Sam’s the man in an away-day star show

TWO first-half goals from Samuel Saiz set Leeds on course for a comfortable win on the road at Bristol City.

Pierre-Michel Lasogga completed a convincing and overdue victory with a second-half header.

But both sides were reduced to 10 men as Leeds full-back Gaetano Berardi and City substitute Matt Taylor were shown red cards for a

79th-minute confrontation. Taylor went down clutching his face but was judged equally guilty and the incident sparked trouble between the two benches, with stewards getting involved.

United boss Thomas Christiansen immediately dedicated the victory to midfielder Stuart Dallas, absent following the death of his mother.

He said: “Our thoughts are with Stewy and we wanted to put in a performance for him.

“We knew we were up against a good side and that probably helped. We needed to be brave and believe in ourselves.”

Leeds made the better start and were ahead in the fourth minute when Lasogga got between City’s centre-backs and slid the ball into the path of Saiz.

His right-footed shot from inside the box appeared to take a deflection past Frank Fielding.

The CIty goalkeeper was exposed again 10 minutes later and chose to make a challenge with his feet, only for the ball to run into the path of Saiz, who fired home from 12 yards.

It was not until City were 2-0 down that they fashioned a chance, top scorer Bobby Reid heading wide from a Callum O’Dowda cross.

But the impressive Lasogga completed the scoring in the

67th minute, capitalising on poor marking to head home a Kalvin Phillips corner to make it comfortable for Leeds.

City head coach Lee Johnson had no complaints about the result. He does, however, intend to challenge the sending-off of Taylor.

“I have seen the incident again and as far as I am concerned Matty was blameless other than to register a complaint over being fouled,” he said.