Photograph: Simon Davies/ProSports/Shutterstock
Preston cannot have relished their return road trip across Pennine moors battered by Storm Isha after being blown off Championship course four minutes into stoppage time in West Yorkshire.
Just when Ryan Lowe’s side seemed poised to place a sizeable dent in Daniel Farke’s automatic promotion hopes, Ryan Ledson’s handball and Joël Piroe’s penalty secured Leeds what may prove to be a crucial victory, leaving them fourth, only four points behind second-placed Southampton.
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“It feels like the best win of the season,” Farke said. “For the momentum and the confidence it’s one of the best moments of the season. Preston played with aggression and experience, it was such a tight game and, I don’t blame them, they were very good at timewasting. It was important we kept our nerve and our cool.”
Such is the closeness of the second tier that Preston are 12th yet just five points off a playoff place. Amid an intensifying wind at Elland Road they certainly made things tough for Farke’s dominant yet increasingly frustrated team and were in front after only 65 seconds following some calamitous home defending.
That opening goal originated with Liam Lindsay heading Ben Whiteman’s free-kick across goal before watching the ball drop for Liam Millar to swing a boot at it. A deflection left Will Keane to tap in from close range for his fifth goal in six games.
At this point it was difficult to credit that a virus had deprived Lowe of a trio of key players including his first‑choice goalkeeper Freddie Woodman but, having scored so early, the visitors made the mistake of standing off Leeds a little too deferentially for a while.
In the sixth minute they granted Ilia Gruev, Glen Kamara, and Crysencio Summerville sufficient room in midfield to permit the overlapping Junior Firpo to cross. Firpo’s delivery found the slackly marked Dan James who delighted in directing a header beyond Dai Cornell’s reach.
Although Leeds enjoyed plenty of possession, their press lacked a certain edge and they struggled to sustain any sort of high tempo. “We were too slow,” Farke said. “We lacked aggression.”
Presumably galvanised by their manager’s half-time address Leeds did succeed in upping the second‑half intensity and Georginio Rutter directed a close‑range shot against a post after being adroitly teed up by Summerville.
By now an apparently reborn Patrick Bamford was causing Lowe’s defence myriad problems and for protracted periods Farke’s goalkeeper, Illan Meslier, appeared almost redundant. Yet in an ever tetchier atmosphere – only heightened by a series of more defensive minded substitutions on the part of a now sometimes blatantly timewasting Preston – a winner stubbornly refused to materialise.
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Much of that was down to Cornell who, as Leeds forced a series of corners, made some fine saves, from Bamford in particular, suggesting that Woodman may now have some serious competition.
When Ledson, on as a substitute for Preston, fouled Gruev the home frustration spilled over into an unseemly melee that concluded with Ledson and Bamford booked. As Robbie Brady’s fine interception denied Bamford a goal it did not seem to be Leeds’ day.
But then, deep in added time, Ledson extended an arm to divert the ball and, following an urgent instruction from the home bench, Piroe seized the ball from Bamford before scoring his 12th goal of the season from the penalty spot.
“I like champagne football,” Farke said. “But these types of wins are the most enjoyable. They’re good for our reputation and inner belief. If you want to finish in the top two you need to show this sort of fight.”
