By George Overhill

11th Mar, 2022 | 3:40pm

Tyrone Mings 'had the last laugh' on Leeds United in redemption from 3-3 draw

Tyrone Mings made a pledge after the Leeds United draw that saw him overcome major abuse to have “the last laugh” at Elland Road, says The Athletic.

The Aston Villa defender was on the receiving end of what The Athletic’s Phil Hay said on Twitter was the worst “slaughtering” he’d seen from the Elland Road crowd, during the visitor’s 3-0 victory last night (Thursday 10 March).

The England man had a nightmare outing in the roller coaster 3-3 draw between the sides at Villa Park in early February, but the nature of that result appears to have been the catalyst for his and his team’s improvement.

Gregg Evans writes in The Athletic, in a piece detailing Steven Gerrard’s response to the home draw: “Take Tyrone Mings, the captain who was at fault for at least two of the three goals back in Birmingham.

“He had stayed off social media until last weekend as part of a pledge to get his head down and rediscover top form.

“A whipped-up Leeds crowd ripped into him from the off with chants of “Tyrone Mings, he’s [expletive]ing [expletive]”.

“Leeds correspondent Phil Hay suggested that no other individual has suffered such relentless berating as he did during a fierce opening 30 minutes.

“But it was Mings who had the last laugh. The final chant of the night came from the Villa supporters who sang: “He’s here, he’s there, he’s every-[expletive]ing-where.” Who could argue with that?”

Had to be

The wild draw last month appeared to give the best indication of why United should be optimistic heading into last night’s game.

The White’s attacking display suggested an ability to get at Mings and company in defence.

And the switch from Marcelo Bielsa’s open system to Jesse Marsch’s more compact shape should have meant the weakness from the first game was addressed.

The American had spoken ahead of the game about having a plan for Philippe Coutinho, involved in all three of the Villains’ goals before, so the lessons appeared to have been learned.

Instead, none of the positive changes were in effect at Elland Road from a home perspective, and in fact it was the visitors’ who had responded properly to the events of the previous meeting.

The Brazilian was afforded far too much space to open the scoring once again, and the English defender was on such form that he even bagged an assist.

Virtually any reason for confidence was dashed last night, and Mings clearly enjoyed proving the Whites fans wrong.

Where the team goes from here is hard to see barring a major improvement against Norwich.

In other Leeds United news, the manager appeared to react angrily to a fan’s actions at last night’s game.