A cold steel grey day welcomed the visitors to Sheffield. Despite the conditions, the condition of the pitch would have found favour with the Leeds management who have endured poor pitches over recent matches. In midfield, Jack McGahan lined up alongside Josh Copley, Tyler Thompson and Callum Elson with Sheldon Muzvidziwa and Oliver Armitage up front. From the start, the Sheffield side seemed hungrier for the ball and got their passing game going to better effect. Most of their good work was coming down Leeds' right hand side but despite the dominance in possession, the Leeds defence were not being unduly troubled. Conlon commanded his area and displayed some brave goalkeeping when put under pressure by the Sheffield forwards. Leeds were not without endeavour and as the first half wore on the game began to even out. Both Copley and Muzvidziwa were making some good runs down the Leeds left and testing the Sheffield defence who, like Leeds, were equal to the challenge.
Leeds were restricted to long range efforts on goal throughout the first half. Excellent work rate from Elson and McGahan relieved some of the pressure on the Leeds defence. Armitage and Muzvidziwa were largely spectators in the first half as chances to impose themselves on the game were few. Despite the better of the play in the first half, Sheffield were unable to capitalise and Leeds saw it through to the whistle with a clean sheet.
The second half saw Sam Vasey come on for Armitage, Liam Dyer replace Copley and Dan Resendez on for Conlon in goal. Aaron Wilcock replaced Flynn. Leeds were happy to soak up the pressure, which reflected well on the performance of Shelborn, Haigh and Barrett at the heart of defence. However, Leeds were finding it difficult to get some quality long range balls up to the front to allow Muzvidziwa and Vasey to test the Sheffield defence.
Resendez was the busier of the two keepers and made it difficult for Sheffield to find the target on a number of occasions with some timely runs off his line to narrow the angle. Leeds' midfield was battling extremely hard to win the ball and if they were handing out medals for work rate then Elsom would have found himself on the podium. Leeds began to string some more passes together as the second half progressed. Copley came back on for Shelborn as Leeds looked to get a result from the game. With 10 minutes to go Leeds cleared the ball for a corner and as the ball came in it struck a defender and deflected into the net to make it 1-0 to Sheffield.
Leeds responded and went in search of an equaliser. With their best display of the game Leeds won a succession of corners that Sheffield were struggling to deal with. A number of goalmouth scrambles ensued one of which looked to have seen the ball go over the line but the goal was not given. Eventually, the laws of physics were restored and Muzvidziwa struck the ball from a Leeds corner to make it 1-1 with what was practically the last kick of the game.
Not a great game but no less than Leeds deserved. Reflecting after the game Doc Towers felt that Leeds should have attacked more throughout the game, which was there for the winning. "We need to be able to kick the ball out of our half and into theirs more rather than running it out".