This was the proverbial six pointer between the bottom two teams in the Premier League, and though it wasn’t pretty, a 77th minute goal from the much-maligned Junior Firpo was enough to take Leeds to the all-important victory.

The first bit of good news of the weekend came on Friday when new boss Javi Gracia finally received his work permit. The delay would have limited the amount of time he could have spent with the team on the training ground, but presumably he’d passed on the dossier on how to beat Southampton to the coaching staff earlier in the week.

There was one personnel change to the starting eleven, with Aaronson coming in for Summerville, but this involved Harrison moving out to his traditional home on the wing while Aaronson operated centrally. Harrison looked happier now that we’ve abandoned the experiment of playing him centrally and made a decent contribution, apart from one awful cross from a promising position near the end.

As expected, the Leeds performance was a lot more committed under the new boss, but I was a little bit concerned that Southampton’s win at Chelsea last week showed they were similarly inspired by the departure of Nathan Jones. A peek at their fans forum suggested they thought a win in this game was essential, but their players didn’t seem to agree as they got players behind the ball and began wasting time almost from the off.

The first half was a scrappy affair, but Leeds showed a lot more fight than our soft southern opponents and dominated the possession. The first chance came when a cross from the left came through to the far post and Bamford stood back to let Ayling take a shot from a difficult angle. He got plenty of power behind it but it went high and wide.

When Saints did get forward Armstrong cut inside into a dangerous position, but dragged his shot well wide. At the other end our American contingent combined as Adams and McKennie did well to regain possession as Southampton tried to bring the ball away from their penalty area, but Aaronson didn’t get the power he wanted to in his shot and dragged it wide.

Harrison also went wide with a shot that didn’t curl as much as it needed to, but our best opportunity so far came when McKennie won the ball and burst through to the edge of the Saitns penalty area, before slipping the ball inside to Aaronson. It was the right idea, but the pass was slightly behind him, and once Aaronson had to check back to recover the ball the chance had gone.

Worse could have followed as Southampton were able to break away, but Onuachu’s curling shot lacked any power and it was a simple save for Meslier. That was about as close as Saints were to come all afternoon. During one of the many stoppages I noticed all the rotating panels showing adverts in different Asian languages, so I assume the game was going out live somewhere in the middle east. They must have been thrilled by what they were watching.

The final chance of the half arrived when Bazunu came out for a corner and didn’t get any distance on his punch, but it bounced a little too high as it came to McKennie, so he was unable to keep his volley down and it cleared the bar. There were plenty of boos when only one minute of additional time was announced after all the injury breaks, but the teams went in goalless at the break.

The second half produced more of the same, with Saints still looking far too lightweight to cause us any damage, but Leeds struggling to create any real opportunities. It was a little surprising that Gnonto was the first player replaced on the hour, but once again the opposition had identified him as our main threat and had been quick to close him down, and most of the time he received the ball right over on the touchline, when he had a lot to do to make his way into the box.

Summerville was his replacement, but operated down the right as Harrison switched wings to the left. After the Marsch period it was good to see Leeds getting down the wings once again, with Firpo also making good use of the flanks to get some crosses in, though Bamford’s control was a little bit lacking as he tried to get on the end of them. Rutter was the second sub in place of Aaronson and he’s starting to show a few touches of the class that may yet justify his huge fee.

I started to think the game was drifting towards a goalless draw than wouldn’t have done us much good in what was theoretically one of our easiest games of the season. But then the breakthrough finally came in the 77th minute, albeit with the aid of some shocking Southampton defending. It began with Summerville in possession by the corner flag, and despite being closed down by two defenders he was still able to play the ball through to Harrison.

Harrison set up Firpo, and though Firpo’s shot lacked any power it somehow found it’s way through into the net. I needed to watch Match of the Day to see what had happened, but it seems Bednarek had obligingly let the ball go past him yet still managed to block Bazunu’s view. The Saints keeper should still have done better, but he could only dive over the ball, and Firpo had scored his first goal in the Premier League.

The scruffy nature of the goal didn’t matter a jot to anyone at Leeds, and there was pandemonium as the whole squad rushed to celebrate with Firpo, including the substitutes, with Gnonto booked for his efforts in racing all the way from the bench. And the cameras picked out Victor Orta crying tears of joy in the stand, either through a release of the pressure of a difficult couple of weeks, or because one of his signings has finally come good.

Now they had gone behind it was It was hilarious to see Southampton rushing to take every goal kick quickly, but despite the introduction of Walcott and Walker-Peters they barely managed a shot on goal in the closing stages. There was always the danger that we could give a free kick away in prime Ward-Prowse territory, but despite having one or two midfielders who like a tackle that didn’t happen.

The final change saw Roca coming on for Bamford to shore things up in the 85th minute, but we were close to killing them off with a second goal in the closing stages. Summerville did well to keep possession as he shrugged off a defender on the right and then raced into the penalty area. He had the option of slipping the ball to an unmarked Harrison in the centre, but chose to shoot and sent the ball across the face of goal and wide of the far post.

There were groans all around Elland Road when the board went up showing five additional minutes, but we saw out time without much trouble to claim our fifth Premier League win of the season. Results elsewhere reversed the damage of last week and meant we climbed back out of the bottom three. In all the teams who began the day in the bottom five had the opposite result to last weekend.

I’m not convinced this performance would have been good enough to beat anyone other than Southampton, but it’s a good start to the Gracia era, and he will now have a bit of time to work with the squad on the training ground in the weeks to come. Things as they say, can only get better.

Reuters

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