Leeds extinguish Millwall’s fire as Joël Piroe double sets up dominant win

A midday kick-off to keep temptation and tempers as low as possible, with Leeds’s large travelling support slow to fill the top tier of the Den’s North Stand. As is customary, those in the corner of the Dockers Stand spent much of their Sunday lunchtime at 45 degrees to the play, instead regaling their visitors with chants often less than friendly and heartily reciprocated.

But as Millwall were kept at bay by an uncharacteristically organised defensive display from Leeds, the ire began to turn on their team, though the thickest bile was retained for the referee, Chris Kavanagh.

Leeds ended a miserable away record in SE16, having not won at Millwall in any of their last six visits. Having hired a two-time promotion winner in Daniel Farke, little had previously gone to plan in their quest to bounce back upwards. Their starting XI at the Den featured six survivors from last season’s relegation campaign. The transfer window has stripped down their squad but here there were healthy signs those who remain may have to stomach for the long fight ahead.

Millwall began with archetypal aggression, muscular striker Tom Bradshaw leading from the front. Leeds’s Luke Ayling and Pascal Struijk got in a tangle that enforced the early pressure they were coming under. Meanwhile, Illan Meslier’s previous problems under the lofted ball had clearly been part of Gary Rowett’s team talk, and an early mix-up saw the ball close to crossing the line when Bradshaw’s presence panicked the French goalkeeper. His blushes were eventually saved by the referee’s whistle.

When Ayling soon after dropped to the floor in the penalty box, Millwall fans bayed for a handball, only for the Kavanagh to wave it away. Perhaps in doing so he missed what looked a foul by Joël Piroe on Kevin Nisbet at the beginning of the move that led to Leeds scoring a high-quality first goal.

Joël Piroe slots in his first goal against Millwall. Photograph: Simon Davies/ProSports/Shutterstock

Piroe, set up by interchanges between Georginio Rutter and Wilfried Gnonto, completed it with a cool, dinked finish. Rutter, a club-record bust of a signing last season, looks far more comfortable at Championship level, a decent link-man key to both goals from Piroe. The two-goal Dutch striker, signed from Swansea in August, also looked the part as someone to fire Leeds into the promotion picture.

While home fans raged after the opener, confidence appeared to drain from their team. Archie Gray, 17, and Elland Road royalty as the grandson of Frank Gray and great nephew of Eddie Gray, looked to the manor born in anchoring midfield alongside Ethan Ampadu in his upright, rangy style. At the half-hour mark, barring a couple of flourishes, Leeds had quietened both crowd and opposition, threatening skies above echoing the quiet seethe of the home fans.

A promising opening win at Middlesbrough has given way to gloom and disquiet among Millwall fans, and Rowett’s experimental 3-4-1-2 formation was doing little to win over public opinion. Billy Mitchell, in front of the defensive trio, was overworked in dealing with Leeds’s slick passing and Farke could be disappointed his team did not have more of a half-time advantage.

Leeds’s problem last season, and this so far, has been their defensive record. Millwall, as expected, began the second half like a runaway train, hurling themselves into the fray. Meslier showed off his reflexes in saving low and well from Bradshaw but the threat soon ebbed. The home fans built a wall of ear-bleeding noise, an ungodly racket for a Sunday afternoon but Leeds, with admirable concentration, held their nerve amid such bedlam. His teams’ attack blunted, Rowett made a triple substitution on 63 minutes, throwing on Zian Flemming, Duncan Watmore and Romain Esse.

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To little avail, as the visitors remained deadly on the break, and Crysencio Summerville was replaced by another speed demon in Dan James. Kavanagh invited the anger of Leeds when waving away what looked a handball from Murray Wallace but all was forgotten when Piroe swiftly scored his second.

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Leeds’s counter overloaded Milwall through the centre, James swung and missed from Rutter’s pass and Piroe picked up the pieces. The home stands emptying fast, Rutter completed the rout, scoring the goal his performance deserved: after another counterattack, James’s ball spinning to him off Brooke Norton-Cuffy and sending even Millwall fans off into south London gloom.