On the night when Leeds celebrated the career of one of their great managers, how fitting the timing felt that the 2025 class of Elland Road delivered a display and a result of which Howard Wilkinson would have been proud – and one which the incumbent manager desperately needed.
Leeds’s season may ultimately not be defined by a night such as this, but it could well be reignited by it. The pressure had been mounting after a run of four successive defeats that had dropped the side into the relegation zone, and left speculation swirling over Daniel Farke’s future at the club.