Leeds United defeated Hull City on Easter Monday, following victories by Leicester City and Ipswich Town.
Leeds United had been under pressure following Easter Monday’s losses against Leicester City and Ipswich Town, but Daniel Farke was impressed with his players’ maturity and nerve at Elland Road. The Foxes had only won one of their previous six league games, but a long-awaited victory over Norwich City changed the tide at lunchtime.
Ipswich would later manage to score another injury-time winner at Portman Road against a 10-man Southampton side who apparently performed well in Suffolk but lost. As expected, the two victories kept United’s feet on the ground in the day’s last kickoff at 8 p.m.
Farke stated that he and his backroom staff had made an effort to divert the players’ attention away from what had happened elsewhere in the country. He agreed that they would never be able to keep all of the noise out.
“We tried to take the attention from the other games a bit away, but they are all mature and obviously they are not stupid,” he went on to say. “They realised the results throughout the day, and it may have increased the strain on your own game, which we do not want to take away.
“It becomes even more difficult to focus just on the contest, on yourself and your own game. This is what we accomplished today, especially the way the first half unfolded; we started extremely well, should have scored the second goal with a fantastic chance for Patrick, and then they scored on their only chance.”
Sam Byram’s ninth-minute goal alleviated some of the strain that had been building throughout the stadium, but Hull City finally took control. Seeing an opposition team dominate play at Elland Road was disheartening for the home fans, who were visibly agitated by United’s failure to recover or keep possession.
It would have been simple for the hosts to give up, especially following Fabio Carvalho’s equaliser, but they held on. Farke was pleased with how his men performed in the test.
“Sometimes you could lose the nerves and it was important today to show the steel, also mentally, this steel, not to lose the nerves, to stay patient, to not go into their (Hull’s) traps and play pragmatically to win this game,” he went on to say. “For that, I’m pretty pleased with the maturity we’ve shown also in these terms.”
