Heckingbottom pleased with manner of victory over QPR

Posted Monday, May 07, 2018 by PA

Leeds boss Paul Heckingbottom believes the manner of his side’s performance was a sign of appreciation to the fans after watching his team ease to a 2-0 win against QPR.

Kemar Roofe opened the scoring with a spectacular bicycle kick on the half hour mark before Kalvin Phillips rounded off a comfortable victory with a low drive two minutes after the restart.

As a result, Heckingbottom secured only his fourth league victory in 16 matches since taking over from Thomas Christiansen in February – and the former Barnsley man believes the supporters deserved to watch their side take maximum points.

“It’s nice to finish with a win. Good performance, clean sheet and quite simply, the players can thank the fans properly,” he said in his post-match conference.

“The fan support has been fantastic throughout the season. You can see the players, the effort, the energy, the commitment throughout the performance, which should be a given.

“I haven’t put a team out that I have been happy with in terms of performance, balance or where strengths and weaknesses are.

“(Today) that’s as close as (it gets), but I still want to improve on that.”

Heckingbottom has handed debuts to Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Tom Pearce and Paudie O’Connor since his arrival at Elland Road and he gave another academy product, Ryan Edmondson, his first appearance and the 16-year-old nearly marked it with a goal.

The 40-year-old quelled speculation about his future at the club and is adamant he is the right man for the job as he pushes for stability at Elland Road.

“The club came and got me so they know what I want to try and do and how I want to do it. We have to get that synergy at the club.

“You guys (journalists) generally ask me about the product on the pitch what you see. But there’s so much more we need to improve on to get things right at this club.”

On Edmondson’s debut, he added: “He’s a good guy. Why did we put him in? Quite simply, he gives everything to be a footballer and that is what we want to create.

“I can’t have people here who go through the motions.”

QPR looked bright in the early exchanges with former Leeds striker Matt Smith going close on two occasions, while Josh Scowen was off target from range.

However, manager Ian Holloway admitted his side lacked experience as he dropped Nedum Onuoha, Jamie Mackie and Idrissa Sylla from the 18-man squad after confirming their futures lie away from Loftus Road.

“I really didn’t enjoy that. I didn’t see what I wanted to see. But that’s probably because of the changing of the guard,” he told the club’s official website.

“Last week (against Birmingham), I put on three senior players and they helped us turn that from a 1-1 into a 3-1 in favour of us, but I didn’t have the luxury of that (today).

“I told them all to go if they weren’t going to be with us so I just used some of the young ones to give them some experience.

“I thought we didn’t hurt them enough, we didn’t test them enough attacking-wise.

“I’m just disappointed. I’m disappointed in myself to start with. We didn’t get enough support to big Matt (Smith).”