For much of this game it looked like being a close run thing, but we finally sealed the victory over Sheffield Wednesday with late goals from Ramazani and Tanaka.
There was one enforced change to make to the league starting line-up with Struijk ruled out by injury, and Daniel Farke opted to use Ampadu in a central defensive role, rather than the alternative of giving Wöber a game. (And how nice to see that the official Leeds website has finally found an umlaut after all this time, so they can spell the Austrian’s name correctly).
But of course the biggest discussion coming up to the game was whether he would restore Meslier to the line-up after Darlow had a go in the FA Cup. Farke’s public backing of Meslier since the Hull game signalled his intentions, and despite the chorus on social media calling for the Frenchman to be replaced, Meslier was back in goal.
So it was ironic that the first key moment in the game was an error by the young goalkeeper at the opposite end of the field. Rothwell’s excellent ball from the left found Aaronson racing into a gap in the Wednesday defence, and although Beadle raced off his line and got to the ball first, he needed to gather the ball rather than push it back into danger.
Solomon had followed the ball in, and he promptly took the ball past the stranded keeper. He still had work to do as two defenders had raced back towards the line, but Solomon picked his spot exactly in the middle of the gap between them, and Leeds were one up after only three minutes.
So whatever approach Wednesday had planned to take before kick-off, they were now forced to come out in search of an equaliser, and they were close to striking back straight away. Bogle conceded a corner by heading a ball that looked like it was going out of play anyway, and that was cleared at the expense of another corner. That dropped for Windass after Meslier got nowhere near it, but Tanaka reacted quickly to get into position for the block.
Wednesday seemed to be growing in confidence despite being behind, and they carved out an even better chance when Windass was picked out by a superb through ball, only for Ampadu to save the day with a superbly timed challenge. Soon after some Wednesday fans thought they had scored, but thankfully Valery had put the ball into the side netting.
Leeds managed to regain some control as we approached the end of the first half, with Beadle having to make two saves from Dan James. I thought he made the first look more difficult than it should have been, as James was shooting with his weaker foot, so was trying to guide the ball into the far corner with no power.
But the second fell to the Welshman’s right foot, and this time the keeper had to react quickly to get down and push the ball round the post. Overall it had been a fairly even contest in the first half, and since conceding the goal the Wednesday defence had been quite disciplined and quick to get back into position whenever we came forward.
And there was a similar pattern to the second half, though Rothwell and James forced Beadle into another couple of decent saves. At the other end Meslier might have silenced a couple of his critics (for this week at least) to keep out a shot from Gassama. Farke made the first of his changes on 69 minutes, with Prioe replaced by Joseph after having little impact, and Gruev coming on for Rothwell.
The latter change might have been a sign of wanting to stiffen the midfield a little to hold onto the lead, though it did allow Tanaka to get a little further forward. Next came the traditional changing of the wingers on 83 minutes, so that Ramazani and Gnonto could run at their tiring defence. But the game was still not won, and Wednesday put a couple of dangerous ball across the face of goal which none of them managed to convert.
We needed a second to make the game safe, and it finally arrived in the 88th minute. Ramazani seemed to be taking on too much once again when he was surrounded by defenders on the edge of the box, but he worked a bit of space to turn and shoot, and with Beadle probably unsighted the ball was past the keeper into the corner of the net.
The final change came when Aaronson limped off and Guilavogui came on to provide a bit of extra ballast in the midfield. Seven minutes of injury time were announced, and in the last of them a corner came out to Ramazani on the edge of the box. Tanaka realised his shot was going wide, and quickly reacted to flick the ball into the opposite corner of the net, leaving Beadle with no chance.
In all honesty the final 3-0 scoreline flattered us a little, as Wednesday gave us a good battle for most of this game, and it all came down to one error and two good pieces of finishing. Though after the game Daniel Farke emphasised our defensive work when he spoke to the BBC, perhaps out of relief after the 3-3 draw at Hull.
"I'm pretty happy with the game today. They're a brave side who play with intensity. It's a well-deserved win because we returned to our best defensive play. When you score your second goal late then it's always a close game and we had to be turned on. Overall, it was a convincing win and a return back to perfect defensive behaviour. It was a mature performance. It's our 15th clean sheet this season and I expect us to defend well."
As most of the crowd sand before the end "we’re Leeds United, we’re top of the league”, but perhaps more importantly we’re three points ahead of third place after Burnley and Sunderland drew with each other on Friday night. We now need to make sure we maintain that gap by beating Norwich on Wednesday, before the vital trip to Burnley a week tomorrow night.