As the game ticked towards full-time with Leeds United only a goal to the good, a very positive but very palpable nervousness poured down from the Elland Road terraces.
If anyone does not know what promotion to the Premier League would mean to Leeds, they only needed to be inside the ground to hear for themselves as the Whites edged their way to a 2-1 win over Preston North End which put them back on top of the Championship with four matches to play.
A deaf person could have felt the stomach-turning nervousness all around the ground as the home supporters desperately willed their team on to see the job out.
When Joel Piroe was missing chances left, right and centre to put the game to bed, they sang Patrick Bamford's name and manager Daniel Farke almost immediately summoned the striker to get ready to come on.
When the fourth official raised his board to signal how many minutes would be added on, tens of thousands of people howled "Six?!" in unison.
WHen Bogle won a corner in the fifth of thise minutes, they cheered it like a winning goal. Kedds did not dare send a olater uinto the penalty area to contest it.
When Karl Darlow hugged a routine cross into his midriff, it was if he had saved the final penalty in a play-off final shoot-out.
And when the final whistle went and the goals scored by Manor Solomon and Jayden Bogle what felt like a eternity ago proved to be enough, they celebrated as if this was the game which secured promotion.
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| EARLY START: Manor Solomon celebrates putting Leeds United in front in the fourth minute (Imgae: George Wood/Getty Images) |
If only it were that simple.
Back-to-back victories have, however, steadied Leeds after a spring-time wobble. The glee with which the crowd sarcastically sang "Leeds are falling apart again" after their usual rendition of Marching on Together was massive, so to then hear that Plymouth Argyle had inflicted a third straight defeat on Sheffield United just topped it all off.
If it felt like a big win, it sounded like an even bigger one. It was certainly too big an occasion for the stadium Wifi, so the news from Home Park will have come as a very pleasant surprise to most.
Unusually for an away team at Elland Road, Preston came to play football, and Leeds were glad they did.
They were in front inside four minutes, Solomon playing the ball to Ilia Gruev, getting it back around the edge of the area and curling a quite brilliant goal.
Leeds can too often surrender the initiative when they score really early, and Preston were level alomst instantly, former Huddersfield Town loanee Kaine Kelser-Hayden showing that he too had an eye for a curling finish.
It kept Leeds on it, and made for an entertaining first half.
David Cornell pushed out a Joel Piroe cross-shot from a tight angle, only for Bogle to put his shot wide.
The right-back was enjoying getting forward and not sticking to his wing. He popped up at centre-forward in the first seconds of the 13th minute to convert a cross from Solomon, much improved from his performance at Luton Town the previous weekend.
The biggest roar of the afternoon, at least at the stage, came when Darlow – on his first Championship appearance at Elland Road – confidently held a 17th-minute corner. When he did the same from Ben Whiteman's delivery in the 38th minute, it got the same response.
Leeds ought to have had a third goal before half-time, but chances came and went.
Bogle was out on the left when he dinked a beautiful ball to Piroe, who looked hesitant but his patience allowed him the space to shoot. He puts his effort wide.
Willy Gnonto forced a good low save when he pounced on the rebound from a Solomon effort.
Piroe looked to have an open goal five minutes later when Brenden Aaronson touched a Junior Firpo ball to him, only to be thwarted by an excellent block.
Aaronson was presented with an even better chance in the 41st minute when Cornell pushed his shot back to him, only for the American to head wide.
Piroe missed a goood opportunity in first-half stoppage time, swinging his boot to Gnonto's ball in but putting his shot just beyond the far post.
The second half saw a succession of chances come and go for Leeds, with Piroe the prime culprit.
The Dutchman shot wide under pressure when Aaronson played him through in the 51st minute, hit the bar from a Solomon cross in the 55th – Gnonto put an Aaronson pull-back from a similar area wide seconds later – headed a difficult-to-divert Bogle cross off target in the 67th, and was wide again when Bogle broke from a 72nd-minute corner and teed him up.
Whilst it was 2-1, it was nervous.
Darlow started the half with a good save when Preston worked a corner to former Barnsley man Ben Whiteman, then had a brainwave midway through the second half, punching the ball in the D and conceding a free-kick which luckily for Leeds flicked off Araonson's head for a corner.
But Leeds got over the line and events at Plymouth have them sitting not comfortably by any means but far more comfortably then they were a week earlier.
Leeds United: Darlow; Bogle, Rodon, Ampadu, Firpo; Tanaka, Gruev; Gnonto (Bamford 80), Aaronson (Schmidt 80), Solomon (Byram 90+5); Piroe.
Unused substitutes: Meslier, Ramazani, Joseph, Guilavogui, Debayo, Wober.
Preston North End: Cornell; Storey (Porteous 64(, Gibson, Hughes (Lindsay 87); Kesler-Hayden, Thordason (Carroll 87), Whiteman, Meghoma (Keane 80); Brady (Riis 64); Osmajic, Frokjær-Jensen.
Unused substitutes: Evans, Bauer, Mawene, Stowell.
Referee: J Busby (Oxfordshire).
- Stuart Rayner
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