A simple first half finish from Chris Wood and a vital penalty save from Rob Green was all that separated Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday in a closely fought Yorkshire derby at Elland Road today, but it was enough to give Leeds some valuable breathing space as the race for promotion heats up.

Leeds have two tricky away fixtures ahead of them now, travelling first to the Midlands in midweek for a meeting with mid-table Birmingham who’ll be in confident mood following a 2-1 derby win away to Wolves.

The Whites then face a Fulham side who look to have a bit of the Simon Grayson era Leeds United about them (free-scoring, if a little porous at the back), undefeated in their last 4 league games, winning two of those games 3-2 and drawing today against Cardiff 2-2. They’re also hot on the heels of the play-off spots, currently 8 points adrift of ourselves but with a game in hand, this could be considered something of a ‘six-pointer’, with victory for Fulham putting them firmly in the mix.

If you’re feeling particularly confident about Leeds’ chances ahead of the next two and fancy a flutter, you can check out one of our partners to place a Championship bet with a promo code.

While Leeds’ next two games won’t decide the season, we still have fixtures against Brighton, Newcastle United and Reading to come, making for a difficult slog to the finish line for Leeds, even with the 8-point cushion we currently enjoy.

All of which makes today’s win an incredibly important one. It was perhaps the most significant meeting between Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday in many years considering the respective league positions and Rob Green’s penalty save felt like it might be one of those season-defining moments.

If there are any concerns for Leeds at this stage, the amount of yellow cards we’ve racked up over the course of this season is the biggest. Pontus Jansson is nearing a 3-game ban while the rest of the defence are approaching lesser bans of their own. It’s inevitable Pontus will serve that ban in the coming weeks and is likely to miss the key fixtures, but if others are simultaneously out of action, we’d be left struggling to field much of a defence.

Those are issues for another day however. For now, we can enjoy the double over Wednesday and reflect on how far we’ve come since they hammered us 6-0 and released a DVD to celebrate.

On and on…