ON THE PREVIOUS occasion Leeds United left the Withdean Stadium pitch in defeat, they had had two players sent off, Kevin Blackwell did not sleep for two days, a director clambered into the media area to slate the team and the club were about to flirt with administration again.

Leeds have been transformed in the 15 turbulent months since they reached their nadir and the club’s manager said that they are ahead of schedule after an impressive push towards a return to the top flight. “That day was as low as I’ve ever felt in the game, as it had almost come to a point where we were a club destined for failure,” Blackwell said. “It’s been a hairy ride.”

Blackwell said that he will not forget those bullies who exploited their vulnerability, which is probably also a fair picture of his team’s self-inflicted defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. Having clawed their way back into the match with a soft penalty converted by Robbie Blake, Leeds were slapdash in their efforts to win it on a cow-pat pitch.

“This is a horrible place to come and you can’t play football on a battleground,” Shaun Derry, the Leeds midfield player, said. “Teams raise the bar against Leeds and we thought we had combated (that). We came unstuck. We have been criticised for being sloppy, people switching off.”

Leeds’s defeat came after a run of eight wins in nine league matches and left them 12 points behind Sheffield United, who are in the second automatic promotion spot. “As soon as we got in the dressing-room, we heard that Sheffield drew, so mentally we have lost one point, not three,” Derry said. “We have the FA Cup against Wigan Athletic this week, when perhaps we will get our confidence back.”

Brighton brimmed with invention in spells, led by Sébastien Carole, whose speed and nimbleness unsettled Leeds. A flick by Paul Reid gave Brighton the early lead and a cross by the midfield player was swept home by Gary Hart to lift them out of the relegation zone.

Mark McGhee, the Brighton manager, hopes to bring in two forwards this month. “We are bottom of the food chain,” he said. “Players that we fancied have gone to other clubs for all sorts of reasons — it is a third-world football ground, for sure.”