Bogle puts Leeds back on top with crucial winner over Preston | Championship

The ironic chants of ‘Leeds Are Falling Apart Again’ rang around a jubilant Elland Road after Jayden Bogle’s 13th-minute goal put Leeds back to the summit of the Championship.

Maybe not this time. Burnley’s victory over Norwich on Friday knocked Leeds off the top of the table, but the full-back’s sixth goal of the season made sure that state of affairs was temporary.

While it was good to be back there for the Leeds supporters, the euphoria that greeted the final whistle was fuelled just as much by the news of Sheffield United losing at Plymouth. Leeds are now five points clear of their promotion rivals with four games to go.

In the swirling eddies of a three-into-two automatic promotion race, this could end up being a potentially decisive 24 hours. Leeds made hard work of delivering their part of the bargain, wasting a stream of chances to make for an unnecessarily stressful conclusion.

“If you want to win promotion, you have to have a special mentality,” Daniel Farke said. “You don’t crack under pressure. You must play with fire in your heart, but on the other hand you don’t lose your head and stay calm and composed. This is what the lads did really, really well.

“We could have made our life a lot easier by using a few of the chances. It must have been one of the highest expected goals games for us all season. Normally, we should have scored six or seven. Nevertheless, it was a priceless three points.

“I was aware it could be an important step for us today. This stadium can develop an energy like nowhere else and we had a little taste of how it would feel if we could celebrate with our supporters the really special achievement of going back to the Premier League. It would be an unbelievable feeling, but we’re not there yet. ”

Leeds need eight points from their last four games to make sure of a return to the Premier League, although their goal difference is such that seven points will surely do it. They have scored 82 goals, making this their most potent campaign since the glory days of 1969-70 when 84 helped them to runners-up spot in the old First Division.

Leeds should have had more, though, against a Preston side whose season is tailing off badly. The main culprit was their leading-scorer Joel Piroe, now without a goal in eight games. He had a series of opportunities to end his drought, the prime one coming in the 55th minute when he struck the bar from three yards – but he is in one of those phases as a striker when the goal shrinks to the size of a shoebox.

Willy Gnonto, Brenden Aaronson and Joe Rodon also squandered good chances, the latter somehow contriving to miss an open goal from a yard out in the second half.

Leeds could have been made to pay when the Preston captain, Ben Whiteman, was handed an inviting free-kick after Karl Darlow strayed outside his area to punch away a hopeful ball in, but the strike was deflected wide.

All the goals came in a frantic 13-minute start to the contest. Manor Solomon gave Leeds a fourth-minute lead, curling a glorious angled strike beyond the Preston goalkeeper, David Cornell, and into the far corner. It was a lovely piece of vision and execution from the Israel international.

Within two minutes, Preston were level through Kaine Kesler-Hayden. The Aston Villa loanee drove at Junior Firpo, cut inside the Leeds full-back and drilled a thumping left-foot strike past Darlow.

Bogle quickly restored the home side’s lead, arriving inside the Preston six-yard box in between Jayden Meghoma and Andrew Hughes with perfect timing to put away Solomon’s cross from the left.

Leeds’s profligacy built the tension towards the end, but the visitors could not rustle up enough as an attacking entity to discomfort Leeds unduly. After the Wembley playoff heartbreak last season, automatic promotion is now theirs for the taking.