Leeds’s Brown hoping to upset friend Clayton in derby clash

THE text banter is already flowing between Leeds United midfielder Michael Brown and Huddersfield Town rival and good friend Adam Clayton ahead of Saturday’s West Yorkshire derby at Elland Road.
Michael BrownMichael Brown
Michael Brown

Brown currently possesses the bragging rights over former travelling companion Clayton – part of a group of Manchester-based Whites players who made the daily commute to training together last season – by virtue of a 4-2 away win at the John Smith’s Stadium on December 1.

Clayton will be eyeing a spot of revenge on Saturday lunch-time, although Brown feels the Mancunian will regret his excessive celebrations in front of United chief Neil Warnock after putting Town level at 2-2 – only to witness his former side have the last laugh.

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On Clayton’s histrionics, Brown said: “It is dangerous, isn’t it? But Adam loved it at Leeds, to be fair, and did not want to go and I think it was just his way of getting a bit of that relief (at proving a point) across.

“He will probably look at it and think it was slightly clumsy. But he is a nice kid and means well. Players move on and hopefully he will do well for the rest of his career.”

Saturday’s game is quite simply ‘must win’ if Leeds are to keep their Championship play-off prospects alive after Tuesday’s draw with Peterborough. Brown acknowledges United – who have doubts over Steve Morison and Tom Lees – have it all to do and while he claims team spirit and togetherness is sky-high in comparison to last season, it has not been replicated by consistent results.

He added: “We do have a great bunch of lads, I really truly mean that. When you go into work here, you don’t go into the dressing room and think, ‘I am not sure about him or him’. The gaffer has managed to get a great team spirit, we just need results now.

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“A couple of wins changes everything, although we are not stupid. We know we are behind the play-off pack and a couple of those teams (Nottingham Forest and Bolton) are winning and we’ve got to win all our remaining home games at least – starting Saturday.

“We had been in plenty of games recently, but just not seen teams off. We still have not had that cutting edge and have been sucker-punched at places like Wolves and Leicester.”