Stuart Dallas' overshadowed Leeds United strikes, the one that couldn't be celebrated and a hunger for more

The second sentence of a football story is ordinarily where you use his position to identify him, rather than naming him again, to avoid repetition.

There’s a problem with that, when it comes to this Leeds United player, because to call him a full-back or a midfielder just wouldn’t be true and wouldn’t really be fair.

Utility man is an option but there’s a faint whiff of odd-job man about it, jack of all trades and master of none.

Dallas performs so well in so many different positions for Leeds and for Northern Ireland that one day an educational establishment of some sort will surely bestow on him an honourary Masters degree in football.

This season he’s been a right-back, a left-back, a box-to-box midfielder, a deep-lying midfielder and an attacking midfielder.

Against Saints, he started at left-back and then moved into midfield, but his position is largely irrelevant when it comes to attacking and defending, because he has to do it all.

It’s no wonder he feels scoring goals is an area of potential improvement, because he’s been so busy doing everything else.

“I don’t get too many to be fair,” he said on Tuesday.

“I’m happy to be able to chip in with the odd goal. It is something that I want to try and add to my game.”

The one that swerved off the big toe of his left foot to beat Alex McCarthy was important; it took the game away from Saints at a crucial time and made for a more comfortable final 10 minutes for Leeds.

It was Dallas’ fifth in the Premier League, equalling his 2019/20 tally in the Championship. He’s Leeds’ third-top goalscorer, level with winger Raphinha.

Most of his goals - he scored with a cross that went all the way through the area at home to Leicester City - have been good ones, albeit overshadowed on the day they were scored.

His first-time carefully guided shot past Kasper Schmeichel came from a nice counter-attacking move and a midfield run in behind the defence.

Patrick Bamford’s top-corner missile was the one being watched on repeat after the win at Leicester. Ghosting into the Newcastle United area allowed him to emphatically head home unmarked from Mateusz Klich’s cross, before Jack Harrison’s jawdropping thunderbolt capped a breakneck counter attack.

Against Saints, Raphinha curled in a sensational free-kick. Direct free-kicks trump all else, usually. Dallas’ best finish was arguably the one that meant the least.

When he took Raphinha’s little pass and sent the ball on a perfect arc high into the net at Old Trafford, Leeds were already 6-1 down.

It was, in the vernacular of his native land, a quare dig.

It was a goal-of-the-season contender on a day when no congratulations could be offered and none would be expected.

Individual awards aren’t quite Dallas’ thing but, whether or not he adds more goals to his game or scores another belter, he’s in the running for Player of the Year for everything else he brings to Leeds.