Leeds United star Jack Harrison makes Accrington admission and asks Patrick Bamford question

Harrison fired Leeds ahead in the 23rd minute of Saturday’s FA Cup fourth round tie at Accrington with a ferocious drive into the bottom right corner from 25 yards out following Bamford’s lay-off from a Sam Greenwood pass. Leeds, though, had earlier been put on the backfoot by John Coleman’s League One hosts who Harrison praised for their efforts in attempting to unsettle his side in a bid to make the FA Cup fifth round. Despite providing a rather modest assessment of his strike, Harrison admitted the timing of his goal was important and was only left questioning whether Whites no 9 Bamford ‘meant’ the first of his two assists.

"I don't know whether Pat laid it off or it was a bad touch or something!" quipped Harrison to LUTV. "But I tried to make the most of it and thankfully it went in. It was a very tough start to the game. It was very messy, the ball was in the air a lot but I think when we settled down and we played our game we started to play some good football and we managed to score some goals which was nice.

"It's always tough playing against teams like this, especially at their ground where they make it so difficult for you to score and sit back in so a goal like that quite early on can just help settle the nerves a little bit and just get us back in the rhythm. It was good for us."

Harrison’s strike gave his Whites a 1-0 lead at the half-time break and Jesse Marsch’s visitors extended their advantage six minutes after the hour mark as Firpo netted following a sublime turn and pass from Bamford. Leeds quickly added a third goal just two minutes later as the impressive Harrison burst clear down the left before supplying a pinpoint pullback for Luis Sinisterra to net from inside the box.

Accrington pulled a goal back in the 81st minute through Leslie Adekoya as part of a late rally but the damage had been done as Leeds booked their place in the fifth round draw. Harrison reasoned: "I think when the game started to open up a little bit we were able to play our game a bit more and have some good patterns of play and some good sequences and take advantage of the chances that we maybe didn't do in the first half. It was good all round in the second half."