Stuart Dallas discusses vital Burnley goal and assesses Joe Gelhardt's bench impact - YEP 2/1/22
Stuart Dallas hailed a 3-1 Premier League victory over Burnley as 'huge' for Leeds United.
By Joe Urquhart
The Whites boosted themselves eight points clear of the
Clarets and top flight drop zone at Elland Road on Sunday.
Dallas - who made his 250th appearances for the club against
Sean Dyche's men - played a pivotal role in the victory which kicked off the
new year in style.
Jack Harrison opened the scoring after a nervy start to
proceedings as he stole the ball from James Tarkowski to bag his first goal of
the top flight season.
Half-time substitute and key visiting man Maxwel Cornet
levelled in the 54th minute with a stunning free-kick from distance.
United rallied, though, and it was Dallas who mustered a
wonderful goal from outside the box following a short corner routine from
Raphinha and Mateusz Klich.
The Northern Irishman's effort sent the home crowd wild 13
minutes from time before Dan James sealed the spoils with a header late on.
"We knew coming into this game it was huge – people
talk about six-pointers, but we’re coming off the back of a few heavy defeats,
so we’re delighted," Dallas reflected post-match.
"I thought we dominated. We conceded – it was a great
strike from the free-kick, but we got back into it after that. It's a relief
more than anything, we didn’t start so well, they caused us some problems. We
got into the game then and we dominated.
"We’ve tried to rediscover some of the form we’ve been
missing this season. People talk about Burnley being a long-ball team, but
there’s a method to the way they play, they’re difficult opposition."
Asked about his strike which proved to be a vital moment in the
game, he said: "I saw a wall of players coming towards me, so I tried to
just bend it in – some go for you, sometimes they don’t. I hadn’t that much
time to think about it and thankfully it came off.
"It’s massive, getting goals, we’ve been missing our
main striker [Patrick Bamford] quite a bit. We’ve had a lot of issues
throughout the festive period, we don’t use it as an excuse, but credit to the
staff here for getting players out there to play today."
Leeds youngster Joe Gelhardt again stepped off the bench in
the second half to make an impact against the Clarets.
The 19-year-old gave the Whites added impotence in attack
throughout the latter stages following his introduction and played an
inch-perfect cross for United's third.
