Panini League • Square ball

Leeds United Women were beaten 2-0 at the Garforth by Chester-le-Street Town on Sunday and dropped to 6th on the final day of the league season. Despite their win, Town were relegated at the same ground where Hull City’s win over Leeds earlier in the week promoted them to the third tier. Every story needs supporting characters and this season United have been cast as one.

It’s not fun to steal the show every campaign. Last May, the relegation of the men’s team from the Premier League was a welcome relief from the worry and panic of all eyes on you for the third season in a row. The star turn this season has been different, but last day’s dismal defeat to Southampton left Rob wondering if he misses the days when Leeds United were mere extras filling the background.

The chorus can be fun too. For my sins, I once performed in a student pantomime of The Little Mermaid and was cast as a fan of a fictional underwater rock band, ‘Fishing for Chips’. I appeared in a scene and said in one line, “I love you Derek! Should I sign my rectum? Why is word for word seared into my brain seven years later? Because I was given a job and I gave it my all.

Could I do this week after week, year after year? After all, you want something to break the monotony. Like most things in life, balance is preferable. For the health of a football fan, I prescribe both drama and stability, but ultimately, I agree with Rob’s conclusion that if you have to choose between the two, it’s a lot more fun to have something to sweat about.

For the women’s side, the big question at the end of this season was (again): bottom of the top half of the table, or top of the bottom half? The final day did not bring the promotion they were hoping for, but the opportunity to improve on last season’s 6th place finish. Defeat to Town meant that Leeds more or less equaled their record from 2022/23, scoring a point less as they lost less often but failed to convert as many draws into wins.

They had fun, though, with more goals scored at both ends. Jess Rousseau fell short of matching Hull City’s Helen Lynskey to win the league’s Golden Boot, but she scored more than a third of United’s tally – although each would have meant more had it not been Leeds’ defense which has yet to recover. the departure of the all-white centre-back partnership of Bridie Hannon and Catherine Hamill, since replaced by a rotating cast whose pace has yet to be established.

On Sunday, the Whites’ backline could not prevent Chester-le-Street winger Jolie Donzo from claiming a starring role. Neither would her own teammates. After seeing her take on Jess Melrose and Lucy Turner to infiltrate the United box, none of the three unmarked blue shirts in the box called for a pass, leaving her to take the chance on her own. That’s star quality.

Originally from New York, Donzo was brought to the UK by the i2i international football academy, which fulfills the wildest British dreams of footballers around the world. For Donzo, that meant studying and playing for Northumbria University.

And it went well. She scored over 100 goals in her three years as a student footballer, while making fifteen appearances in Division One North this season. No wonder he jumped for joy after scoring Town’s first goal against Leeds, using wicked pace to beat Turner to the ball and throw past Jenny Ashton.

She helped the second as well, pulling all the strings in a performance that could give relegated Chester-le-Street hope of an immediate return to the fourth tier – were it not for the fact that Donzo’s next darting run will lead back everywhere. Atlantic, where he will take the next step in his football career at Coppermine United in Baltimore.

Division One North is full of stories like this. As long as teams are amateurs, with players not tied to money or contracts, success is slippery, threatening to disappear with the next whim or opportunity. Players are traded like Panini stickers.

Jolie Donzo was troubling United in a Middlesbrough shirt at the start of the campaign, arriving on Teesside in the summer at a time when Boro were on a huge winning streak. After Newcastle United clinched promotion from D1N with a squad bloated with the region’s best players, the Lady Magpies cut the pack – fickleness goes both ways and an ever-changing landscape cannot provide the stability that is key to player development. as team success.

Leeds United haven’t had a consistent starting eleven for some time. The Whites have wisely used the downtime between their promotion hopes and the end of the season to experiment with the squad well ahead of the new campaign which starts in August, with Jess Melrose and Molly Firth the latest fresh names. thrown on the team sheet.

United’s low-stakes final games of the season have been the perfect environment to blood the young duo, although after playing in a cup final in a different shirt just two weeks ago, they may not need it. Firth and Melrose were involved in the last ten minutes as Sheffield United Under-21s beat Chelsea in the final of the Professional Games Academy Cup, lining up Blues first-team player and Japan international Maika Hamano.

In the Blades pair, Leeds have a pair of budding talents who could go on to do great things at Garforth – but will they? Without resources, the Whites rely on the loyalty of the players when planning the future of the team. This was simple for Hannon and Hamill, who have both loved Leeds United since childhood – although eventually the lure of a more competitive set of football was too strong for Hamill, who switched his allegiance to level three. Fylde, where he finished the season at the top of their appearances list.

But loyalty to Leeds is by no means a given and so, while professionalization remains seemingly a distant dream, Leeds must find other cheap ways to keep players at the club if they hope to thrive in Division One North. ⬢