Paul gives Reds one Heck of a headache
PAUL HECKINGBOTTOM helped push his old club closer to relegation as his Leeds side beat Barnsley in the Elland Road sunshine.
Heckingbottom left Oakwell under a cloud in February and he did his hometown club no favours as Tom Pearce and Gianni Alioski scored the crucial goals for United.
That leaves Barnsley two points from safety with three games to go and Reds boss Jose Morais said: “It’s between us and the teams close to us in this moment.
“Bolton is the team that is closest and my belief is that we have definitely got to win our next game.”
Barnsley said they were “shocked and thoroughly disappointed” following Heckingbottom’s decision to leave Oakwell, comments he said were “bang out of order”.
And the Reds began the Yorkshire derby like a side with a point to prove.
Leeds, however, had the first sight of goal when Alioski got one-on-one with goalkeeper Adam Davies but could only lift his shot wide.
But there would be no escape for the visitors in the 17th minute when Brad Potts gave the ball away and Pearce scored his first goal for the club with a powerful left-foot strike.
Barnsley were rattled but they put their bodies on the line and began to ask questions at the other end.
Leeds goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell clawed away Adam Hammill’s low cross and then saved a Potts effort.
They were level in the 37th minute when Pontus Jansson failed to deal with Ezekiel Fryers’ left-wing cross and youngster Paudie O’Connor sliced an attempted clearance into his own net.
Leeds improved after the break and were back in front when Kemar Roofe got in behind Matt Mills and set up Alioski for an easy finish.
Heckingbottom did not attend the post-match press conference, with assistant Jamie Clapham standing in.
He said: “The first 15, 20 minutes we were exceptional – we played really fast and were on the front foot.
“Then we got the goal and for some unknown reason we just switched off and they managed to get in the game.” Dec 2017: Swansea 0 Man City 4 Feb 2017: Man City 2 Swansea 1 Sep 2016: Swansea 1 Man City 3 Sep 2016: Swansea 1 Man City 2 May 2016: Swansea 1 Man City 1
Man City – 23 wins Swansea – 7 wins Draws – 4
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