Saturday’s FA Cup tie may have been the first competitive meeting between Leeds United and Harrogate Town, but it wasn’t Harrogate’s first visit to Elland Road.
LS11’s theatre hosted its first football match 126 years, eight months and 19 days ago. Harrogate were there that day, Leeds were not.
A crowd of 3,400 had gathered at what used to be known as the Old Peacock Ground for the West Yorkshire Cup Final on April 23, 1898 between Hunslet and Harrogate. As was the case over a century later in the third round of football’s oldest cup competition, the North Yorkshire outfit were under siege from the first minute to the last.
It’s almost uncanny how many similarities there were between the Elland Road curtain-raiser and Harrogate’s visit on Saturday, two games the visitors lost 1-0. The Yorkshire Evening Post on April 25, 1898 could have been referring to Saturday’s match when reporting: “Although Hunslet only won by one goal to none, the issue was never really in doubt.”
“From first to last, the game resolved itself into a battle between Hunslet forwards and the Harrogate defence,” the report continued. “Hodgson, the Harrogate custodian, performing brilliantly between the posts. Had it not been for his masterly display, the Hunslet men must have scored time after time.”
Harrogate’s James Belshaw was neither the man of the match nor behind a series of inexplicable saves, but attention was firmly fixed on the goalkeepers. One week on from Leeds’ 3-3 draw with Hull City in the league, a game Illan Meslier will hope was his nadir, veteran stopper Karl Darlow knew he was auditioning for the club’s Championship gloves.
A clean sheet was never going to be the benchmark for a first-class performance against League Two opposition; focus instead would be on his distribution, decision-making, reaction speed, shot-stopping and set-piece authority.
Karl Darlow with Daniel Farke following the Carabao Cup first-round match between Leeds United and Shrewsbury Town at Elland Road in August 2023 (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
There was some hesitation under a high free-kick in the 27th minute, though half of that problem was the communication between him and another of Saturday’s rare starters, Isaac Schmidt. The ball bounced and was eventually claimed by Darlow, but it was the sort of rustiness expected from a goalkeeper whose last competitive outing for his club was five months ago.
The second half was more eventful. A rare effort from Dean Cornelius was deflected by Pascal Struijk and forced some late adaptation from Darlow to collect. More concerningly, the Wales international came for a 53rd-minute corner and did not catch it. Catching corners, or not coming unless certain, was a prerequisite.
Better moments followed. Ethan Ampadu’s rare lapse with the ball allowed James Daly to charge his pass into the path of Josh March, whose snapshot needed a quick reaction from Darlow. That encouraging save was followed by his best goalkeeping of the match.
Darlow had to get it right when he burst off his line to meet March with the ball, bearing down on him one-on-one. Mistimed, it would have been a red card or goal but he got there first and showed the sort of authority Hodgson, Harrogate’s 1898 stopper, would have been proud of.
At the other end, Leeds had the same issues Hunslet had as Elland Road’s first winning team. The Leeds Mercury’s 1898 report said of Hunslet’s attack, “while superior to that of Harrogate, was nothing to boast about and there was a hopeless lack of accuracy and sting about their scoring power.”
While United have been guilty of having a ‘hopeless lack of accuracy and sting’ at times this season they were, nevertheless, a little better than that on Saturday. The fourth-tier visitors were hardly cut to ribbons and, like their predecessors over a century ago, defended well, but Manor Solomon and goalscorer Largie Ramazani did just enough to unbalance Harrogate.
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In recent weeks, Solomon has improved, resembling the talisman many expected him to be when he arrived in August. For Schmidt, another of Saturday’s standout performers, this was the first time he had entered the radar. Overlooked a few times when manager Daniel Farke needed a stand-in full-back, the Swiss has had to wait more than four months for his full debut.
Schmidt’s dynamism unsettled Harrogate’s rigid shape. His underlapping drives from right-back repeatedly created attacks inside the penalty box, while his overlapping offered an option for his team-mates.
Jayden Bogle, Sam Byram and, now back from injury, Junior Firpo are above him in the full-back hierarchy, but the summer signing showed enough on Saturday to suggest Farke can play him against deeper defences in the second half of this season.
Little time will be spent dwelling on a cup win over obliging neighbours from League Two. Attention is immediately on next Sunday’s clash with Sheffield Wednesday. Farke all but confirmed Meslier will be back between the sticks for that match.
He and fans will hope to see something akin to Hodgson’s display in 1898. As the Ripon Gazette put it back then: “It is doubtful if Leeds has ever witnessed a finer display of goalkeeping than that given by Hodgson.”
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
