Roofe keeps promotion at top of Bielsa’s bucket list

IT IS relatively easy to gauge the mood of Leeds United’s volatile manager Marcelo Bielsa — just count the minutes he sits on his blue bucket. Bobbing up and down in fidgety agitation is not a good sign on the Bielsa barometer and there was plenty of first-half bouncing before the Argentine declared himself satisfied with at least some of what he saw last night. The first 45 minutes was dismissed, even though Kemar Roofe’s thumping header gave Leeds the edge against desperate Ipswich. Liam Cooper finally doubled the lead to help send the club to the top of the table. ‘It was a necessary win, a deserved win too,’ Bielsa said. ‘Two different halves. In the second half we had fluidity. In the first half we spent many minutes not playing. I always feel pressure because I always think it is necessary to win.’ Such is the expectation level at Leeds that the recent slump had sparked a wave of despondency. Bielsa has sat on enough upside-down buckets in his career to know that nothing is decided in October, but he has been frustrated by his team’s inability to score. Roofe calmed the nerves when he headed in Pablo Hernandez’s cross, but so many chances went begging after that. Hernandez was again the provider for Cooper’s clincher and only a combination of Bartosz Bialkowski’s keeping and the woodwork kept the scoreline down. Ipswich boss Paul Hurst, recruited for the fine job he did at Shrewsbury, is on rocky ground. He said: ‘I don’t lock myself in a room and refuse to talk to anyone. I have to focus on the job and if it’s deemed not good enough then fair enough.’