SUBSTITUTES Harry Wilson and Noah Okafor combined to give Leeds United a precious 1-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur at Elland Road.
The pair had only been on the pitch a few minutes when Wilson’s cute touch in the box set up the on-rushing Okafor who blasted the ball past Antonin Kinsky.
It ended United’s run of five games without a win and saw them leapfrog above an in-form Spurs into the top half of the table.
The goal had been coming and it was reward for the Whites' dominance in the second period in which big-spending Tottenham were on the back foot for long periods.
Ao Tanaka had earlier spoilt a good personal performance by blasting the best chance of the match over the bar after being set up by Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who also had a goal-bound header cleared off the line by Dominic Solanke.
Just before Leeds boss Daniel Farke threw on Okafor and Wilson, Kinsky did well to tip an effort over the bar from Sean Longstaff, who was making his first Premier League start for nearly a year.
The pressure finally told on 78 minutes with the goal that ended the visitors’ three-match winning run and lifted Farke’s men into the top half of the table ahead of the international break.
One man who is unlikely to feature for his country is Swedish full-back Gabriel Gudmundsson, who did not appear for the second half because of a hamstring problem.
His replacement Melvin Bard got his first taste of PL football and the Nice loanee looked sharp, feeding several dangerous crosses into the Spurs box and stuck to his defensive duties to keep his flank under control.
Given their recent form, Tottenham were surprisingly toothless in attack.
Only when they were pushing for an equaliser late on did they fully stretch goalkeeper James Trafford, who clawed away a Jan Paul van Hecke header as the game moved into additional time.
United’s triple centre-backs James Justin, Nico Elvedi and Tarik Muharemovic were rock-solid in front of Trafford, who recovered from his previous week’s howler against Bournemouth, to keep his fifth clean sheet of the season.
Little happened football-wise in the first half with VAR dominating proceedings.
Leeds had an early penalty shout when a Gudmundsson cross struck a leaning Mateus Fernandes on top of the arm but the biggest controversy came on 35 minutes.
Spurs winger Mathys Tel was caught on the back of his left ankle by Jayden Bogle and went down in pain.
Referee John Brooks saw it simply as a foul but VAR replays certainly put the Leeds player in danger of a red card.
Bogle escaped without any punishment but Tel only briefly returned to action before being substituted.
Delighted Farke said: “There's no replacement for this winning feeling after such a game in the dressing room.
“We missed before sadly too many chances. We were relentless today and we kept going and then also fully deserved to go into the lead.”
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