Roofe happy to deflect praise as he looks up

Roofe looked to have bagged Leeds the winning goal at Molineux when appearing to latch on to Hadi Sacko’s cross with 20 minutes remaining after a clever long ball from Kyle Bartley.

The former Oxford United star admitted it was actually Wolves defender Sílvio Manuel Pereira who inadvertently fired past Carl Ikeme.

There was similar honestly when Roofe was quizzed as to what an improving Leeds could achieve this year. “Promotion,” said Roofe, whose side sit 10th, three points off the play-offs under head coach Garry Monk.

“Everyone was probably writing us off the first few games because we didn’t get the results.

“But now we are getting the results, people are actually seeing what we can do. There are so many new players that have come in so I don’t know what people were expecting straight away.

“It is common sense. You have to get used to each other. It is not going to click straight away and now it’s clicking, you are seeing results.”

Both sides had chances in an end-to-end but goalless first half with Leeds going closest when another fine through ball from centre-back Bartley released Sacko, whose chipped effort clipped the bar before spinning over.

Helder Costa, Joao Teixeira and Nouha Dicko all went close for Wolves with Leeds indebted to solid goalkeeping from Rob Green and one fine last-ditch clearance from Charlie Taylor. Costa again threatened after the break before United’s Chris Wood forced a smart save from Ikeme.

There was nothing the Wolves custodian could do about United’s 70th-minute counter-attack in which Sacko capitalised on weak defending from Matt Doherty to send in a dangerous low cross from which Silvio put into his own net under pressure from Roofe.

Leeds were then rarely threatened as Wolves ran out of ideas and Wood almost doubled the lead when firing over.

Wolvess squandered a fine opportunity in the first minute of stoppage-time when Costa somehow blazed over from six yards.

“I thought we saw the game out quite comfortably,” said Whites head coach Monk. “A win away from home, a clean sheet – you’ve got to be happy. It was a typical Championship performance where you have to dig in. Gradually, we’re getting there. We should start looking to claw teams in.”

Leeds United: Green, Ayling, Bartley, Jansson, Taylor, Phillips, O’Kane, Sacko (Cooper 88), Vieira (Mowatt 86), Roofe, Wood (Doukara 90). Unused substitutes: Silvestri, Coyle, Grimes, Antonsson.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Ikeme, Doherty (Coady 76), Silvio, Edwards, Batth, Dicko (Cavaleiro 62), Costa, Bodvarsson, Teixeira (John 76), Saiss, Hause. Unused substitutes: Lonergan, Stearman, Oniangue, Gladon.

Referee: S Atwell (Warwicks).

Man of the match: Kyle Bartley.