It took a while for Leeds to break down a well organised Sheffield United side in this keenly contested Yorkshire derby, but once we’d got the breakthrough from an unlikely source we never looked like surrendering the three points.
So it was no surprise that Daniel Farke was sounding rather chipper when he spoke to the BBC after the game. "They were an unbeaten side so far in this league, six clean sheets in a row. Chris Wilder's sides are always well-structured, difficult to create chances against, they're competitive, they're aggressive.”
"So it was important to find a good blend out of being brave, because we wanted to create chances, to score goals, but also to have a good structure behind the ball to control all their counter-attacks. It's what we did, we had a good balance of being brave but also of being smart, and for that it was a really mature performance from the first to the last second."
Much of the blend he refers to came from the performance of Takana, who covered a lot of ground as he was there to protect the back four when need be, but also to help drive us forward. His central midfield partnership with Rothwell came about through necessity, but has given us a more positive outlook, without the passing around in front of the back four that has infuriated many fans.
Farke selected an unchanged starting line-up, keeping faith with Meslier despite the speculation that he might be taken out of the firing line after his error last time around. He was baited by the Sheffield United fans while keeping at that end during the second half, but their team was much kinder, giving him very little work to do as he began to rebuild his confidence.
Solomon and James were back from injury, but only got as far as the bench. And both right backs were facing the club they left in the summer, Shackleton being the latest old boy who could only get a start at Elland Road by coming back as a visiting player. The evening began with a tribute to the sadly departed George Baldock, which was immaculately observed by both sets of fans.
Sheffield United looked the livelier side in the opening stages, but then Leeds started to take control of the contest. Ramazani hit the post from a tight angle and forced Cooper to make a fine save, with a shot from outside the area that perhaps lacked a little bit of power. And two other good chances were presented to us by the opposition.
Aaronson had a shot blocked while he should have been aiming for the far side of the goal while Cooper was stranded well out of position. And Moore got his feet in a complete muddle before playing a comical backpass, but Gnonto ran into a crowd of three defenders rather than playing the ball he should have done, with an unmarked Piroe to his left.
But otherwise the Blades had worked hard to get men behind the ball, and with the score goalless at half time I worried that it might be yet another game when we failed to get through the kind of organised defence that Farke mentioned. The draws in two previous game could be classed as good results as they were away to teams in the top seven, but we couldn’t afford a third game without getting a win.
We began the second half with Aaronson shooting well over the bar, but the Blades found a new lease of life after making a few subs on the hour mark. Shackleton was relieved of his duties after struggling against Ramazani, and Hamer was forced off with a hamstring problem to add to his slight tubbyness. He’d shown a few glimpses of the talent that we bid for in the summer, but for the most part was well marshalled by the Leeds defence.
Rodon had to make a couple of timely interventions, although one of these chances had come from his own error further up the field. Farke responded by making a couple of his own changes. A couple of times Gnonto seemed to have been troubled by a shoulder problem and Aaronson was running out of puff after his tiring trip back from international duty. Solomon and James came on and Ramazani moved to a more central role.
And two minutes later we were in front, with our first goal from a corner since John Charles was a mere slip of a lad. At first I thought Rothwell had scuffed it as the ball came very low into the area, but Struijk reacted far quicker to the loose ball than anyone else, before drilling it into the roof of the net. If this was a planned routine I’m not sure if Struijk would have been the player of choice to have the shot, but one way or the other it certainly worked!
There was still work to do to seal the win, and there was the first groan from the crowd as we began to make sure we retained possession rather than go forward, but I don’t mind that so much when we’re winning. Joseph came on for Ramazani, so Piroe could drop back into his more usual ‘number 10’ role, and finally victory was secured in the 90th minute.
Piroe played a superb ball through to Joseph, who held off the defender and placed his shot past Cooper. I say ‘held off’, but the TV replay showed this involved a bit of shirt pulling that might have seen the goal disallowed in we had VAR in the Championship. That said, hopefully Joesph’s finish is a sign he is running into form after his hat-trick for Spain’s Under 21s, and he will now go on to get a few goals for us.
There were a few more subs as time ran out, and we survived the five minutes of injury time to complete a significant win against one of our promotion rivals. Burnley’s win yesterday might have ensured that we can’t finish this round of fixtures on top even if Sunderland lose their game, but as the manager says, the side is showing a good balance now the new signings have got used to each others’ play, and I think we can dare to start to feel optimistic about the months ahead.