Leeds had been slipping down the table after failing to get the results we deserved in the previous three games, and had also endured some illness in the camp during the build-up to this one. But this win over struggling West Ham United brought some redemption for the team in general and Brendon Aaronson in particular.

Daniel Farke told Sky Sports after the game "It was a difficult week for us. You could feel it. We showed passion and bravery. It is good for confidence to bring it over the line. A priceless three points. Today we had to be smart in terms of our game management. They prepared to give all our energy today. Overall, the lads dug in and stuck together. A lot of fighting spirit today and we earned the three points."

Stuijk was one of the players who had been struggling illness, and although he made the bench, while Bijol made his Premier League debut, and the jury of social media opinion is now out on the big Slovenian. Some were impressed by his heading ability, but others less so with his distribution and tendency to give needless fouls away. Let’s hope he gets into his stride with more experience of English football.

Perri and Okafor were back after their own fitness issues, and there was one tactical tweak, with Tanaka preferred to Stach, to give the midfield a more offensive look for one of the games where we really needed to get all three points. Many fans wanted to see Aaronson benched as well, but the American answered his critics with a goal and an all-round determined performance, probably covering more ground than any other player.

I was delighted to be proved wrong about saying in my preview that West Ham were playing better away from the pressure of the London Stadium, as they were dreadful in the opening stages of the game. This wasn’t helped by Nuno’s bizarre tactics. You’d think that a manger taking over in difficult circumstances would start with the basics rather than trying to be clever, but he persisted with having both full backs on their weaker side.

He also started with Summerville and Bowen on the opposite flanks to where they normally operate, and the lumbering Soucek and Irving together in central midfield. This pair had no answer to the quick attacks Leeds kept mounting every time we took possession, and it took only three minutes before we took the lead with one such move downfield.

The momentum might have gone when Aaronson had to check back to collect a misplaced pass, but he found Bogle on the right, and his deep cross produced a header from Okafor that Areola could only parry. Aaronson had continued his run, and with Diouf fast asleep he was able to run past the defender to score from close range.

We had to endure a VAR check to determine whether Calvert-Lewin was offside, and under Paris 1975 rules he would have been. But DCL was deemed not to be blocking Areola’s view of the shot, so he was not interfering with play, and the goal stood. And that was enough to send the West Ham fans into an early frenzy of rebellion, with chants of “sack the board”.

But the Hammers were close to hitting back right away, which would have been controversial, with Leeds down to ten me, after the ref insisted that Ampadu left the field when he himself had poked our captain in the eye! Summerville’s run was his one decent moment of the night, and Perri could only parry Bowen’s overhead kick when he might have caught it.

But our keeper then did well to react in time to palm the ball away to safety. And soon afterwards we were two in front, as the 15th minute saw West Ham enhance their reputation of being the worst team in the Premier League for defending set pieces.

Paqueta is a player of many qualities, but marking big central defenders isn’t one of them, and he showed no appetite for that particular task. Rodon was allowed to run round him and attack the ball and accepted the invitation to plant a powerful header past Areola into the net. Basic stuff.

At that stage it looked like we were on our way to a win by a big margin, but we had a couple of breaks where the finish didn’t match the quality of the build-up. Tanaka started a move with a clever turn deep in our half, but when he got the ball back on the edge of their box he sent it well over the bar.

Ampadu then took the ball the length of the field, but then got a bit carried away, and his attempt to cap it all with a spectacular strike saw him slice the ball well wide of the target. Then we thought the Hammers had pulled a goal back after Bowen swept past several defenders as he cut in from the right, and the ball came through to Paqueta.

The Brazilian found the net via the underside of the bar but was denied by a late linesman’s flag. Once again a decision in our favour survived a VAR check, the issue being whether Bogle had got the last touch to Wilson’s pass, but the goal remained disallowed. By now Gudmunsson was struggling with an injury, which was the last thing we wanted when he was up against West Ham’s best player.

But Justin proved to be a more than adequate deputy when he came on, showing what an excellent squad member he is, as unlike the West Ham full backs he can do a job on either flank. Shortly before the break Okafor turned a defender inside out, but didn’t quite get his shot to curl enough, and it went beyond the far post.

That was Okafor’s final contribution before he too had to be replaced, and Harrison was on for the second half. Harrison was to produce his customary shot right at the goalkeeper, but it was Aaronson who was to produce our most memorable moment of the second half. It began when the American won the ball on the edge of our box and started moving downfield, evading two opponents and moving between two more as he accelerated downfield.

It would have been one of the goals of our season, but his shot caught the foot of a defender, before catching the top of the bar and going over. But after that we started to fall back to protect the lead we already had, as I started to feel that we could have done with converting one of our chances for a third goal, to kill the game off completely.

The Hammers improved once Nuno had made some changes in the middle of the half, with Potts in danger of looking impressive, and Farke countered with another sub of his own to protect the back four, with Gruev coming on for Tanaka. Our manager was later to say that by this stage we were running out of puff after the fitness problems of the week.

His final changes included sending James on to give us an option in case we managed to break out of defence, but that didn’t happen. And just when I was thinking that with our two goal lead we’d done enough, West Ham halved their deficit in the 90th minute. Bowen’s chip into the box found Fernandes unmarked, and he managed a back-header which looped over Perri into the net.

There were five minutes injury time to survive, and it would have been gut-wrenching if we hadn’t won after being in front for so long, but to our great relief we got to the end with no further alarms, to seal a vital win over a relegation rival.

So we’re now six points clear of the dreaded bottom three, and although that will change if Forest get a result at Bournemouth today in Sean Dyche’s first game, the determination we showed against the Hammers should take us to safety by the end of the season.

Reuters

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