Daniel Farke's message to Leeds United and first injury assessment of key duo after 'priceless' Millwall win — YEP 17/3/24

Daniel Farke has told Leeds United to enjoy their newly-won top of the table status after a 2-0 victory over Millwall saw them leapfrog Leicester City.

By Graham Smyth

The Foxes went top of the Championship on September 20 and built up a huge lead over the Whites. But 12 wins and a draw from 13 games since the turn of the year have allowed Leeds to reel in the leaders, who were finally toppled by Sunday's events at Elland Road.

The Whites were well worth their victory, scoring in each half and controlling possession for the vast majority. Willy Gnonto opened the scoring with a thunderbolt on 33 minutes and substitute Daniel James grabbed the second from close range with 11 minutes remaining. Leeds should have had at least one penalty in the first half and Georginio Rutter struck the post late on but Elland Road was able to celebrate at full-time and Farke wants the positive mood to carry through the international break.

"First of all to enjoy it a little bit," said the German. "If you don't enjoy such a moment you'll ask yourself one day why you're doing all this disciplined work. It's a nice little treat for our players and supporters, after difficult years, they're now officially allowed to sing songs about this and they've had to wait a long time to be able to sing about it. But it doesn't change our situation. We have a cup final in each and every game, especially away games, we're used to pressure in our games and for that it doesn't change much. But we also have to make sure we stay on it. It's a tight race. The point tally is important, we can be pretty proud but we want to be in a good position after 46 game days. It's necessary to enjoy but then to have 10 good training days before the Good Friday game in order to be perfectly prepared."

Farke praised his team for dealing with a different challenge, having had a rare break from action in the week leading up to Millwall's visit, and was over the moon with how they kept Millwall quiet on the most treacherous front. "We scored two fantastic team goals, created a few more chances," he said. "It was also important not to give anything away, the best statistic was the corner tally, 13 to two because they're so dangerous from this situation. Overall it was a mature performance, delighted for the boys. A priceless three points."

The manager's celebrations for the second goal betrayed just how significant he felt the goal and the victory were for Leeds. He admitted there was a measure of relief when James hit the net. "When you're just 1-0 up and you don't allow them to have chances, many of their players it feels like are there with 500 Championship battles, they have nothing to lose and it feels with a long ball or a corner or free-kick they have the capability to score a goal. The second goal was a big relief, it gave the confidence to bring it over the line. It was quite important to score, I would have preferred a few more goals but I think with the second goal the game was more or less done."

Victory was not without its concerns for Leeds, who saw both Crysencio Summerville and Archie Gray take painful whacks in the second half. Summerville was subsequently replaced by Farke but Gray finished the game, despite his obvious discomfort. "We'll have to check, with Archie it's hopefully just a hit, a pretty painful hit with a bruise but first assessment is it seems nothing is broken or damaged," said Farke. "It's not like he rolled his ankle, it's just pretty painful. With Cree I'm also carefully optimistic, it was also a hit. I hope it's not overstretched and it's just a few days and then he's back on the pitch."

Leeds head into the final international break of the season now and will wave goodbye to a number of key players, including European Championship final hopefuls in the Welsh contingent and Glen Kamara, who will do battle in a play-off. On the other side of the break Leeds return to action in the Friday night game down at Watford.

"We hope and pray the others come back in a good mood, in good shape with no injuries," said Farke. "We have to travel on Thursday to Watford, many of the guys will just be back on Thursday. Not sure Junior [Firpo] will even make kick-off, he'll only be back in the UK on Friday I think. It'll be a crazy turnaround but I just want to think about this from perhaps the middle of the week, not the next few days because the next few days it will be important to enjoy."