30-07-16: Sunderland U-21 (h) 3-1 (HT 2-0) Crowd (Unknown) (Formation 4-3-3)

Also on Saturday 30th July 2016, the Under-Twenty-Threes played a game against Sunderland Under-Twenty-Threes behind closed doors at Thorpe Arch. Sunderland were caught asleep in the very first minute and George Brady failed to deal with a loose ball and that forced James Talbot to concede a needless foul with just sixty seconds on the clock. While Talbot initially saved Malik Wilks' spot kick, the Leeds striker was the quicker to react and force home the rebound. Eight minutes later, Sunderland had the perfect chance to level the scores after Andrew Nelson's persistence had won him a penalty. The striker's powerful efforts had started to cause havoc in the Leeds defence and he was brought down in the penalty area as he was chasing Dan Casey's hopeful ball over the top. Nelson took the spot kick but the Leeds keeper saved with his feet. Malik Wils doubled the Leeds lead in the thirty-seventh minute when Leeds attacked down the right flank for Wilks to head home the cross from close-range to give Leeds a 2-0 lead. Sunderland could not retain possession but still managed to get in shots from Dan Pybus, Elliott Amblet and Josh Maja in the final minutes of the first half. But all were either blocked or were off-target as Leeds took their 2-0 lead to the break. Dan Wright scored with a close-range effort in the second half to reduce the arrears but an Alex Purver header into the bottom corner of the net ended any come-back by Sunderland as Leeds ran out 3-1 winners.

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