Leeds United winger Stuart Dallas felt the performance at Sunderland showed they are ready to push for promotion.
Dallas spoke after Leeds had come away from the Stadium of Light with a 2-0 win, with the Northern Ireland international coming off the bench to clinch the win with a header in the final fifteen minutes of the game.
Leeds have started the season strongly under new head coach Thomas Christiansen and many expected it to take time for the squad to gel, with ten new signings this summer coming into the club from across Europe.
The win at Sunderland sees Leeds remain unbeaten in their first four games of the season and the occupy a play-off spot at this early stage of the season and Dallas says they are more than ready to compete against the fancied favourites for the division.
“Going away anywhere in the Championship and getting three points is a big statement but coming here, this team have just come down from the Premier League,” Dallas told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“There`s a lot of expectation for them to go straight back up but we`ve shown that we`re more than ready and more than good enough to cope with these teams.
“We didn`t just come here to smash and grab. We came here and dominated the game. They had a few half-chances but I thought we looked comfortable. In the end we had tired legs and a few injuries and if we hadn`t have had the injuries we could have had a couple goals more.”
Leeds will finish a busy first month of the season with a trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Forest have also started the season well under Mark Warburton and they beat another team relegated from the Premier League on Saturday, Middlesbrough.
Forest are one point ahead of Leeds in the Championship table and Leeds will go there looking for a third straight away win this season having already won at Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland.
Vital Leeds are the proud sponsors of the Thames Valley Whites Regional Supporters club
The fastest growing Leeds United supporters club in the South of England, with over 200 members since its formation in April 2009, travel to all games home and away.
The branch has pick up points at Reading, Didcot, Abingdon, Oxford, Bicester and Banbury and will consider other pick up points on request.
Vital Leeds is now available on both facebook and twitter, so if you are that way inclined and more importantly understand all this new fangled dangled stuff, feel free to watch us, poke us or whatever else you are meant to do there!
Vital Leeds on:
Vital Leeds on:
Join Vital Leeds
It’s easy to REGISTER HERE, simply click the link and enjoy getting involved!