A bumper crowd went to Elland Road to watch the first match of the post Bates era and it was against the last team to visit Elland Road in the Bates era as we took on Brighton, under new management with the ex Barca youth coach Oscar Garcia.
If you remember the last game when the two clubs came together, cheating and controversy was high, diving, a poor ref, and red cards left Brighton winning the most players on the pitch battle at 9-10 and the game 2-1.
Nothing much seemed to change apart from the atmosphere inside Elland Road, everyone in a good mood since the Bates departure. But Brighton's and the refs characteristics remain the same, diving, cheating and trying to get our players sent off all seemed to feature in this match. The first major piece of action came after 13 minutes when Ulloa scored. I've always been very critical of Ulloa because he has never impressed me. This stunned all the Leeds crowd who were expecting a great start to the new campaign. It wasn't long until we were celebrating though when McCormack scored from a Tonge cross. The final goal of the game came in the final minutes of added time when Luke Murphy completed a dream debut by giving the whites their second opening day victory since returning to the championship. This reminds me of the opening day of the 2009/10 League One season where when it looked like we would draw a last minute goal by Jermaine Beckford meant we won and got our season off to a flying start. That year we won promotion, lets hope this season pans out like that one.
Now I feel like I need to moan about another poor performance by the ref. There were instances where there was clear diving by the Brighton lads and yet the ref either fell for it all received a back hander. Leeds kept getting players carded. It was even to the point where the diving got unbelievable. If you get the chance to see the Bruno dive on the touch line you will be stunned that he thought he could get away with it. He dived approximately 7-10 seconds after any contact with anything but air.
This game leaves Leeds 4th in the league and Brighton down in 16th.
That's all for this blog, the next blog will be up on Tuesday when Leeds face League Two opposition Chesterfield in the Capital One Cup first round. You can keep up to date with this blog on twitter @LUFCWorld and follow my personal account @AJWoodward29
