Inside Leeds United’s reaction to Leicester and Ipswich’s

Pressure had been squeezed on Leeds United by Easter Monday’s results at Leicester City and Ipswich Town, but Daniel Farke was pleased with the maturity and nerve his players showed at Elland Road. The Foxes may have only won one of their previous six league games, but an overdue victory over Norwich City turned the screw at lunchtime.

Ipswich would then somehow dig out another injury-time winner at Portman Road against a 10-man Southampton side that, reportedly, played very well in Suffolk and still lost. Those two wins, as feared, held United’s feet to the 8pm flame in the last kick-off of the day.

Farke said he and his backroom staff had at least tried to take the players’ minds off what had gone on elsewhere in the country. Although, he acknowledged, they were never going to keep all of the noise out.

“We tried to take the attention from the other games a bit away, but they are all mature and obviously they are not stupid,” he said. “They realised the results over the day and it puts, perhaps, even a bit more pressure on your own game and we don’t want to take this away.

“It’s then, perhaps, even a bit more difficult to focus just on the contest, just on yourself and your own game. This is what we did today and especially the way the first half developed, we started really well, should have scored the second goal with a big chance for Patrick and then they scored out of their only chance.”

Sam Byram’s ninth-minute opener relieved some of the pressure that had been building around the stadium, but Hull City would eventually dominate possession. Seeing an away side dictate play at Elland Road was not comforting for the natives, who were audibly frustrated with United’s inability to get the ball back or then retain it.

It would have been easy for the hosts to capitulate, especially after Fabio Carvalho’s equaliser, but they hung in. It was a test Farke was delighted to see his players come through.

“Sometimes you could lose the nerves and it was important today to show the steel, also mentally, this steel, not to lose the nerves, to stay patient, to not go into their (Hull’s) traps and play pragmatically to win this game,” he said. “For that, I’m pretty pleased with the maturity we’ve shown also in these terms.”