Daniel Farke reacts to Leeds United injury blow and how dressing room responded at Swansea City

Leeds lost their centre forward as the warm-up was drawing to a close. Bamford reported some discomfort and was withdrawn from the starting XI, allowing Joel Piroe to come in to face his former club. The Whites then roared into a 2-0 lead inside 10 minutes, Crysencio Summerville and Piroe finding the net to essentially take the game away from the stunned Swans. Willy Gnonto’s double, either side of half-time, added further insurance and Farke was once again able to rest some legs in the final stages as Leeds celebrated a seventh straight Championship win.

The manager is hopeful that Bamford’s problem will not be a major one, but he was delighted with what his side produced in the face of a what could have been an unsettling late swap. He said: “They stayed mentally strong, especially Joel Piroe, because just 10, 15 minutes before kick-off it was clear Patrick had some problems. It's not really clear if it's a muscle problem, ligaments, it happened during the warm-up. It's really difficult to tell. His first reaction was it's not too bad but we couldn't say if it was muscular, or if he over-stretched his knee and it was something with a ligament. I hope it's not too bad, we need him for the upcoming games. He came in and said I don't feel ready to go and Joel had to come in. He delivered in a perfect way, not just in terms of his goal, but his workload. He didn't make us nervous, we stuck 100 per cent to the plan. I'm happy with how the team reacted.”

Farke majored on Swansea’s ability in possession during his preparations for the game and he felt this was the performance that most closely followed the pre-match plan, this season. “It was a massive win for us on the road,” he said. “We were quite respectful because we've analysed a lot, especially their brilliant last home game. They're a good possession side, it's difficult to press them, we needed to be spot on and we were really spot on. Pretty happy with our intensity in the pressing. We had lots of possession, many winnings of the ball and the players executed the game plan in the perfect way. In terms of how we executed the game plan it was the most disciplined and spot on in terms of how we wanted to play. It was more or less exactly how we wanted to play today. All the praise belongs to the players."

Ever the perfectionist, Farke was seen showing frustration in both halves as his team missed chances to make the scoreline even more emphatic, but his overall feeling after the game was one of satisfaction. “Three-nil at half-time, it could have been even more,” he said. “Second half if you want to criticise something we could have been a bit more aggressive, compact in our set-up against the ball for the first 20 minutes. We allowed them a few half chances. Decision making on when to go counter attack, we decided too often to go straight away for transitions instead of calming the game down. But overall you have to say if you're allowed to travel away with three points, four goals, another clean sheet it's pretty impressive.”

Leeds’ win, coupled with a 3-1 defeat for Southampton at Bristol City, put Farke’s men into second and two points ahead of the Saints, albeit having played a game more. Farke, as ever, is taking little notice of the standings at this stage. “The table is not important, we can have a look perhaps after gameday 40, 42, the crunchtime period,” he said. “It only matters where you are after 46 games. I've had this experience. I've had some seasons in good positions and have seen many teams slip away. I'm not too carried away and was not too down when we were not in top positions. We're on a good run and we have to keep going.”