INCE AND BRUNO ARE INDI MOOD
Teenager’s strike enough to see off Tigers
TYLER ROBERTS sent dominant Leeds back to the top of the Championship.
The young Wales striker fired home a brilliant solo effort from 22 yards to break Hull’s resistance.
Roberts is finding his scoring touch after being plagued by injury since he joined United from West Brom in January.
He struck in the 51st minute to give the Whites full reward for playing keep ball and starving the Tigers of chances.
It was a welcome return to winning ways for Leeds, who collected only a point from their previous two games.
Boss Marcelo Bielsa (below) named an unchanged line-up for the fifth game in a row hoping for a more ruthless performance.
While not cashing in on their superiority in possession, they look set for a sturdy promotion challenge.
Leeds were mobile and slick but lacked width, not that they needed it in creating their best chances of the first half.
After the break, Leeds visibly stepped up their intensity and squeezed the life out of the home side.
Chances came and went before the winner.
Kalvin Phillips drove a ball through the middle, which Roberts nudged on for Ezgjan Alioski to fire wide when clear on goal. Luke Ayling then flipped a close-range header over.
A sparrowhawk surveyed the match from the top of the KCOM stadium, but the game was lacking in killer instinct.
Perhaps understandably for Leeds, who were missing three strikers injured including top scorer Kemar Roofe.
Barry Douglas failed to hit a gaping goal, scooping over Alioski’s cross just before the break. But Roberts, just 19, finally put his stamp on the game, adding to the double he got against Preston last month.
Hull competed well and had spirit, but not the guile to find a goal. They went close late on through subs Nouha Dicko and Fraizer Campbell, yet it proved only a minor scare for Leeds. IMPRESSIVE Tom Ince capped off a superb individual display to score in his third Championship game in a row.
He provided the corner for Bruno Martins Indi (above) to head Stoke into a 10th-minute lead and then capped it off with a slick 74th-minute goal for victory.
The midfielder caused Bolton keeper Remi Matthews all sorts of problems with a number of close goal attempts.
Early on, his thumping left-foot shot from 20 yards forced the keeper to make a save and then it was Ince again posing a threat with another effort from distance that cleared the bar by inches.
Early in the second half, he fired a stinging 25-yard free-kick, which had Matthews at full stretch to palm it away.
Then Stoke endured a jittery spell where Josh Magennis looked like he had scored, but his 66th-minute header was ruled out for a foul. And Ince killed off a Trotters comeback when he fired home.