Championship roundup: Leeds beat Blackburn to keep up pressure at top
Leeds kept up the pressure on the Championship’s top two with an impressive 2-0 win at Blackburn. In a test of their credentials against a vibrant home side, they passed with flying colours, a goal in each half doing the damage.
Dan James scored for the third game in succession to fire the visitors into a deserved lead and with Blackburn searching for an equaliser, Crysencio Summerville’s dinked finish 15 minutes from time sealed the points. Even more impressive is that they limited Rovers to precious few chances, with Illan Meslier denying Arnor Sigurdsson late on.
The victory is Leeds’ sixth in their past seven games and the league’s form side are well placed to pounce should Ipswich or Leicester slip up. It is a fifth home defeat in seven for Blackburn.
The hosts started brightly without testing Meslier but Leeds were soon into their stride, with Summerville lashing wide when a corner was cleared to him. They went closer in the 18th minute when Joel Piroe’s 20-yard free-kick took a wicked deflection but landed just wide of the right post, much to Blackburn’s relief.
Leeds spurned a glorious chance when Summerville dispossessed Hayden Carter and the ball found Georginio Rutter six yards out but he clipped the ball wide. He made amends in the 27th minute when he powered forward and shrugged off James Hill before finding James on the right who drilled the ball unerringly into the bottom-left corner for his seventh of the season.
James flashed an inviting ball across the face of goal soon after, but Rutter could not get on the end of it, while at the other end, Sammie Szmodics headed over a Hill cross.
Blackburn wanted a penalty just after the restart when Andrew Moran’s cross struck Pascal Struijk’s arm but Bobby Madley waved the protests away. From the resulting corner, Szmodics fired wide when the ball felt to him 25 yards out.
Leeds carried an almighty threat on the break and Wilfried Gnonto was denied a 73rd-minute goal thanks to an outstanding piece of goalkeeping from Leo Wahlstedt who brilliantly tipped his powerful strike over after it took a deflection.
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The reprieve was brief as Leeds sealed victory in the 75th minute with a flowing move that had Archie Gray exchanging passes with Rutter before his first-time ball found Summerville in the area and he was coolness personified, lifting the ball over Wahlstedt. Meslier made a tremendous save moments later, tipping Sigurdsson’s header over, but Leeds comfortably saw the game out, sending the 7,500 travelling fans home happy.
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In the other early game, Sunderland held off West Brom to win 2-1 at the Stadium of Light. After Jobe Bellingham was denied a close-range opener in the first half by a dubious offside decision, the hosts went ahead on the 69th minute through Daniel Ballard’s header. Dan Neil capped a breakaway in the 84th minute with a tidy finish before Brandon Thomas-Asante set up a nervy finale.
Full Championship roundup to follow later