Sky Bet Championship: Leeds United 1 Ipswich Town 0

STRIKER Chris Wood is winning over the boo-boys.

His seventh goal of the season earned Leeds United a 1-0 win against Ipswich Town at Elland Road on Saturday.

That made it four wins on the bounce for the Whites, with Wood scoring in each of them.

That represents a big turnaround in fortunes for both the player and head coach Garry Monk, who suffered defeats in four of his first six Sky Bet Championship matches.

“Chris epitomises what the team are doing, taking that step forward and trying to put our best football on the pitch,” said Monk.

The New Zealand international forward came in for fans’ criticism in the early games but certainly has an admirer in beaten Tractor Boys boss Mick McCarthy.

He said: “Leeds deserved to win. They are a good side, they have got good players. I thought Chris Wood was outstanding, the focal point and the big difference in the team. When they hit it up there they stuck up there and he ran in the channels.”

Wood had already shaken an Ipswich upright with a crunching shot on the run from distance before rounding off a well-worked team move on 35 minutes by heading past Bartosz Bialkowski.

The Ipswich keeper denied both Wood and Kalvin Phillips in a second half of complete Leeds dominance, and only a glaring miss by Hadi Sacko made life a bit more difficult than it should have been for United.

It was their third successive clean sheet and their first Championship shut-out on home soil since a 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough on February 15 – a sequence of 11 league matches.

Ipswich brought their usual muscular approach to the game but were matched by Leeds, who got on top and produced some fine, flowing football, which Elland Road has not seen for some time.

Monk said: “We are taking steps forward for sure. Improvements are there and when you look at that first game (a 3-0 caning at QPR), it is pleasing.

“I have a plan that I work to and everyone is clear with that – they understand exactly where they need to get.

“We are not there yet, there is a lot more work to do, but if we can keep growing in confidence, they are going to get stronger and be very competitive. That is the important bit for me.”

The relentless Championship programme grinds on with Leeds heading to Bristol City tomorrow, where they’ll face on-loan Chelsea teenage whizzkid Tammy Abraham, who scored his tenth goal of the season in the Robins’ 4-0 win at Fulham on Saturday.

Leeds United: Green, Ayling, Bartlkey, Jansson, Taylor, Phillips, O’Kane, Sacko (Roofe 77), Hernandez (Mowatt 82), Dallas (Grimes 86), Wood. Substitutes (not used): Cooper, Silvestri, Antonsson, Coyle

Ipswich Town: Bialkowski, Chambers, Webster (Emmanuel 56), Berra, Knudsen, Ward (Bru 75), Skuse, Douglas, Lawrence, Pitman (Best 25), Sears. Substitutes (not used): Gerken, Dozzell, Grant, Kenlock. Cautions: Berra, Bru

Referee: Stephen Martin (Staffs).

Attendance: 22,554.