The Whites recorded back-to-back clean sheets heading into the Championship campaign
Leeds United defender Luke Ayling was pleased his side were able to carry back-to-back clean sheets into the new Championship campaign after a tough few seasons defensively. The Whites conceded the most goals in the Premier League last season and were relegated as a result.
Clean sheets have been hard to come by, but a 2-0 win over Premier League side Nottingham Forest and a 1-0 win over Hearts builds a nice platform for Daniel Farke’s side to carry into the season.
Ayling told LUTV: “Yeah it’s a really nice way to finish. We had a good game on Thursday and to come here and back it up so soon after was really nice.
“We’ve not kept two clean sheets in a long time so for us it’s really nice to go into the season with. They finished fourth in their league last year so it was always going to be a good game.
“They sat back and made it hard for us but I feel like we played really well with the ball, we tried to keep it and play our style. We got a goal and the clean sheet is pleasing.
“We can’t wait for it to start. We’ve had five hard weeks of pre-season and we’ve had to build up to this moment. The friendlies are over and we’re going to have a few days off to get our legs back because it’s been long and hard.
“We’re going to come back in and really try and start this season well because we know it’s a long season. It’s good to start well.
“The mindset is to keep trying to build on what we’ve built so far in the last five weeks. We know how hard the league is, we know how hard it is to get out of this league.
“We’re going to take it game by game and try to win games. It’s a long season so don’t think it’s going to be won in August, we have to keep our heads and keep building.”
When asked if he was claiming the goal against the Jam Tarts, Ayling said: “Yeah, of course! It was on target, I gave the keeper the eyes and slid it in.”
