Leeds United still insist on doing things the hard way, but they aren't falling apart again — Yorkshire Post 15/4/26

By Stuart Rayner

"People are always telling me Leeds don't do things the easy way."

If James Justin did not believe them then, he certainly will after the last two games.

But here's the thing: Leeds reached a first FA Cup semi-final in 39 years, then won a league match at Old Trafford for the first time in 45.

Neither were as comfortable as they ought to have been.

Leeds were 2-0 up at West Ham United after 90 minutes yet had to ride their luck just to make it to a victorious penalty shoot-out.

At Old Trafford on Monday they were 2-0 up again, playing ole football against 10 men. A 21-pass move shortly after Lisandro Martinez’s red card was not quite Southampton 1972 (YouTube it) but the identity of the opponent made it sweeter.

Having to endure a ferocious fightback in a final half-hour that was more like basketball but where only Casemiro got on the scoreboard perhaps made the win more valuable than the history or even the league table would suggest.

"We'd like to have comfortable wins but it's just not the way it's falling at the moment,” said Justin. “We've just got to knuckle down and keep the ball out of our net when we go goals up.

"It's something that we'll work on, but as long as we're getting points at this stage of the season, nothing else matters."

This is a different Leeds to the panicky bottlers of taunting terrace chants.

"We work a little bit on getting rid of this old narrative – Leeds are falling apart again, we always crumble when it really counts," said Daniel Farke, who led them to the Championship title last year 12 months after losing the play-off final.

"It feels like when it really matters we delivered under pressure not just this season, but also last season."

Having won the FA Cup and Championship but also lost two relegation battles with Leicester City, Justin is cut from the same Steady Eddie cloth as his manager.

"It's a huge match for the club but I'm kind of more level-headed," said the versatile 28-year-old defender.

"This game, albeit a massive game for the club, is not the be-all and end-all in our season. We want to be staying up, whether we win this game or we don't win this game. That's the main goal for the club.

"But it was a massive night in terms of history. It's been a while since we've beat them here, and deservedly so as well."

Playing last in the gameweek meant West Ham and Nottingham Forest got closer to Leeds before kick-off. At full-time the relevant gap was six points to Tottenham Hotspur, now in the Premier League bullet seat with just six games to do something about it, one at home to the Monday’s 2-1 winners.

"For me, to be honest, it did nothing," insisted Justin. "We were still doing our normal processes during the week, and I don't really keep an eye on other teams.

"I've been in this situation before and each team is picking up a win here, a win there. If you keep focussing on other teams, you lose focus on yourself. So we've just got to keep picking up points.

"It doesn't matter who we're playing or where we're playing, we can put in a performance like that."

Leeds were outstanding for an hour, dangerous every time they attacked down either flank.

Okafor calmly converted Jayden Bogle's fifth-minute cross and volleyed in when the hosts failed to clear Justin's 29th-minute delivery.

A brilliant sliding Martinez tackle stopped Ao Tanaka tapping in a third in the 45th minute. The midfielder, whose selection ahead of Ilia Gruev was a signal of intent, took the ball around Senne Lammens but the heaviness of his touch let him down.

It was Martinez who unwittingly changed the course of the game.

He and Calvert-Lewin had been having a good old-fashioned scrap and their 56th minute tussle looked no different until referee Paul Tierney was called to the pitchside monitor by video assistant referee John Brooks. Martinez had grabbed at the striker's hair.

It hardly needs saying what the manager's thought – Michael Carrick had watched it back, and felt his man touched Calvert-Lewin's hair bobble rather than pulled his ponytail. Farke had not seen it again, so put his trust in the officials.

"If I'm honest, I wasn't really happy about the red card, because we were so far the better side, so much in control,” said Farke. "I know it sounds sometimes a bit strange, but such a situation can change the momentum of the game."

It galvanised those in the stands. Those on the pitch threw everything at Leeds, Casemiro nodding a 69th-minute goal from too much space.

Both sides threw punches like exhausted heavyweights unsure which way the judges would go, but it was Leeds standing when the final bell rang. The rest is just details.

"This is the business end of the season, and to come to a club like this that are doing well in the league and turn them over, it definitely sends a message," said Justin. "It's a big one."