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79 mins: Goodness me that’s poor from Brentford. A poorly-hit cross is poorly controlled as Thiago lets it go through. Andrews looks less than impressed.
77 mins: Leeds are pushing a bit more now. But as it stands the best bit of live blogging this game will be the triangle of Toblerone I had with a half-time brew.
Ouattara is on for Schade.
75 mins: The next corner is glanced on by Struijk’s head… and goes beyond the far post. Somebody needed to gamble on that second ball, but nobody did.
74 mins: Bogle, who has been Leeds’ brightest spark, goes on a dash down the right again, feeding the overlapping Stach, whose cross is blocked for a corner. Is this the chance? It’s nodded away yet agin by Brentford… Tanaka hits a long ranger to force another corner.
72 mins: Any hope I had that the quality might improve in the second half has been unfounded.
Are both teams actually content with a point apiece given their respective aims? It seems the case.
An email from Justin Kavanagh: “The Leeds shirts tonight bear the message Wings for Life: Daniel Farke would do well to take the advice and throw on the wide men.”
Very good, Justin.
69 mins: Leeds are bringing on Okafor and Tanaka. They’re both good technicians so let’s see if either can bring that bit of quality the hosts have lacked so far.
68 mins: A dreadfully heavy touch from Igor Thiago lets Brentford down when a chance to counter seemed to be on the cards.
Replays suggest that non-handball was nothing close to a handball.
66 mins: Handball, handball, handball – that’s the scream from the Leeds fans and players after what did not seem like a handball whatsoever.
Our very own Will Unwin has just said this over on BlueSky:
“I’m very close to including the story of seeing Karl Darlow do the conga on holiday in my report.”
Something to watch out for later.
63 mins: For the second time this half, Brentford have been denied what seemed a fairly obvious corner, the ball hitting Calvert-Lewin on both occasions. No dice, the officials say goal-kick.
62 mins: Sensational play from Kayode. He turns on the afterburners to sprint to the ball, keep it in play and then sneak beyond James Justin to generate a half-chance for Brentford.
61 mins: A couple of Leeds players go on the charge down the left, albeit with no good cross at the end of it all. First Stach tries his luck, and then Ampadu, both seeing their cutbacks blocked and cleared by a Brentford player.
59 mins: Leeds have not scored a Premier League goal since 21 February, that’s around six hours of football.
How long before Leeds usher on their more attacking wide players, the likes of Daniel James and Willy Gnonto?
It actually looks like Brentford are mulling over a move from the substitutes’ bench first. Surely Dango Ouattara has to play some part tonight.
57 mins: Aaronson wins a foul from Schade. The German protests his innocence but it was a clear haul-down and the home fans wanted him booked. Gillett resists the temptation.
55 mins: Leeds are getting a bit more joy from their pressing, which seems a bit more co-ordinated and fierce than it had been in the first half.
Ampadu hoys in a long throw, and a melee ends with Justin hitting a volley, which Kelleher scrambles to collect after a deflection.
Ampadu then gets an opportunity himself a bit later, but it’s straight down Kelleher’s throat.
53 mins: Finally the home fans twitch into life, generating some noise to get their side going. Can the players respond in kind?
An email has landed from Joe Pearson:
As someone who occasionally has a bout of insomnia, it certainly worked for me. Slept through the entire first half.
Zzzzzzzz …
50 mins: Even the customary behind-the-goal jibe of ‘you’re shit aaah’ was lacklustre from the Leeds fans. Has everyone had too many Horlicks before this game, or something? Wake up guys, it’s the Premier League!
48 mins: Both sides still appear lethargic. It’s not like they had European exploits in midweek or anything, so I’m at a loss to explain it.
47 mins: It’s in both teams’ interests to offer a lot more in this second half, so let’s hope for an absolute rip-roarer … Jensen does steal in down the left for Brentford but he takes too long and allows the angle to narrow before firing into the side-netting.
That was a bit of a chance you know.
Second half: We’re back under way.
Read about today’s action elsewhere in the Premier League during the break.
An xG of 0.25 played one of 0.11 in that first half. So we got a third of a goal’s worth of chances between the two teams in 45 minutes.
Neither goalkeeper has been troubled, despite them making two saves apiece.
HT: 0-0.
Brentford played the better stuff early in the half, before Leeds improved to impress a little more as the half went on, but neither team should be particularly happy with their showing so far. The defences have done their job, to be fair, but we’re going to need more attacking thrust to provide some Saturday night entertainment.
I’ll be back after a quick cuppa.
45 mins+2: The camera has just lingered on Farke for a while and he cuts a frustrated figure. Surely Leeds cannot be content with this scoreline? Half-time feels like an opportunity for the German to get his troops super-motivated.
Unfortunately the officials have seen fit to add four minutes onto the end of this turgid first half.
It’s not quite the cure for insomnia but it’s not been a classic, lads.
43 mins: Referee Gillett has written Bogle’s name down in his book after a tackle from behind by the Leeds wing-back. Again, that was far from necessary.
41 mins: Sarcastic cheers greet the awarding of a Leeds free-kick.
No sign of any genuine cheers from the home fans at the moment, mainly because their side can’t get near enough to the Brentford goal.
39 mins: A tame Pinnock header doesn’t trouble Darlow, as Leeds try now to maintain their grip on this game, having fared a lot better in the past 10 minutes or so.
Can they find a breakthrough before half-time?
38 mins: Struijk earns the game’s first booking for a wholly unnecessary barge tackle.
37 mins: Brentford don’t have an embarrassment of riches on the bench to replace Henderson. In fact, they have no senior central midfielders aside from the starting trio. Dango Ouattara is an attacking option on the bench, but it looks like Henderson will continue in any case.
36 mins: It looks like Henderson jarred a knee or something in a challenge with Aaronson. He’s getting treatment now.
34 mins: Aaronson shows some tidy feet to get Leeds on the move forward, but their end product is lacking so far. Nmecha does get a shot away but Kelleher is equal to it.
Henderson is down on the haunches with an injury. He looks in a bit of pain.
32 mins: The ball has just changed hands about six times in the space of 30 seconds. Brenden Aaronson lost it three times, before helping to win it back. It’s been that sort of game. They’re cancelling each other out at the minute.
“England’s number nine,” is the chant from the Leeds fans re Calvert-Lewin. A certain Herr Harry Kane might have something to say about that.
