Daniel Farke praises Leeds’ ability to win without producing fireworks

Posted Thursday, October 05, 2023 by PA

Leeds boss Daniel Farke was pleased to see his side grind out a 1-0 victory over QPR in the Championship.

Crysencio Summerville coolly slotted in the only goal of the contest after nine minutes to move the Whites into the play-off places.

The hosts missed chances to kill the game off against a QPR side who had goalkeeper Asmir Begovic sent off in stoppage time, but Leeds held on as they returned to winning ways following Saturday’s defeat to Southampton.

“I am really happy and pleased,” Farke said.

“I told the lads I am proud because you can be on a great spell like we were on before Southampton and after one bad result, the next game is very difficult.

“The confidence is not there like it was before and to grind out a result it’s never champagne or football fireworks, it’s always hard work.

“To bring this tight lead over the line and be there again with a clean sheet, a win, is fantastic and in this type of game you have to be there to be able to celebrate.”

Leeds missed a handful of chances in the second period which could have put them out of sight and Farke admitted it started to get more nervy as the game wore on.

He added: “When you don’t score the second goal the opponent believes there is a chance.

“Because you don’t score a second goal it gets more nervous. We dominated every stat, but one scruffy situation in the second half saw a ball go through and thank God (goalkeeper) Illan (Meslier) was in the right position.”

QPR slipped to their sixth league defeat of the season and are without a win in five, but boss Gareth Ainsworth took heart from the performance.

“We’ve had a couple of collapses in my time so resilience wise I’m very proud of the boys,” he said.

“They gave everything, I asked for a bit more output, bit more of the committed work rate, I haven’t seen enough of that this season and we have that tonight. I think we will finish way higher than what people think.”

Ainsworth disagreed with the decision to send off Begovic, who saw red after fouling Patrick Bamford outside his area.

“He (Begovic) does not touch him (Bamford). I’ve had verification from both players that there’s no contact,” Ainsworth said.

“Patrick’s a great lad and he’s just jumped out the way and the referee has seen it as he thought he caught him. We may be able to get it overturned, I don’t know.”