Why commentator 'let it all out' for Joe Gelhardt's late Leeds United winner versus Norwich City

Kenny McClean put the ball in the net and I put my head on the desk.

We were about to get only a point, against Norwich City, and that was not at all what we required. We really were fully entrenched in a relegation battle and it wasn’t looking good.

Normally, it’s not difficult to detach my emotions from my job when I’m commentating on Italian games or international fixtures. I first started in the media straight after I retired, getting a three-year deal at ITV as a pundit and then staying in the media, doing something I’ve always enjoyed. Twenty-odd years later I’m still hanging in there and, when Leeds asked me to join the LUTV coverage, I jumped at the chance. We are clearly ever-so-slightly biased but that’s absolutely fine, so I can enjoy it and go for it. I do try not to go crazy but, let’s be honest, Leeds United put us through the ringer and, recently, it’s been a little crazy. That 60 seconds against Manchester United was probably the best 60 seconds I’ve had down at Elland Road, and Norwich was another of those moments when it just all comes out. You have to let it all out.

We were still trying to recover from what had just happened when that winner went in.

Ben Gibson was the favourite to win the ball but, somehow, Joffy gets a head on it, flicks it out to Raphinha, everyone’s hopes are up and, just when you think he’s taken it too wide and we’ve missed our opportunity, he calmly rolls it across and Joffy is right where he needed to be to tuck it in.

All hell broke loose. The emotion, the screams from Bryn and me and everyone in the stadium was just amazing. It was unrelenting.

It felt like winning the Champions League, World Cup and FA Cup all rolled into one when, in reality, all we’d done was beat the worst team in the Premier League at home. It’s a strange thing, but it felt that good because it was that important. That’s why the emotion came out.

At the start of the afternoon when I looked at the team, my first thought was that clearly we’re trying to get players back into their rightful positions. I think, when you’re trying new tactics and getting used to a new manager, doing all that on top of not playing in your favoured position makes it all the more difficult.

Confidence can quickly drain if it all goes wrong. I looked at that side and thought it looked a lot more solid; players playing where they could perform at their best.

It was a big call to keep Rodrigo in. Let’s be frank, the performance against Villa was an absolute shocker and the 45 minutes from Rodrigo was really poor. He gave the ball away most of the time that he had it. We know the quality he’s got so the manager was faced with a decision of bringing someone else in or sticking with him. Jesse Marsch was rewarded because Rodrigo was superb, not just with the first goal. He had energy, showed will and backed it up with quality.

Patrick Bamford starting for the first time since September was interesting. If we could have got an hour out of him, I’d have started him but, if we could get only 45 minutes, I would have been tempted to put him on for the second half against a tiring defence.

Marsch decided to start with him and he was really good. He was sharp, his runs and movement were good, he stopped players playing out from the back and added height so we had a target man. For the goal, knowing Bamford was going to run in between the two centre-halves pushed them back and we picked up the second ball to score from it. Little things like that are what our main No 9 gives us.

Besides Bamford’s return, Raphinha was reassuringly lively, brilliant and could have scored a wondergoal but he hit the bar.

At half-time, I was sitting wondering why I felt so comfortable, because the game should have been out of sight against a poor side.

They showed themselves to be a poor side in that first half as we racked up chances, not just half-chances, and kept missing them.

It’s always in the back of your mind, the possibility that we will come to regret it and the confidence it will give the opposition that they’re still in the game. We gave them belief instead of taking it away and putting it to bed. The changes in the second half had an effect. Rodrigo, who had that strapping around his thigh, came off and, by putting Robin Koch first into the midfield and then back into a back three, we conceded space and territory and never looked like we would do what we did in the first half.

It still felt like we would win the game; it was all about keeping a clean sheet and going and getting the second goal, but we couldn’t see it out from 1-0. We conceded a poor goal, a striker shouldn’t have got around a centre-half and a good ball into the box suddenly means it’s 1-1.

We’ve seen the boys’ spirit time and time again, though. We managed to pull it out of the bag, which was absolutely wonderful and deserved too.

Wolves away will be a tough one, though. They’re well organised, technically good, they don’t give many goals away and they can hurt us on the counter attack. They’re able to soak up pressure.

Confidence will be high for Leeds and we have another game under our belts tactically with Marsch, so the understanding will be key. He’s had two weeks with the squad now and I think he’s doing more than a decent job. I look back at the tenure of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, when whoever came after him was going to suffer degrees of failure. I’m not quite saying it’s the same thing at Leeds United but following Marcelo Bielsa is a really tough task in so many different ways.

Marsch has come in and said everything right and I do like what he’s trying to do tactically; I think he’s getting it across to his players and his communication seems great. All those things are wonderful but, while the bottom line is always results, we have to cut him a bit of slack. The first game was extremely impressive yet, from those highs, we plunged to extreme disappointment against Aston Villa.

The reality is probably somewhere in between and that’s what we saw against Norwich. We also saw that Marsch has got the passion, just like the boys have and everyone is rowing in the right direction. That’s all we can ask. We have to build on Norwich now. Any points will be good ones, from this next one.