Patrick Bamford refused to criticise Leeds United’s Elland Road pitch too much after their win over Southampton but admitted it was like playing on Winter Wonderland’s ice rink. Bamford opened the scoring in the second half of the Whites’ 3-0 win after both sides spent periods of the first half struggling to keep their footing on the new pitch at Elland Road.
Patrick Bamford said: “I don’t want to speak too much about it. It’s like going to Winter Wonderland at Christmas.”
Patrick Bamford said: “I think we played the pitch better, it sounds strange, but at half-time, we said we were making mistakes in our own half, getting caught on the ball, it was slippy. If we lost the ball in our own half, they were dangerous, so we said to try and play the ball into the opposition half quicker and we did that. The key thing was getting the first goal, it brought them out, made them open up even more and we picked them off then.”
After some mixed recent form, the striker admitted that Tuesday’s win was all about the three points rather than the performance.
Patrick Bamford said: “We said before we started the warm-up that more important than anything was winning today – no matter how we did it. To be honest, it was quite an even game, first-half especially, that’s the first team I’ve seen come and press similar to the way we do actually. It made it difficult and it was really about who got the first goal and fortunately, we got it and went on to get the three points.”
