Tom Pearce made his Leeds United debut in the Whites’ latest Championship defeat.
With Laurens De Bock injured, Pearce was rewarded for his fine form for the under-23s throughout the season by being handed his senior debut as the Whites looked for only their second win in 2018 against an Owls side that had also only tasted victory once since Boxing Day.
It was ultimately another hugely disappointing afternoon for Heckingbottom’s men as Atdhe Nuhiu scored twice – including a stoppage-time winner – to guide the visitors to a 2-1 victory. There was one positive however, with Jay-Roy Grot finally scoring his first goal for the senior side after an extremely difficult first season with the club.
Another positive seemed to come from Pearce’s display. The 19-year-old performed well and showed signs that suggest that he may be ready to follow in Bailey Peacock-Farrell’s footsteps by setting himself up for a prolonged run in the team for the rest of the campaign. And Heckingbottom suggested after the game that he was cautiously optimistic about Pearce’s first outing.
“First-team football at whatever level is totally different to under-23s which is different from what old reserve football used to be so, it’s a big step, a big learning curve. We’ll have a sit down about the differences. I’ll be interested to see what he thinks the differences are just off his own interpretations of the game. But you could see second-half, we got him playing forward more, running forward more, they’re his strengths and then he started to affect the game more.”
With Leeds struggling to fill the left-back void throughout the season, it is an extremely encouraging performance from Pearce. And with the Whites’ play-off hopes all but dashed, there seems little harm letting the youngster continue in the role until the summer while he continues to show improvement.
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