Luke Murphy admits scoring the winning goal in the last minute of his Leeds United debut was the stuff dreams are made of.

Luke sealed an opening day victory against Brighton when he latched onto Matt Smith’s knock down four minutes into stoppage time to secure a 2-1 triumph.

“I don’t think I could have asked for it to go better to be fair,” he said. “Getting three points was the main thing but it was a bonus for me to score the winner in the 90-odd minute.

“There was a long ball played up to Matt Smith and you know that he is going to win every header that goes up there, he is a real threat.

“He headed it down perfectly for me and I took it on my chest and then tried to side foot it. The keeper got about five touches on it and it somehow managed to go in but I’ll take that.

“You think about it when you are day dreaming that you’d love to score a goal at Elland Road on your debut in front of all those fans who turned out on Saturday, just to make them proud and happy to be a Leeds fan. For me, I’m delighted.”

United’s new midfielder is predicting another tight Championship season but feels the squad is more than ready after Saturday’s performance against last season’s beaten Play-Off semi-finalists.

“On the run of the game I think we deserved the win,” said Luke. “We had a few chances and we got the ball in the box quite a bit.

“They looked dangerous on the counter attack and Paddy Kenny pulled off some incredible saves a few minutes before I scored - but on the run of play I think we deserved it.

“Last season there were about 10 teams that could have gone up or down and I think it will be similar this season.

“Brighton were right up there last season and we beat them on Saturday and rightly so.”

A packed Elland Road witnessed Luke’s late strike and the midfielder was quick to pay tribute to the 33,000 plus crowd for the help and encourage they gave the team.

“I thought they were outstanding on Saturday, from the first minute, as soon as we walked out you could really feel that buzz,” said the midfielder. 

“I think that really helped us and they were our twelfth man on Saturday and we really needed that.

“We’ve got to use the positive energy from Saturday, the fans were outstanding and they have to come again in the near future and be that twelfth man like they were on Saturday and I’m sure that we’ll do our best to replay them.”