Leeds United 4-1 Huddersfield Town: Leeds cruise to win over Terriers after first-half goal blitz

Third-placed Leeds returned to winning ways by walloping Huddersfield in the Yorkshire derby.

The Terriers had lost only two of their previous 14 Yorkshire derbies and had not conceded in their last three.

But Darren Moore’s side were disappointing and remain one place above the drop zone.

Daniel Farke made four changes to the Leeds side which lost 1-0 at Stoke on Wednesday with James and Summerville recalled along with Jamie Shackleton and Glen Kamara.

Moore made three changes from the side beaten 4-0 at home by Cardiff on Tuesday, with Tom Edwards, Tom Lees and Brahima Diarra all coming in.

Town striker Delano Burgzorg fired a low shot past the base of Illan Meslier’s upright inside 10 minutes but it proved a false dawn and Joel Piroe had a close-range effort disallowed for offside soon after as Leeds began to click into gear.

The deadlock was broken on 20 minutes when Georginio Rutter’s delightful pass freed Summerville to drive forward from midfield before finding James on his right to curl a superb low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.

It was 2-0 just after the half-hour mark when Piroe found Summerville who jinked his way in from the left of the box before firing in a low shot which beat the unsighted Lee Nicholls.

The third arrived just three minutes later from another devastating counter-attack with Piroe and Rutter combining to free Summerville. He rolled a pass into the path of the marauding James who controlled and fired home another low shot from a similar position to his first.

It was four in first-half stoppage time when Rutter burst down the left before cutting back to Summerville, who faked to shoot on his right before sweeping a left-footed shot into the bottom corner.

Town withdrew Edwards and Diarra at the interval and improved after the break, though Leeds also took their foot off the gas.

Burgzorg was crowded out after being played through before Helik tapped home a consolation after Meslier spilled a swerving long-range strike from Sorba Thomas. It was the Polish defender’s fourth goal of the season – a team high.

Leeds manager Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Leeds:

“I think you could see how much it meant to the players, first to win the local derby but secondly to show the right reaction to the disappointing result at Stoke. We did this in a perfect manner.

“It was an electrifying first half with some unbelievable offensive work, we were all over them, so many chances – it was not perfect because I got the feeling we didn’t make enough of our dominance, but at half-time you can’t complain too much.

“There were one or two situations when we allowed them too much, but we are pleased with the result and the performance. It was outstanding in our third game in seven days and we had one day less to recover.”

Huddersfield boss Darren Moore told BBC Radio Leeds:

“It’s not a nice place to be at the moment, to concede four again today is a disappointment given the magnitude of the game. It was a game we wanted to respond in the right way after Tuesday night.

“There was a pivotal moment at 1-0 when we had a great chance which went begging but the disappointment was the two quickfire goals after that took the game away from us. We had to solidify the team a bit at half-time and the second half just petered out.

“I don’t want to make excuses. I just thought at times some of our defending should have been better, I take full responsibility for it.”