BRISTOL CITY were comfortably beaten on the opening weekend of the Championship season by a Leeds United team that are likely to be in the mix for automatic promotion come the end of the season, writes Will Collins.

Following their play-off semi-final defeat to Derby County in May, Leeds looked to have quickly regrouped; determined to go one better than last season.

City struggled to cope with Leeds’ high-press from the start and Pablo Hernandez who scored against City last season in a 2-0 win at Elland Road, opened the scoring on 26 minutes with a fine curling effort from the edge of the penalty area that had Bentley in the City goal easily beaten. Arguably, City’s record signing Kalas could have closed Hernandez down quicker but it may not have made a difference in any case.

Shortly after Brownhill had a chance for City that was saved smartly by the extravagant Casilla in the Leeds goal.

Twelve minutes into the second half Hernandez turned provider as his cross was converted by Bamford’s header which Bentley had little chance of stopping. With the score at 2-0 City desperately needed a quick response. Brownhill went close from a free-kick on 68 minutes but the ball went fractionally wide.

But a couple of minutes later the game was all over. A quick counter-attack from the away side resulted in Harrison firing in from close-range. City did get their goal in the 79th minute when Weimann beat his man and smashed the ball home at the near post but it was too little too late as the score finished 3-1 to Leeds.

City have plenty to work on ahead of Saturday’s trip to St Andrews to face Birmingham City (3pm). This is followed by a visit to Loftus Road to play QPR in the first round of the EFL Cup (7.45pm).