Leeds United beat A-league side Brisbane Roar 2-1 in the first game of their Australian pre-season tour.
New signing Brenden Aaronson had the ball in the net with his first touch in the first minute of the game but his goal was disallowed having strayed offside.
Dan James had a goal on 23 minutes, Forshaw playing it through for the Welsh winger to smash home at the near-post, a venomous strike that whistled past the keeper.
Barely minutes later, Leeds had the ball in the Roar box, toying with the defence with flicks and passes before it eventually came to James again, who lofted a cross to the back stick for Gelhardt to head home.
Minutes later, Dan James was off, allowing new signing Luis Sinisterra to come on for his first appearance for the Whites.
Kristensen got forward consistently throughout the first-half, with project ‘Jack Harrison at left-back’ going less than swimmingly on the other side. A 3 v 2 was created after Harrison had been sent to the shops, but Kristensen got a touch on the resulting cross.
Soon after, a goal. A scrappy but of play resulted in the ball falling to the feet of trialist Joe Knowles, who has been playing his trade for Oakleigh Cannons in the lower-leagues of Australian football. He took it well, and had the Roar just one goal down going into half-time.
The second half began without many of the players that made the first half tick. They say ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’ and that was incredibly evident today, with a disjointed second half showing the impact that Marc Roca had, creating almost everything good that happened going forward, breaking up the opposition’s play and spraying the ball about like nobody’s business.
Instead in the midfield, we saw a debut for Tyler Adams and Darko Gyabi, who both played the ball about fairly well but didn’t really get anything going in the final third in the way that the Spaniard had done.
Knowles and O’Shea looked good going forward, the latter causing Kristoffer Klaesson to produce a quality save, and they continued to attack well throughout the half.
Cody Drameh, fresh off the back of a successful loan spell in Wales, looked weak defensively, letting his man go one too many times and almost allowing Luke Ivanovic to score an equaliser after a mazy run.
Bamford had a header go wide, as Greenwood’s cross was slightly behind him. Struijk failed to put a couple off free headers in goal. Tyler Adams had a shot blocked. Bamford had a snap-shot from the edge of the box saved. That was the extent of Leeds getting forward in the second half really, with Brisbane undoubtedly having the better chances, including a Lofthouse open goal after the ball had hit Klaesson, leaving the Norwegian behind, but the pinball only resulted in a blazed effort over the bar, somehow.
It was, frankly, a disappointing second half after the first one showed so much promise, but the high-intensity style of play was shown across the entire 90, with Summerville amongst those winning it back high as well as the midfield players getting up towards the defence when they had it in their own third.