One year has passed since a decisive day in the 2018/19 automatic promotion race as Leeds United made the trip to Griffin Park to face Brentford, looking to keep up the pressure on Sheffield United in second place.

The 2018/19 promotion race was perhaps one of the most topsy-turvy battles in recent history with Leeds, Sheffield United and Norwich City all trading blows throughout the season and fighting over two automatic promotion places, with the Whites holding top spot for a large portion of the campaign.

The second half of the season was not kind to Leeds as their early season dominance faded slightly and saw the other two take full advantage. Inconsistency in the league saw Leeds hand the impetus to Sheffield United after losing to them at Elland Road in March, only to regain their place in the top two after toppling the Blades’ local rivals, Sheffield Wednesday in mid-April.

It was Leeds’ promotion race to lose with a somewhat mixed run-in between them and Premier League football, however, no one expected Marcelo Bielsa’s men to drop points at home against Wigan Athletic on Good Friday, a side that hadn’t won away from home all season.

To add more fuel to the optimism before that day, Leeds had won every time they had taken the lead under Bielsa, with both of those records coming to an end as Wigan came back from a goal and a man down to topple Leeds out of the top two.

Up next was a trip to Brentford on the 22nd April 2019 (Easter Monday). The mood around the Leeds United camp was truly sunken as they dropped points in what was their most favourable fixture left in the remaining games, and now they had to make the trip to Griffin Park, a ground they haven’t won at since 1950, along with Leeds’ generally woeful record against sides in London.

The overriding feeling amongst the Elland Road faithful was that they had already thrown automatic promotion in the bin with defeat to the Latics, and this was soon to be all-but-confirmed with a familiar result at Griffin Park, considering how the Blades had gone from strength to strength under Chris Wilder and didn’t look like slipping.

A key characteristic that has plagued Bielsa’s squad throughout his two-season tenure has been the inability to convert chances as often as their rivals, even with the high volume of clear-cut ones being created each week, and this was evident in the Bank Holiday clash.

A half-chance for Patrick Bamford presented either side’s first decent sight of goal as he skewed just wide on the half-turn. The Leeds number nine was once again at the thick of it when he jinked into the box and appeared to be taken down by Julian Jeanvier, to which Keith Stroud was unmoved and no penalty was awarded.

The game did get a goal in the first half when Potnus Jansson stepped far out of the defensive line to intercept, only to leave a gaping hole in the defence which Neal Maupay took advantage of to prod past Kiko Casilla from the edge of the box, much to the bemusement of the goaded Leeds fans behind the goal.

The second half saw more of the same from Leeds as they threw players forward and crossed into the box in pursuit of an equaliser, but as defensive shape lapsed once again, Brentford took their chance as Sergi Canos got on the end of a flowing move to dink Casilla and give the Bees a 2-0 win.

It was a crushing defeat for Leeds as it more or less handed promotion to Sheffield United, and the full time whistle sparked an awful lot of discontent amongst fans…

FULL TIME: #LUFC fall to a 2-0 defeat at Brentford — Leeds United (@LUFC) April 22, 2019

spineless, bielsa deserves better. cannot finish and about 3 of the player look like they actually cared — alex (@MikeDeansSon) April 22, 2019

Think one that was cooper everyone else awful — #loveleeds 💙💛💙💛 (@Lisa1973LUFC) April 22, 2019

Maybe if they'd actually put some effort in it would help — PD31 (@PMD31) April 22, 2019

Spineless, bottleless.

Well done leeds you never cease to amaze me. — mr monkey (@mrmonke85636984) April 22, 2019

Well that was awful, abysmal, shocking, frustrating, sickening. In short, everything I know I should expect from Leeds in a game that meant so much. We will not go up via the play offs – nailed on. — Iain (@YorkshireLad6) April 22, 2019

Playing like that we won’t win another game this season — Marc Burton (@bronk_21) April 22, 2019

The latter comment came true for the rest of the regular league competition, as Lees continued their winless run to the end of the season, with a controversial draw at home to Aston Villa, and late defeat away to bottom club Ipswich Town.

The play-offs seemed daunting but not beyond Leeds as they picked themselves up and took a 1-0 lead away from Pride Park in the semi-final against Derby County. It got even better when Stuart Dallas doubled their advantage, however, a capitulation either side of half-time spelled the end for Leeds’ season as the Rams blitzed Leeds in the second half.

One year on from this mess of a run-in and Leeds look in a much more healthy position for promotion with the mood around the club in a far greater place, as they sit seven points clear with just nine left to play. They have been made to wait by the recent postponement, but there shouldn’t be too much beyond that stopping Leeds from clinching promotion and atoning for last year’s late collapse.