Mateo Joseph scored his third hat-trick of the season as Leeds United U21s saw off Middlesbrough 4-2 at Rockliffe Park. The forward has been in prolific form lately and he notched his 12 th goal of the season on Saturday, just a few days after his 19 th birthday, to help the Whites move six points clear at the top of the Premier League 2 Division 2 table.
The Whites actually fell behind in the game and trailed at the break due to Calum Kavanagh’s opener for the home side. However, the introductions of Sean McGurk and Joe Snowdon provided the spark the Whites needed in the second half and 16 minutes after the break, Leeds equalised as Joseph followed up on Sonny Perkins’ parried shot.
McGurk bagged a second a few minutes later, with a curling effort from outside the box, before Joseph gave Leeds a comfortable lead. The Spanish forward was on hand once more in the dying moments of the clash to complete his hat-trick and ensure Leeds bounced back to winning ways following their first defeat of the season last time out at Bolton Wanderers.
Read more: Leeds United U21s player ratings as Mateo Joseph steals show again in victory at Middlesbrough
Michael Skubala was clearly keen to keep Joseph’s feet on the ground after the game, but the U21s chief piled praise on the striker and a handful of others after the game.
“I moved Mateo to left wing/left inside so he would go in advance of the nine so we’d get more movements in the pockets,” Skubala said at full-time. “I actually moved him deeper to get him more effective. I thought in the second half he took his goals well. Really good second half from Mateo.
“He’s in good form. He still needs to keep working hard, he’s a nine so he still needs to affect the game more as a nine. He’s in a good place, he’s scoring goals, he’s a character, but he still needs to keep working hard. His finishing ability is top drawer.
“I think the subs really impacted the game, Amari (Miller), Deano (Max Dean), Snowy, who hasn’t had a lot of minutes, and Sean McGurk and his quality.”
He added: “I thought it was a difficult first half, difficult with the wind and difficult with how they wanted to play but in the same sense we weren’t good. It wasn’t about football, it was about decision making in the right moments and sometimes we tried to overplay and other times we didn’t stretch the game enough to create the spaces for players to find gaps. The second half was really pleasing.”
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