Patrick Bamford making up for lost time but Leeds United's initial aim should stay the same - David Prutton

LEEDS United put in a very determined performance for Friday night’s win at Aston Villa and the contest was a wonderful game of Premier League football.
CLINICAL: Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford fires home the second goal of his hat-trick in Friday night's 3-0 win at Aston Villa. Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images.CLINICAL: Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford fires home the second goal of his hat-trick in Friday night's 3-0 win at Aston Villa. Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images.
CLINICAL: Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford fires home the second goal of his hat-trick in Friday night's 3-0 win at Aston Villa. Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images.

It was always going to be a very stern test against a team that has started very well and in the second half we saw a performance from a team that grew into the game.

Leeds dealt with the threat of the likes of Jack Grealish well and ultimately with the clinical edge that Patrick Bamford showed deserved the three points.

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Following on from the Wolves game in which Leeds were dominant in the first half but didn’t take the myriad of chances that they created, to be able to do that on Friday night against Villa was a wonderful way to begin a busy weekend in the Premier League and I think everyone was just made up for Patrick with his hat-trick.

That’s now six goals in six games for Bamford which is phenomenal really. In any situation like this where a player is pulling up trees, the first port of call is a big well done to the player and secondly it’s about the culture and the people that surround him and what Marcelo Bielsa has managed to do with him.

Bielsa has shown him confidence in his place in the team and confidence in what he does and on those few occasions when things haven’t gone according to plan, Bielsa has not been the type to put him in the firing line and single him out.

He’s very much empathised his value to the team and the squad as a collective in what he wants from his players

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Also, when new strikers have come in, Patrick has still started the games which means he has earned the right to start the games and whoever comes in has to usurp what he has done for Leeds.

As a player, that would fill you with no end of confidence and he and Leeds are reaping the rewards of that.

It’s still early knockings in this season but not early knockings in Bamford’s career and maybe just maybe there’s that sense making up for lost time and it’s a wonderful look into how diverse football is in terms of the diverse way that players are motivated.

Some like the carrot, some like the stick, some like a bit of both. Some need a bit of a cuddle, some need sugar and some need a bit of fire in their belly.

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Everyone is different and whatever is making Patrick tick at this moment in time, long may it continue.

The win at Villa put Leeds in their highest league position since 2002 and as fans it’s wonderful and it’s heady days indeed.

But it’s heady days that aren’t shared with the fans face to face and unfortunately that tends to be the caveat with any celebration that we are talking about right now with regards not just to football but across the board.

I still maintain that firstly you have got to make sure that you hurtle towards what would be a respectable points haul to make sure that you are in the division next season and after that then you really can relay your focus into what the next half of the season may be.

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Monday against Wolves was the first time this season I had seen Leeds in the flesh and this is a bit of a cliched way of looking at it but that way of playing seems to suit them and seems to suit the Premier League.

Just in that game they allowed Wolves back into it in the second half and obviously Wolves got a big slice of luck with the ball coming back off Kalvin’s head for their goal.

It just goes to show how tough these games can be, how different the emotions can be after a week in the Premier League.

These are wonderful times but I am sure Marcelo is cautiously optimistic.

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I was listening to talkSPORT driving home very late on Friday and they had Gabby Abgonlahor on and there were queues of Leeds fans ringing up to batter him after he had called them a myth on social media after the Wolves defeat.

Patrick then alluded to that in his interview and I understand the wonderfully partisan way that football fans follow their team and how tribal it is.

With the audacity to utter a word against your football team, it doesn’t take much to rile up a football fan and that’s what I absolutely love about it.

Any sort of slight becomes an attack on everyone and that’s when the armies mobilise and that’s the camaraderie that comes with supporting a football team.

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I understand Gabby’s sense of humour with it, being a man who would say that it was banter and it’s a bit of brinkmanship on social media given the comings together that we have seen between Leeds and Villa over the recent seasons.

But it gave Leeds’ fans a nice little moment to bask in the sunshine of proving something wrong.

If it pushes the buttons and it pushes Patrick’s buttons and pushes the team’s buttons and gets them motivated then it has been used in a positive way.

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Thank you Laura Collins

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