Leeds put four past Oxford to maintain promotion push
Free-scoring Leeds United kept up the pressure on Sheffield United at the top of the Championship after cruising to a 4-0 win over struggling Oxford.
Daniel Farke’s side cut loose with three second-half goals from Jayden Bogle, Brenden Aaronson and Manor Solomon after Dan James had opened the scoring to make it nine straight league wins at Elland Road.
The heavy defeat saw Oxford, who sacked head coach Des Buckingham last week and have still to win away this season, drop into the relegation zone.
They were watched from the stands by Buckingham’s successor Gary Rowett who will take charge officially against Cardiff on Boxing Day.
Rowett, the ex-Millwall Derby and Birmingham manager, faces a fight to avoid an immediate return to League One for Oxford after winning promotion last season.
Caretaker coach Craig Short took charge for the visit to West Yorkshire, setting out to try to contain the division’s top scorers and try to catch them on the break.
But it took the home side only nine minutes to unlock the packed visitors’ defence with James striking after determined play down the left from Solomon. The on-loan Spurs wing muscled his way past the stretched Oxford defence before squaring for James to slide in at the far post for his fifth goal of the season.
James almost doubled Leeds’s lead in the 30th with a curling left-footed shot from outside the penalty area which Oxford goalkeeper Jamie Cumming did well to push away low to his right.
Had Oxford managed to equalise through Przemyslaw Placheta, who spooned his left-footed finish over the bar after being put through by Owen Dale, or Ciaron Brown who wasted a free header from Tyler Goodhrham’s free-kick, it could conceivably have been a different story.
But once Bogle had scored Leeds’s second in the 57th minute the points were safe. The former Sheffield United full-back interchanged passes with Aaronson neatly down the right before finishing from an acute angle.
Aaronson made it 3-0 10 minutes later, finishing off some good approach work from Solomon for his sixth goal since returning from his loan spell at Union Berlin.
Solomon got on the scoresheet himself in the 73rd minute, beating Cumming at his near post with a fierce shot after being put in by Piroe.
The Oxford goalkeeper made a great stop from Largie Ramazani’s header to prevent a fifth late on but his side were emphatically beaten.
Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu came through a full 90 minutes at the centre of the defence in what was his first start since September after a knee ligament injury.
Attention now turns to two successive games on the road for Leeds at Stoke on Boxing Day and then Derby on December 29.
