Leeds Utd 2 Hull City 1: Bruce fury as United rediscover their drive and desire for derby triumph

DURING the past five and a half years, Ahmed Elmohamady has played 160 times under Steve Bruce.
Leeds United players celebrate Tom Adeyemis goal, which put them 2-0 ahead of Hull City after the opener from Chris Woods (Pictures: Jonathan Gawthorpe).Leeds United players celebrate Tom Adeyemis goal, which put them 2-0 ahead of Hull City after the opener from Chris Woods (Pictures: Jonathan Gawthorpe).
Leeds United players celebrate Tom Adeyemis goal, which put them 2-0 ahead of Hull City after the opener from Chris Woods (Pictures: Jonathan Gawthorpe).

Along the way there have been plenty of highs and lows so it says a lot about the meek manner in which Hull City surrendered to Leeds United in a one-sided first half that the Egyptian winger can only recall seeing the 54-year-old angrier once in all that time than he was during the interval at Elland Road.

That particular tirade came at Aston Villa last season on an afternoon that bore many similarities to Saturday.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As had happened 15 months earlier in the West Midlands, Hull were out-fought and out-thought in those opening 45 minutes by a Leeds team that simply wanted it more.

Chris Wood scores.
 PIC: Jonathan GawthorpeChris Wood scores.
 PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe
Chris Wood scores. PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe

Then, after having had a strip torn off them in the away dressing room during the break when two goals behind, Hull improved vastly after the restart and pulled a goal back, but the damage had already been done.

“Our performance in the first half was bad,” admitted Elmohamady, who was first brought to English football in the summer of 2010 when Bruce was Sunderland manager. “Nowhere near what we have to be and it definitely cost us the game.

“The manager was very, very angry at half-time. I have only seen him as angry as that before one time in the Premier League. Aston Villa away – he was much angrier that day.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“But he was right to be upset as the first half was not good enough. We lost a local derby and that made him angry. All the players in the dressing room were quiet after the game.”

On an afternoon when Storm Desmond battered Elland Road with gusty winds, it seemed a toss-up as to whether that or the whirlwind that is Massimo Cellino’s erratic stewardship of United would wreak the most havoc when the Tigers came to town.

All the pre-match talk had been of a potential walk-out by supporters growing increasingly irate with how the Italian is running their beloved club.

The appointed time was the 17th minute and the planned duration 17 minutes, both chosen due to the number 17 being considered unlucky by the superstitious Cellino.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In the end, though, the call fell flat, and, when United deservedly went ahead on the half-hour, those supporters in the South Stand who had stayed in their place were mighty glad to have done so.

The goal itself was of the highest order, a quite wonderful slide-rule pass from Lewis Cook releasing Stuart Dallas down the right flank. He then looked up and drilled a low cross that Chris Wood, having stolen a march on Harry Maguire, expertly finished past Allan McGregor.

Four minutes later, Leeds came within a whisker of doubling their advantage when Alex Mowatt, after easily winning a 50-50 challenge with Maguire, thundered a shot against the crossbar.

It was a let-off for Hull, but one that Bruce’s men failed to heed and United duly netted their second goal a minute before the break as Tom Adeyemi overcame the loss of his left boot in a goalmouth melee to smash the ball into the net after McGregor had saved Cook’s volley.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As Bruce stomped down the tunnel at half-time, it was clear a couple of layers of paint would soon be peeling off the walls of the away dressing room as the Hull manager let rip.

With good cause, too, after an opening 45 minutes in which the Tigers had been toothless. Nowhere had this been more apparent than in midfield, where Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore were simply overwhelmed by their much more tenacious hosts after manager Steve Evans had opted for a 4-5-1 formation.

Bruce’s stern words drew a quick response, Elmohamady heading in from Sam Clucas’s cross just six minutes after the restart. However, despite Leeds retreating deeper and deeper as the game wore on, Hull could not find the equaliser as Livermore, Elmohamady and, most wastefully of all, Chuba Akpom squandered glorious opportunities.

It meant United had only their second home win in nine months and, according to goalscorer Adeyemi, something tangible on which to build.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Fans are entitled to their opinion so it is not for me to say if what happened last week was right or wrong,” said the on-loan midfielder when asked by The Yorkshire Post about how United had turned the jeers of the previous week’s defeat at QPR into cheers.

“It was disappointing to hear, but maybe that spurred us on to beat Hull. Maybe we tried our best to prove them wrong. The fans were great and really got behind us. When they do that, there are no other fans like them in the league.

“We haven’t done as well as we would have liked this season, but a bit of consistency and we can push into the top half of the table. Then we can look up rather than down.

“We are all here trying to do our best for Leeds United. It is important we all pull in the same direction. As long as that happens, we can be a force in this division.”