Leeds United 1-0 Burnley
by James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson)
Cries of ‘Brian, give us a wave’ rang out at Elland Road as new Leeds United boss Brian McDermott continued to ride the crest of a wave as the Whites beat Burnley 1-0.
Rodolph Austin’s second half goal was the difference in a dreadful game – but most importantly Championship football was all but secured for next season.
The win moves Leeds onto 58 points and completes a dream start for McDermott, whose side beat Sheffield Wednesday last week in his first game in charge.
Leeds looked organised and deserved to win as Burnley seemed to be happy to take a point.
In a first half that was played at the pace of a pre-season friendly, defender Jason Pearce had a header cleared off the line before the rebound from Luke Varney hit the crossbar.
Burnley ended the half in better shape as Martin Paterson was unlucky with a chance that found the side-netting.
The crowd was subdued and desperately needed a spark.
Fortunately Leeds upped their tempo for the second half as within 17 seconds of the restart, the Whites had fired a warning shot.
El-Hadji Diouf somehow found space down the right-wing and his cross found Varney, who had the perfect chance to score his third goal in four days.
However, with the goal-gaping, Varney failed to properly connect and the ball went harmlessly wide.
The Whites had to take advantage and they did on the hour mark.
Former Liverpool forward Diouf created space for himself on the left-wing and with the ball at his feet, moved into a central position.
Upon seeing Austin making a darting run into the box, Diouf delightfully chipped the ball towards him and it only needed the slightest of touches from Austin to open the scoring.
The decibels inside Elland Road were raised and apart from one minor scare late-on, Leeds were able to hold-on without too much hassle ahead of a trip to Birmingham City tomorrow.
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