Daniel Farke: Important for Leeds to return to winning ways after setback

Leeds boss Daniel Farke was relieved his side returned to winning ways by defeating Millwall 2-0 at Elland Road and regaining top spot in the Sky Bet Championship.

Millwall skipper Jake Cooper’s own goal gave Leeds an early lead and Ao Tanaka’s late thunderbolt eased home nerves after Farke’s side had squandered a hatful of chances.

Farke, whose side lost top spot on Tuesday night following their first defeat in 18 league games on Sunday at Portsmouth, said: “It was an excellent win for us in a pretty busy period. It was an excellent performance.

“It was so important after a setback to answer straight away with a win, which we’ve always done this season so far. I love it.

“When you lose one game it does something to the confidence and the rhythm. You have to fight to get the momentum back and this is what we did against an excellent Millwall side, who are always resilient and competitive.”

Leeds moved two points clear of Sheffield United and four above third-placed Burnley with nine games remaining.

The only negative for the former Norwich head coach was Joel Piroe’s disallowed goal, which would have doubled Leeds’ lead before half-time.

Replays showed it was a harsh decision and Farke was furious that the same assistant who had incorrectly ruled out a Wilfried Gnonto effort in his side’s win at Coventry in February had made another dubious call.

The German added: “This annoys me a lot, I have to say. Back-to-back games for us with the same assistant, again an offside decision against us. It was never offside. To be fair to him it was tight.

“But why do we have the rule – if in doubt give it to the offensive side. It was such a great goal. I have to calm myself down. This is difficult to accept, especially from the same assistant.”

Millwall boss Alex Neil felt Cooper’s third-minute own goal had made life difficult for his side, but he was pleased with his players’ resilience under constant pressure.

Neil, whose side remain 13th in the table, eight points adrift of the top six, said: “Them scoring early changes the dynamic. It was unfortunate from our perspective.

“I think you’ve got to give Leeds credit. They were very good tonight. They’re a good side.

“To be fair to our lads, until the second goal went in we were resilient, we worked hard and showed little moments of quality keeping the ball.

“I said to the lads afterwards, Leeds have been excellent at home. They’ve been the best team I’ve seen across the league so far.”