David Batty the funny guy, 'bonkers' Gary Kelly and Jason Wilcox the impressionist were key to lifting Leeds United - Dominic Matteo

He was always pulling tricks on people and you might not think that about Batts because he kept himself to himself, but he liked a laugh and a joke.

He ruined people’s clothes and, in my era, that kind of stuff was commonplace, people winding each other up. Batts was one of those, without being around the lads that much because he was a very private guy. I found him really funny.

Gary Kelly was the life and soul of the place at Leeds. He always has been like that, he’s a great character too, he was absolutely bonkers and probably still is.

It’s so good to have people like that around the group and there were plenty of others at Leeds.

Jason Wilcox was in and out of the team when I played but he was another, a funny guy and a character. He had an old head on his shoulders but he was always doing impressions.

He used to do a pretty good one of Roy Hodgson.

When you’re having a bad day, or you’ve had a poor game or even a couple of bad weeks, you look to those characters because they keep spirits high and that’s so important. With those kind of people you don’t have to tell them, they just do it naturally.

They can carry everyone else forward by being entertaining and making everyone laugh. I was always involved if something was going on, we had a great bunch at Leeds who would help each other along the way.

At the moment, with the run Leeds are going through, you need those characters and Gjanni Alioski is one in the current squad.

I always think that when you’re having a tough time it’s good to have a bit of fun, a bit of a joke. We used to go and have a day out with the boys, play some pool, paintballing or anything just to get the group together. The gaffer wouldn’t be too happy sometimes but that bonding does sometimes get you results.

Brighton wasn’t a great result for Leeds and form hasn’t been good of late but Ally McCoist got it right in what he said about Leeds.

Ally speaks a lot of sense, he’s very honest and I like the way he talks about the game.

I agree, too. I’ve always thought Leeds will be all right.

We’ve had a few bad results along the way but there are teams around us that aren’t as good as us.

We might not be world-beaters but Sheffield United are really struggling and there are a couple around them that could fall into the same position.

Leeds will be fine.

Can we get any consistency? I’m not sure if we can at the minute.

It hasn’t been that bad – Brighton scored a lovely goal from a good move but could we have stopped it? Possibly. There were runners we struggled to track.

But when you don’t have your best players in their natural positions you can suffer when it comes to consistency and Kalvin Phillips is always such a big miss, maybe even the biggest possible absence for Leeds.

I know Pascal Struijk has played in the holding role before a few times but is he the best option when Phillips is out? Is he better playing at centre-half? Jack Harrison playing down the right instead of down the left didn’t make sense to me.

There are little things like that which can make a big difference and I know people will say I’m being negative but I still think we bomb forward at times with too many bodies. We could pick and choose a little more carefully when we ‘go for it’, you can’t always rely on your pace to get you out of trouble.

As people keep saying, we’ve been good to watch all season. We really are but I’d like people to be saying Leeds are a consistent side, good to watch and good week in and week out.

We need to be a little more consistent and follow up brilliant results with solid results.

Newcastle are up next and they’re having a tough time. Knowing Steve Bruce a little bit, I hope he gets through it. They’re a huge club with a big fanbase – Leeds and Newcastle are a bit similar in that respect, big fanbases that are a bit bonkers. They’re going to struggle without the fans in. Newcastle is one of the best games for atmosphere and it’s impossible to replicate that.

Leeds can’t feel sorry for anyone and need to steady their own ship a little bit so they’ll be out to make things worse for Bruce and his team.

I think Bielsa might play Diego Llorente now he’s fit. Liam Cooper and Luke Ayling are good players, you know what you’ll get from them, they’re whole hearted but I would like to see another central defender coming in there who focuses on the defensive side a bit more.

We’ve got Alioski, Ayling and Dallas in the back four who are all very attacking but we have so much talent in the attacking areas that we don’t always have to be bombing on from the back. For me, probably because I’m a defender, defensive improvement is the priority.

Dominic Matteo's column in association with Data Facilities