Leeds United 1-0 Brentford
- Published
Victory gave Paul Heckingbottom his first win as Leeds boss
Leeds United ended their 10-match winless run with victory over Brentford to boost their play-off hopes.
Liam Cooper headed the hosts into the lead from Ezgjan Alioski's free-kick.
Pierre-Michel Lasogga nearly scored a second when his shot beat goalkeeper Dan Bentley but Ryan Woods cleared off the line.
Bees defender John Egan had forced a fine save from home keeper Felix Wiedwald before Cooper's goal but the visitors rarely threatened thereafter.
It was Leeds' first win under Paul Heckingbottom, their previous success having come at Burton on Boxing Day under previous head coach Thomas Christiansen.
They had come within seconds of claiming victory at Derby on Wednesday before conceding a late equaliser, but never looked likely to suffer a similar disappointment after Cooper headed in his first goal of the season.
Alioski felt he should have had a penalty in the second half when he went down under a challenge from Yoann Barbet, but the referee was unmoved, while Woods did well to clear Lasogga's shot off the line as Leeds pressed for a second.
Heckingbottom's men are now 11th, five points off the play-offs, with Brentford a point and a place better off.
Leeds boss Paul Heckingbottom:
"It's good to have the first win, it is a reward for the hard work of the players.
"There are lots of positives to take from the performance. Lots of organisation goes into it and to be successful in this league you have to be
able to defend and stop teams as well as hurt teams.
"We had chances to get the second and close the game out and that is an area where we will need to be better."
Brentford boss Dean Smith:
"It looked like it was going to be one way traffic, but then the Leeds goal comes from an offside position.
"We should have had a penalty when Neal Maupay gets thrown to the ground. You want the big decisions to go your way, but they didn't today.
"We were too sloppy on the ball and the subs didn't work today. We were very poor on the ball, certainly in the second half."