Kalvin Phillips salutes actions of Leeds United away fans and makes Everton admission - YEP 11/4/22

Kalvin Phillips has saluted Leeds United's away fans for their continued support at Watford and reflected on the impact that Everton's win against Manchester United had on the Whites.

By Lee Sobot

Fifth-bottom Leeds approached Saturday afternoon's clash at second-bottom Watford sat six points clear of the Premier League drop zone and five points ahead of fourth-bottom Everton but with third-bottom Burnley and also the Toffees having two games in hand.

Everton took on Manchester United in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off at Goodison Park and bounced back from Wednesday night's 3-2 defeat at Burnley as Anthony Gordon netted the only goal of the game.

The triumph put Frank Lampard's side just two points behind Leeds - and with a game in hand - but Leeds then produced a 3-0 win at Vicarage Road to keep the gap to the Toffees as it was.

United's weekend then got even better on Sunday afternoon as Burnley blew one of their games in hand by losing 2-0 at Norwich City and Phillips has hailed both the importance of winning at Watford, and the support of the travelling fans.

The visiting Whites contingent saw their side subjected to some early Watford pressure but Raphinha fired the Whites into a 21st-minute lead.

The Hornets began the second half on the front foot but Rodrigo doubled the Whites advantage after a huge defensive mix up in the 73rd minute and Jack Harrison bagged a United third five minutes from time.

The goals sparked wild scenes in the away end and Phillips told LUTV: "Obviously the fans always travel out in force and we want to put on a show every time we play away and just go out there and do our best.

"I felt the fans were amazing throughout the full 90 minutes, even when the game wasn't going as well as it could have been.

"It was a little bit of luck for the second goal and I felt we dominated after that."

Pressed on whether the win at Watford was one that Leeds definitely needed, Phillips admitted: "I think so.

"Before the game we were all talking, we were watching a little bit of the Everton and Manchester United game and we knew that Everton had gone 1-0 up.

"So we knew before the game that we just had to come out here and play our football and stick to the game plan which the manager said,

"I think in the first half it was quite a scruffy game but then in the second half we kind of wore them down and got the chances in the end."