McDermott: Shame it’s nearly over for Leeds

The former Reading boss replaced Neil Warnock last Friday in time to take charge of Saturday’s derby win over Sheffield Wednesday and tonight saw Leeds play with a freedom seldom seen at Elland Road this season in a 1-0 victory over Burnley.

Rudy Austin struck his first goal since September, sweeping the ball home first time following a perfectly-weighted ball over the top from El-Hadji Diouf in the 62nd minute.

The Jamaica international’s fine finish was scant reward for some of the passing football Leeds served up, with Saturday’s two-goal hero Luke Varney going close on three occasions - one header hit the crossbar - in the first half.

“We’re pleased,” the 52-year-old said after Leeds had climbed to within six points of the play-offs and seven above the bottom three.

“We controlled possession really. We needed to get a goal in the first half, but we didn’t.

“We had a few opportunities and once we got the goal - the goal I thought was excellent, a really good bit of skill by Dioufy and that was a really good finish.

“I’ve come here to enjoy myself, the staff want to enjoy themselves and I want the players and the fans to enjoy themselves, that’s what life’s about.

“I’ve told the players, I have no fear about a game of football and I want them to have the same philosophy.

“I’ve learned an awful lot in the last three weeks from what happened to me at my previous club and I hope Leeds have got a better manager on the back of what’s happened.

“I think there’s something tangible left this season. Every game there’s something tangible.

“When you’re stood on that line and it’s 1-0, it’s definitely tangible in my heart, so every game there’s something to play for because you’re playing for your supporters.

“You want to finish the season strongly. You want to do as well as you possibly can.

“I’m just a bit upset there’s only three games left, it’s a shame there’s not six.”

Burnley were not completely overrun, but were restricted to several half-chances in the absence of leading goalscorer Charlie Austin.

The 28-goal striker is out for the rest of the season after undergoing emergency surgery to have his appendix removed this morning after falling ill during training yesterday.

The Clarets slipped to their first defeat in five on Saturday, losing 1-0 at Blackpool, but have won only two of their last 15 league games and after this latest setback lie three points above the relegation zone.

“They were the better side,” said manager Sean Dyche. “Apart from a little rally at the end, they were better.

“They showed their experience and that’s interesting because the same group of players weren’t playing like that two weeks ago because I saw them.

“So that’s an interesting one in itself, but we caught them on a night when they were on the front foot and we weren’t quite at it.

“There wasn’t that freedom in our play tonight, there wasn’t that ‘front-foot thinking’”.

Dyche said Austin’s appendicitis was “part of life” and his absence handed an opportunity to somebody else, while Burnley head to promoted Cardiff on Saturday chasing another win to steer them clear of trouble.

Dyche added: “It’s the same plan as always, to win as many games as you can, nothing’s changed.

“We’re not naive, we’ll make sure we’re looking over our shoulder to see what the market is telling us and that’s to get points on the table.

“But it’s telling a lot of other clubs that as well. It’s the maddest year we’ve ever had.”

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