Leeds United boss on dangers of promotion headloss amid Blades scen es and Elland Road score updates — YEP 12/4/25
By Graham Smyth
Daniel Farke saw his side take a huge step towards automatic
promotion against Preston with a big boost at the other end of the country.
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has cautioned against head
loss as the automatic promotion race swung wildly with results at either end of
the country.
At Elland Road, Leeds spurned a glut of chances but held
firm amid Championship chaos to take a huge victory over Preston North End.
Goals from Manor Solomon and Jayden Bogle brought three
points to send the Whites back to the top of the table, level on 88 points with
Burnley. Sheffield United now sit five points back after conceding twice late
on to lose 2-1 at bottom side Plymouth Argyle.
There were ugly scenes at full-time with Chris Wilder
getting involved in a confrontation that led to pushing and shoving between
players in the tunnel.
Farke was delighted that his men held firm despite a
feverish atmosphere at Elland Road, where events in the Blades game were made
obvious by the reactions of the Leeds fans.
"If you want to win titles or promotion, which is more
important, you have to have a special mentality that you don't crack under
pressure," said Farke.
"If you don't do this you can't win anything. Don't
lose your head, use this fire to channel it in a perfect way. The lads did this
in a perfect way and can take a lot of confidence from it.“We showed a great
winning mentality and have to show it again in the next four game days. It's
not done yet but we're on a good path."
Wins over Middlesbrough and now Preston have made Leeds'
previous run of three straight draws look more like something between a blip
and important points than an automatic promotion campaign falling apart,
whereas Sheffield United have now lost three on the spin.
“You sense the reaction of our supporters”
Farke was vaguely aware that the noise at Elland Road
signalled a good result for him elsewhere and felt that may even have helped
spur Leeds on to see out their victory.
"A little bit, you sense the reaction of our
supporters," he said.
"I didn't know the [Blades] scoreline but was aware it
could be an important step for us today and it led to us being a bit more on
it. I wanted to make sure we were not overexcited and stayed cool and didn't
forget what we had to do. It was important we stayed focused in the here and
now. We played with fire in the heart and cool in the head."
Now that they are back in the box seat Farke says no
reminder is needed that the Championship picture can change quickly and
dramatically.
"We have experienced how difficult it is to win points
on the road," he said.
"The gameday today is proof it's so difficult to win
points on the road against a team fighting relegation. It's difficult even for
the best teams in this league. To give ourselves a chance to win one point we
have to be at our best at least.