Leeds United man's family gesture, mixed zone man marking job and off-camera Wolves moments — YEP 19/4/26

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By Graham Smyth

The YEP’s verdict and off-camera moments from Leeds United’s hugely important victory against Wolves at Elland Road.

Leeds United teamed up with Brighton and a former Elland Road hero to pile even more misery and pressure on relegation-threatened Spurs.

The Whites took a comfortable 3-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers and then saw Spurs concede a late, late goal to draw 2-2 with Brighton on Saturday evening. Georginio Rutter's goal denied Tottenham their first Premier League win of 2026 and left his old club Leeds eight clear of Spurs with five games remaining.

Here's the YEP take.

Good day

Noah Okafor

A man on fire. Five goals and three assists in his last seven games has been huge for Leeds. He was so hungry in the first half against Wolves and they struggled to contain him. Took the touch that set up James Justin for his spectacular goal and then scored a lovely one himself. Clinical, in a big game. Okafor is establishing himself as the main man right now. A handy time to do it too, for his club. And a handy time to remind Switzerland why he should be at the World Cup.

Karl Darlow

A clean sheet is a fine thing and he was worthy of it. The Leeds United Premier League number one pulled out a phenomenal stop to deny Wolves in the second half with the score 2-0. Had that gone in Elland Road would have turned nervy. It was a vital stop.

Daniel Farke

Another three points towards safety and back-to-back wins for the first time this season. The performance was a mature one, even if it wasn't all sparkling football. Getting the job done at this stage of the season is king. Farke is getting the job done, and then some.

Farai Hallam

One of the best refereeing performances seen at Elland Road this season. One of the most refreshing aspects of his display was how apologetic he was to Leeds when denying them an advantage. A bit of humility goes a long way. He refereed it sensibly and stopped things from getting out of hand after Brenden Aaronson's reaction to being fouled.

Bad day

Wolverhampton Wanderers

This is going down with a whimper. Wolves will be relegated, that much will be a mathematical certainty before too long, but what their fans saw at Elland Road was little cause for pride. It was no wonder there was anger directed at the players at full-time. How they've found themselves in this position is a cautionary tale for all Premier League owners.

Spurs

They will have been desperate to see Leeds lose and even more desperate to respond to whatever the result was at Elland Road, when they hosted Brighton. Instead of the dream scenario, they watched Leeds win comfortably and then had a victory of their own snatched away late on by ex-Leeds man Georginio Rutter.

Off-camera

Ao Tanaka taking some practise corners towards the end of the warm-up, both of which struck a groundsman. The same groundsman. With the third one he hit the inside of the far post.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin carrying his daughter out onto the pitch as a mascot, handing her back to his wife and getting a kiss for luck.

Pascal Struijk stretching his quad and flexing his knee a few times while chatting to Karl Darlow during a break in play. He was able to get on the ball and keep playing prior to the half-time interval.

Lukas Nmecha moving quicker than he has all season to avoid a sprinkler that started going off right behind him as he warmed up at half-time.

Rob Edwards smashing his water bottle into the turf in fury as the referee failed to give Wolves a free-kick in the Leeds half with the score 2-0.

Noah Okafor giving the evil eye to Andre after a little coming together before Gabi Gudmundsson nipped in to remove his team-mate from a potential flashpoint.

Referee Farai Hallam doing some warm-up exercises during a lengthy break so the fourth official Lewis Smith could replace an injured lino.

Okafor running on to embrace fellow goalscorer James Justin at full-time.

Ethan Ampadu being man marked by a Leeds media team member to ensure he didn't try and escape speaking to the press in the mixed zone, after the skipper saw that James Justin was already giving the assembled press some precious quotes and jokingly attempted to leave his team-mate to it.

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