Monk delivers verdict on Leeds win v Bristol City, highlights area of concern
By Danny Wright
Leeds manager Garry Monk has admitted that the pressure on his young squad has been relieved after Tuesday night’s win over Bristol City, but said they sat back too much after going two goals up.
Monk’s side had suffered back-to-back defeats to Huddersfield and Cardiff, and had only won one of their last four games before victory under the floodlights at Elland Road.
However, the former Swansea boss confessed to the Yorkshire Evening Post that his side sat back too much after taking their two-goal lead, which eventually cost them a clean sheet in the dying moments of the match.
Chris Wood and Pablo Hernandez scored in each half before Milan Djuric got a stoppage-time goal to spoil Rob Green’s shut-out.
The visitors, who are in a relegation battle, enjoyed more possession and had 19 shots at goal throughout the 90 minutes.
“There was added pressure to perform and get a result,” Monk said in the Yorkshire Evening Post. “That, on a young group, was never going to make it easy, but we handled it very well.
“In the first half we were very good, but when we got the second goal, naturally at that point – because we were coming off the back of two defeats – we went a little bit too protective and Bristol City had nothing to lose.
“But coming off the back of two defeats, one a local derby, maybe confidence takes a bit of a knock. We had to pull out a performance and that’s an important marker. We deserved the win.”
Leeds have now revived their promotion bid and are sitting fifth in the Championship standings with 57 points.
They’re now just eight points off an automatic promotion spot after both Brighton and Newcastle only managed draws on Tuesday.
A play-off place seems much more likely, however, for Monk and his side as they extended the gap between themselves and Norwich, who sit just outside the play-off places, to six points.
In other Leeds news, Noel Whelan says this player would be worth £20million is he had better decision making.
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