Gary Rowett, the manager of Oxford United, thought his team gave title-chasing Leeds United a serious scare tonight. With a 1-0 victory at the Kassam Stadium, Daniel Farke’s team returned to the top of the standings and took a step closer to the Premier League.

The sole goal was scored in the 34th minute by Tottenham loanee Manor Solomon, who turned in an inch-perfect cross from Jayden Bogle. “The one thing you have to say about Leeds is that you can’t switch off for a second,” Rowett said to Sky Sports. The goal was a typical instance where we got into a terrific shape and simply switched off, and they are fierce in the last third. They react a little faster than we do, and the ball was sent through the gap and the cross (from Bogle) is excellent. That is the problem with Leeds. You are required to be impeccable.

“I felt it would have been really easy at that point to then end up conceding more opportunities but I thought we hung in there. In the second half, we put them under pressure. We pressed them and we did everything we could to get balls into good areas. I would say we made Leeds have to defend for their lives and I thought they did that. They defended the box really, really well. I thought [Joe] Rodon was outstanding in that sense.

“I’m pretty proud of the performance even though we lost. We showed a lot of character tonight and what a good side we can be, certainly in the second half.”

United has now dropped five of its eight meetings with Leeds in the English Football League (W2 D1), including the last four meetings, which were all decided by an overall score of 11-3. If the U’s lose, they still have three games left in the season to avoid relegation. In the standings, Rowett’s team is five points above the drop zone in 19th place.

United’s next match is an Easter Monday trip to relegation-threatened Cardiff City.