in numbers and did not threaten until a counter-attack five minutes before half-time.

Szmodics pounced on Summerville’s under-hit pass to Roberts and darted towards the left-hand edge of the penalty area before seeing his low shot pushed away by Meslier.

Although Leeds were straight back on the front foot after the interval, with Gnonto firing just wide, they survived two major second-half scares.

After Meslier gave the ball away with a woeful throw, Joe Rankin-Costello blasted narrowly wide.

And a miraculous piece of defending by Roberts – again after Leeds gave the ball away – then prevented a certain goal.

Szmodics, on the right of the penalty area, centred towards Dolan, who was denied a simple close-range finish by Roberts somehow managing to divert the ball away from him.

Leeds went close on three occasions before Szmodics’ winner: Pears denied Junior Firpo, Gnonto was just unable to get a touch at the far post to Daniel James’ shot and Patrick Bamford headed a James cross over the bar.

As Daniel Farke’s side desperately sought an equaliser, they appealed in vain for a penalty when Bamford went down in the box in the final moments, with a member of the Leeds coaching staff red-carded for his angry reaction in the technical area to the spot-kick not being given.

Blackburn boss John Eustace told BBC Radio Lancashire:

“I’m very proud. The effort the boys have given me since I came in has been outstanding.

“Without the ball we had a gameplan. We knew they’d take more risks as the game went on and it was a fantastic bit of play to score the goal.

“We’ve got a quality team. Wednesday [losing 5-0 to Bristol City] was a bit of a blip. It’s very evident that we’re difficult to play against.

“It’s important that we keep working hard, sticking together, and we’ve got three massive games coming up and know we still need points.

“The only way you get success is if you stick together. We had a really rough time on Wednesday but the togetherness we showed – everyone thought we’d come here and lose – was tremendous.”