There was emotion in the air before kick-off, too, as both sets of supporters paid tribute to Leeds legend Terry Yorath, with a minute’s applause led and watched closely by his daughter, Gabby Logan. It set the tone for a day that became less about style and more about heart, persistence and the sort of stubborn belief that tends to separate survivors from the sides who sink quietly.
Leeds started at a frenetic pace, trying to overwhelm Fulham with intensity and front-foot pressing. The best early opening fell to Brenden Aaronson. Jayden Bogle’s lofted through ball put him clean in behind and suddenly it was Aaronson against Bernd Leno, a moment begging for composure. Instead, his mistimed half-volley ballooned over and Fulham escaped, the first warning that Leeds’ finishing might keep the door ajar.
That theme kept returning. Leeds had the lion’s share of the ball, the sharper edge in duels, and more purpose in the final third. Fulham, by contrast, looked subdued and unusually passive, defending their box and waiting for Leeds to make a mistake rather than forcing one themselves.
The second half unfolded like a rerun of the first: Leeds building, Leeds arriving, Leeds failing to apply the final touch. Dominic Calvert-Lewin should have scored around the hour mark when Aaronson delivered a gorgeous cross and the striker met it from point-blank range. Somehow, he missed the target. It was one of those chances that makes a ground inhale and then exhale in disbelief, and for a moment it felt like the game was drifting towards the kind of sterile draw that punishes the team that tries most.
Fulham offered almost nothing in response. Even when they protected their penalty area well, the visitors weren’t carrying any real counter-punch. Their second-half attacking output was threadbare and their few moments in Leeds territory never developed into genuine danger.
As the clock ran down, the tension rose. Leeds kept pushing, kept feeding runners wide, kept throwing bodies into the area, but without that clean strike or clever final pass that turns dominance into points. And then, in the 91st minute, the dam finally cracked.
Fulham failed to clear their lines in a messy sequence, miskicking and dithering, and the ball broke kindly for Ethan Ampadu on the left. He delivered with real quality, a beautiful ball into the danger zone, and Nmecha attacked it with the sort of determination that doesn’t wait for permission. Stretching out a leg, he poked it past Leno and Elland Road detonated.
It wasn’t just the timing that mattered, it was the meaning. The win keeps Leeds eight points clear of the relegation places and continues a run that has started to look like a team learning how to stay alive. For Fulham, it was a flat afternoon that leaves them hovering around mid-table and drifting further from the European conversation.
Afterwards, Daniel Farke’s relief came through in the language of a man who knows exactly what survival points feel like. He called it his “best win of the season,” praised Leeds’ relentlessness, and stressed how effectively his side prevented Fulham from showing their attacking quality. He also singled out Nmecha, pointing to the striker’s finishing and the value of having a forward who can decide a match in a single moment.
Marco Silva, meanwhile, didn’t dress it up. He admitted Fulham were “not good,” said Leeds deserved the win, and pointed to his side falling “below the standards” in the second half. He was particularly unhappy with the way Fulham conceded so late, the sort of soft collapse that managers loathe because it feels avoidable. Silva also brushed off his own booking as an emotional moment with an official, nothing more, but the bigger message was unmistakable: Fulham were poor, and they have to be better.
