Patrick Bamford's Leeds United luck admission and 'relief' after tough Middlesbrough test

Patrick Bamford admitted Leeds United may have been a tad fortunate to be awarded their third goal in the 4-3 victory over Middlesbrough.

Bamford scored on his return to the Riverside to put the Whites 2-1 up in a back-and-forth game that saw Leeds eventually do enough to take all three points and move up to second in the Championship. But it was the third Leeds goal that caused the most controversy, with Wilfried Gnonto in an offside position when he received the ball before scoring.

Michael Carrick was nonplussed about the decision after the game while EFL pundit Adrian Clarke told talkSport that they got 'lucky' with Gnonto 'clearly offside'. And shown the incident during a post-match chat with Sky Sports, who highlighted how his own position may have impeded the linesman's view on Gnonto, Bamford admitted Leeds may have gotten away with one.

READ MORE: Michael Carrick's referee frustrations and his positives from Middlesbrough's Leeds defeat

He said: “It’s maybe a bit of luck if I’ve ended up in the linesman’s eyesight and blocked his view. I was just there to give Willy an option in case he wanted to square it. It’s a tight call. He’s maybe just off.”

On the important victory overall, Bamford continued: “Given the last ten minutes, it was a little bit of a relief in the end. It was horrible watching that last ten minutes. But the most important thing was just winning the game, it didn’t matter how we did it.

"We want to stick to our beliefs and processes, but we said at half-time, the way Middlesbrough are playing it was going to be tough. So we had to suffer a little bit and be patient and wait for our moment. We made sure we were compact and we know that we’re a good counter-attacking team. It was all going to plan until those last five minutes!"

Bamford was involved in two big moments in the game himself, starting with the penalty that got Leeds back on level terms after Isaiah Jones' early goal. Initially, it appeared Bamford would take the penalty when he picked up the ball, but there were ironic cheers from the Boro fans when he gave the ball to Crysencio Summerville, appearing to pass up the opportunity against his former side.

Explaining the incident, he said: “Of course, I want to take penalties. But Cry is the penalty taker and that’s been the case for quite a while now. It’s kind of giving away my secret, but I always pick it up first to kind of take away the flack from him and he can then just concentrate on it when he gets the ball."

Bamford would later get a goal though - his eighth of the season for the Whites. On the per-match work to make it, he said: “It was a great ball in. I said to Junior [Firpo] before the game, ‘every chance you get to put the ball in the box, don’t turn it down and I’ll try and make sure I make the movement’.

"To be fair, I agree, I think the goalkeeper should probably come out and get it, but then it was just a case of, how can I try and control it to keep it down and get it into the goal because it was an awkward one. It always seems to go that way [scoring against a former team], doesn’t it?”