Liam Cooper spoke to LUTV after returning to action at the heart of the defence on Wednesday night, following injury.

The captain began by giving his thoughts on the game, after his Leeds United side were beaten at home by Chelsea. 

Discussing the early goal, Cooper said: “It was a counter attack, and a great finish, but it’s just difficult to take so early.

“I felt we started the game bright, and obviously the goal changed it but we were still in the game. 

“The red card changes it a lot, we had to have a bit more of a negative approach to the game, pick and choose when we go to try and nick something on the counter attack.

“It’s difficult against top quality opposition, it really is, they kept the ball well. I thought we were resilient for long periods of the game but the quality of Chelsea came through. 

“It’s tough to take, but you can either sit here and feel sorry for yourself or you can come out swinging and make a good go of it."

Attention now turns to the final home match of the season on Sunday, when Leeds face Brighton in a match that Cooper has described as massive.  

“We have to pick the lads up, we’ve got a massive game at home at the weekend,” the skipper told LUTV.

“We all need to pull together and make it one hell of an atmosphere here at the weekend, like the fans always do, and we have to produce on the pitch as well.

“It’s a massive game, let’s make a right good go of it. From our point of view, my message to the lads is that we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we’re in a fight and we know that. 

“We’ve got to go and be positive, approach the game and get a result in any way possible. 

“It doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t have to be nice, we have to go and do it the Leeds way and hopefully we can do that at the weekend.”