Leeds United head coach Paul Heckingbottom spoke exclusively to LUTV following Friday’s defeat at Middlesbrough.

A Patrick Bamford hat-trick at the Riverside secured Boro all three points in the Sky Bet Championship.

Leeds failed to back up last weekend’s victory over Brentford and United’s head coach was disappointed with the performance in the North East.

“It was a tough night, we were second best,” said Heckingbottom.

“We started brightly again which was good, but as soon as Middlesbrough started playing forwards, they dropped on all of the second balls and gained territory.

“The disappointing thing is that they won a lot more one versus one duels all over the pitch and we have to be better than that.

“We could have done better with the two goals in the first half, for the first we let Stuart Downing come inside onto his stronger foot and deliver a cross.

“For the second goal, Traore is a bit weapon for them and we had two or three opportunities to take the foul and stop the attack.

“I’ll watch it back and I could say it is good play from Traore, but I’d rather take the foul against us and nullify the threat, so they were disappointing goals to concede.

“We didn’t produce anything of note on target, we had more possession in Middlesbrough’s half after the break, we needed to get the ball wide and get good delivery into the box, which we didn’t.

“I’m not taking anything away from Middlesbrough, they played well, they were up for the game and their good players performed, but we have to be able to stand up to that and cope with that if we want to be at the top end.

“Our supporters were fantastic again, they are first class and were desperate to get behind the boys to try and get us back in the game.”

You can see the full interview with Paul Heckingbottom below: