Leeds United secured their first Championship victory this summer as they defeated Middlesbrough in a home game yesterday by 1-0.
The match winning goal for Leeds came courtesy of Billy Sharp who was making his first appearance in the Whites’ shirt.
Leeds had lost against Millwall in their first match last weekend. So, it was important for them to put in some extra effort against Middlesbrough and they looked like doing so when the game kicked off, but, they faded pretty quickly as the Smoggies started having the maximum possession.
Leeds’ defence did pretty well in the first half though especially Stephen Warnock. He frustrated the key players of the opposition with his brilliant defensive skills. And to go with the skills, he showed courage as well. On quite a few occasions, he took blows on his body and made sure that the harm didn’t get done to his team. It was a top class showing by the veteran left back. Had it not been for him, Middlesbrough would surely have been able to go 1-0 up in the first half.
Warnock was actually supposed to be a weak part of the back line of the whites, but, he emerged as their rescuer. He proved again that there’s no substitute for experience.
However, the defining contribution was made by Sharp just minutes before the final whistle. The 28-year old Englishman was looking a bit out of sorts before that. He had been getting the placements of his shots wrong, but, he had the last laugh as he got his debut goal for his new club in the 88th minute beating the shot stopper of Middlesbrough with a fantastic piece of work.
Leeds has to play their next match against Brighton & Hove Albion three days later.