Lukas Nmecha stepped off the bench to fire a stoppage-time winner as Leeds marked their tribute to Terry Yorath with a valuable win The striker, an 81st-minute replacement for Jayden Bogle, latched on to Ethan Ampadu’s cross in the first minute of added time to clinch victory, which keeps Leeds eight points clear of the Premier League’s relegation zone.
Leeds dominated after an even first half, but by failing to take their chances it appeared Fulham would extend their unbeaten run to seven league matches.
The home side wore black armbands in honour of Yorath, who died this month aged 75, with a minute’s applause for the former Wales midfielder and manager before kick-off. Yorath’s daughter, Gabby Logan, was in attendance to see Leeds take another step towards top-flight safety.
Daniel Farke, the Leeds manager, said: “Today we faced a really in-form side, who’ve delivered performances, result after result in recent weeks. We fully deserved to win this game. We didn’t give one proper chance during the whole game. We’ve missed several chances, but stayed relentless to the end.
“Expectations were also a bit higher in comparison to when we play Chelsea or Liverpool away – but then to deliver, for me, is a really great feeling. We showed great mentality today and great self belief.”
After a high-tempo opening, clearcut chances were in short supply in the first half, with Brenden Aaronson blazing the best of them over the crossbar. The United States midfielder ballooned his 23rd-minute chance when being played through on goal by Bogle, while Noah Okafor’s well-struck effort was held by Bernd Leno.
Fulham’s best chance in the first half fell to Raúl Jiménez, who headed Harry Wilson’s early corner wide, with Sasa Lukic’s header just before the break comfortably held by Karl Darlow.
The visitors did well to quieten the crowd with a spell of possession after the restart, but Wilson wasted a good opportunity from a free-kick on the edge of the area. The Fulham midfielder was then booked for a cynical foul on Gabriel Gudmundsson after the Sweden defender’s lung-busting run and that stirred the home fans.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin turned Aaronson’s cross narrowly wide and Gudmundsson fired off target on the overlap. James Justin’s effort was held by Leno and in the 67th minute there was a minute’s applause for Leeds fan Colin Wood, who died before the Manchester United game at Elland Road this month.
Leno was forced to dive low to gather another Calvert-Lewin effort and Pascal Struijk and Nmecha headed narrowly off target from corners as Leeds chased a late winner.
They were rewarded when Nmecha lashed home Ampadu’s cross into the bottom-right corner. Nmecha was denied a second by Leno’s brilliant reflex save as Leeds saw the game out for their sixth league win of the season.
Marco Silva, who was booked in the first half for dissent having just served a touchline ban, had no complaints with the result. The Fulham manager said: “This was not a good performance at all. We lost the game. We have to congratulate Leeds and move on. Second half, we didn’t perform at the level that the game demands really. It’s as simple as that. They scored in the end, but they had chances to score earlier than that.”
