Leeds United Under-21s were defeated away from home against Sunderland on Monday evening, in their latest Premier League 2 outing.

The Whites put in a much stronger showing in the second half of the match, but left themselves too much work to do after a tough first half in the North East which resulted in the eventual 5-2 scoreline in favour of the hosts.

Speaking to leedsunited.com after the game, Scott Gardner gave his thoughts.

He said: “There were just some young, naive decisions at times, but fair play to the players because they could have wilted at 3-0, but they got themselves back in the game.

“I thought maybe at the start the second half Sunderland were on top, but other than I thought the game was quite even.

“I'm really pleased when you look at the players who were coming on, we had a lot of young lads who didn’t look out of place and making good accounts of themselves.

Finishing by looking ahead to facing Spurs next up in PL2, Gardner added: “The message is just to get the basics right, some of the simple bits, not the difficult bits, which is where we're at, at the minute.

“And then get a bit of confidence from there and go again.”