LEEDS UNITED 3 Roofe (18), Hernandez (45), Doukara (90) PRESTON NORTH END 0

KEMAR ROOFE, Pablo Hernandez and Souleymane Doukara were all on target as Leeds beat Preston to aid their play-off hopes.

Roofe and Hernandez scored before the interval, while Doukara struck in stoppage time to make former boss Simon Grayson’s play-off rivals Preston pay for two glaring early misses.

Preston almost caught Leeds cold in the second minute when full-back Marnick Vermijl was allowed too much time to pick out Tom Barkhuizen with his cross and the 10-goal striker’s header was turned over the crossbar by the inform Rob Green.

Leeds were rattled again in the 13th minute by Barkhuizen only to shoot the wrong side of Green’s left-hand post.

Preston were punished for those two let-offs in the 18th minute when Leeds took the lead with their first effort on goal. Roofe broke free inside the area courtesy of his clever one-two with Chris Wood and, although his shot was partially blocked by Cunningham, the ball span fortuitously beyond Preston goalkeeper Chris Maxwell.

Preston pair Paul Gallagher and Aiden McGeady both fired off target, before Leeds thought they had gone 2-0 ahead in the 41st minute, but it was ruled out for offside.

Roofe went close to doubling his tally, before Leeds struck again in the final minute of the first half through Hernandez.

Leeds almost went 3-0 up early in the second period when Wood’s shot hit the crossbar.

The 31,851 Elland Road crowd were being treated to a cracker and Doukara manage to get his side’s third goal deep into injury time, after he slotted the ball past Maxwell when put clean through.