OPINION
Leeds United fans might have had plenty to celebrate this season – but their push for Championship glory may well have taken a serious blow in the matter of just seven days.
Last Friday saw the Whites lose loan shot stopper Jamal Blackman to a broken leg, his temporary spell coming to a premature end as he returned to Chelsea and leave just Bailey Peacock-Farrell as a goalkeeper with any senior experience to his name.
While losing their backup stopper was not the end of the world, the news that Peacock-Farrell himself would be missing against Bristol City was a serious shock for all the wrong reasons.
It meant that manager Marcelo Bielsa would have to call upon someone – either Kamil Miazek or Will Huffer – without a single minute of Championship action to their name, and it seems as though the Argentine manager has made his decision.
Reliable journalist Alan Nixon has claimed on his personal Twitter account that it will be 20-year-old English stopper Huffer who gets the nod – a decision which will no doubt have the Elland Road faithful sweating buckets.
The youngster is perhaps slightly ahead of his Polish counterpart in terms of the pecking order, having made two appearances on the bench in the League Cup this season – but that is hardly enough to warrant a place in the starting XI.
Unfortunately for Bielsa he is stuck between a rock and a hard place and the nerves in the dugout will be just as bad as those among the supporters at Elland Road.
This is a moment which could have a huge bearing on the club’s season and disrupt the balance of the squad immeasurably – Huffer needs to stand up and be counted, but at the end of the day, if his quality is not up to scratch, no amount of effort will save him.