'Always goes on about it' - Dan James on Daniel Farke's Leeds United demand and Whites corners aim

James’ sixth goal from his last seven games helped Leeds to a 2-0 victory at Saturday’s Championship hosts Blackburn Rovers as the Whites took their excellent recent run to 19 points out of a last possible 21. James, though, has also highlighted the particular importance of a Whites achievement at the other end of the pitch and specific aim with corners after a first clean sheet in six games.

Leeds headed to Saturday’s clash at Ewood Park having not shut out the opposition since the 1-0 win at leaders Leicester City at the start of November and James says his side were particularly disappointed to concede in just the third minute of last weekend’s hosting of Middlesbrough.

The Whites still fought back to record a 3-2 win against Boro but James says boss Farke is continuingly stressing the importance of clean sheets and that the team’s defending at corners had been highlighted as particular area for improvement.

"We have come away with three points but also a clean sheet,” said James to LUTV, hailing a “very good day” at Blackburn. "We had to defend a lot of times, I think we maybe defended 10 or 12 corners and we have done really well because in the past few weeks we have conceded a few from them and it's something that we want to improve on and we were solid.

"They had all sorts of corners, short corners, they have great movement and we defended them well. I think obviously we get that first goal and in the first half we weren't able to get that second and I think they still had that belief. Going into the second half, Cree (Summerville) scores a great goal to make it 2-0 and the game sort of settles a little bit.

“They are a great team. I think it's very similar to how we used to play, we have played it a lot so we know it's a hard style of play to play against. But we are just happy to go away because it's a very important week this week."

Pressed on clean sheets being the foundation for success, James declared: “We have always got goals but the clean sheet is massive. The boss always goes on about it. Obviously in the last few weeks we have conceded early at home to Middlesbrough and we were disappointed to do that. We have always got good resilience but we don't want to come from a goal behind, we want to score first and keep them clean sheets coming."