Nottingham Forest 0, Leeds United 4 Leeds kicked off what promises to be a long goodbye to Gary Speed with an emotional and impressive win at the City Ground tonight.

Wales manager Speed was found dead at his home on Sunday, aged 42, and Leeds, with whom he won the old First Division title in 1992, were the first of his five former clubs to play since the tragic news broke.

Manager Simon Grayson, who forged a lifelong friendship with Speed after they signed schoolboy forms with Leeds on the same day when they were 14, asked his players to win the game in Speed’s memory.

And they duly produced their best performance of the season to do so, with first-half goals from Robert Snodgrass and Jonny Howson and second-half strikes from Luciano Becchio and Adam Clayton.

Leeds’ dominant on-field display was almost a backdrop to a celebration of Speed’s life off it, though.

Prior to kick-off the two sets of fans shelved historic animosities dating back to the feuds of Brian Clough and Don Revie to join together in a minute’s applause, while the travelling support chanted Speed’s name for 11 minutes during the first half.

Speed predominantly wore that shirt number throughout his 312 appearances for Leeds and it was during that vocal tribute that they opened the scoring.

On 20 minutes, Snodgrass picked up possession midway through the Forest half and, after a handful of paces, beat goalkeeper Lee Camp with a crisp left-footed drive from 20 yards.

The goal was celebrated no more vehemently than by Grayson, who was close to breaking down on the sidelines.

United went 2-0 up before the break when Becchio’s touch found Snodgrass, whose cushioned pass set Howson free down the right. He was still 25 yards from goal but hit a first-time half-volley that gave Camp no chance and found the top corner for his first goal since scoring during a 4-1 win over Forest in April.

Becchio made it three in the 49th minute when he rose to head in a Michael Brown cross.

And with 24 minutes left, Leeds made it four when Howson robbed Greg Cunningham just outside the area and, although his shot was parried by Camp, Clayton saw in the rebound.

Forest’s Andy Reid saw red for a second yellow card with 11 minutes to go to cap an awful night for his side.