Marcelo Bielsa hails Patrick Bamford as Leeds United striker shakes off criticism with Preston double

Bamford responded emphatically to scrutiny of his performances with two clinical finishes at Deepdale, earning Leeds a 2-0 victory and creating another twist in the fight for automatic promotion.

Bielsa kept faith with the forward despite his costly misses in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Birmingham City, a result which allowed Sheffield United to knock Bielsa’s side out of second place.

The pressure is back on the Blades, however, ahead of their trip to Birmingham on Wednesday, two points behind in third after Leeds’ victory at Deepdale, and Bielsa was pleased to see Bamford come good with strikes which materialised after Preston’s Ben Pearson was shown a straight red card.

Bamford had previously been criticised for a weak display against Millwall last month but Bielsa said: “He recovered very well from one difficult game. He didn’t play well against Millwall but against Birmingham he increased the level of his performance.

“He had three chances in that game and that’s something to talk positively about for a striker. Now he’s improved his performance again with two goals and a lot of work for the team.

“He contributed a lot and the goals arrived at a very important moment for him - for him and the team.”

Pearson was shown a straight red card for a professional foul on Bamford in the 50th minute, at a time when the match was goalless.

Bamford struck with a left-foot finish 12 minutes later and wrapped up the win with a header 14 minutes from time.

Leeds, however, had been dominant before the dismissal and Bielsa said: “In the first half we deserved to win the game because we created four or five chances. They created one or two.

“The red card prevented one very clear chance and if you analyse the game 11 versus 11, we were the better team. I don’t want to say that we won the game because we played with one player more.

“For a long time we’ve been playing well. Against Birmingham we went down in performance, especially the last 30 minutes, but the team tonight played like we’ve played all season.

“I’m proud of the performance because all of the players played at a high level.”

Sheffield United can reclaim second place with a win at Birmingham but asked if he intended to watch the match, Bielsa said: “I don’t know. I’m not interested in the game, I’m more interested in the result.”