Jesse Marsch reacts to Leeds United's win over Brisbane Roar and addresses star man's absence

The Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast hosted the first of Leeds’ three tour games and Leeds got off to a lightning start with a disallowed goal inside 19 seconds and a 2-0 lead by the 25th minute.

An impressive first half showing was followed by a relatively drab second 45 minutes, with the Roar causing some problems for the visitors in both halves and scoring what turned out to be no more than a consolation through trialist Joe Knowles before the break. The hosts had a late chance to level through Jez Lofthouse but the substitute twice failed to control with Leeds keeper Kristoffer Klaesson already beaten.

Marsch was firstly delighted to be reunited with the Whites fanbase, 10,000 miles from home.

"Good energy in the crowd, good to see a lot of our fans – the one whole end of the pitch had a lot of Leeds supporters and we got to hear some familiar songs and a familiar atmosphere, so that was great” he said.

As for the performance, Marsch liked some of what he saw, particularly the gap opened up in the first half by Daniel James and Joe Gelhardt’s goals.

“I thought we had a really good start to the match,” he said.

"Maybe it's a really close call whether it's offside or not in the first minute. Then we were able to push the game and get the two zero lead. And then Brisbane did a good job getting a goal toward the end of the half and then second half I thought they put a lot into it, but I thought our guys got a little bit more fitness, Pascal was able to play 90 minutes tonight and we were injury free. We're working through some of the tactics. And you know, there were some good moments and then some moments where we allowed too many counters and too many big chances that way, but we'll keep working on it and and I feel like we're moving forward with this group.”

Gelhardt’s goal was a powerful header, finishing off a fine cross from James, and the youngster impressed his boss in the lone striker role, before Patrick Bamford returned to the side in the second half.

“I think the goal he scored was quite good and he always has some clever moments around the goal,” said Marsch.

"I thought that tactically he was aggressive in moments against the ball and then with the ball, he was creative and helped us create some chances. Again, I think he does really well to get up and win the header on the goal. So I thought we had two good goals.”

Marsch was true to his word, rotating players and giving a lot of them a chance to shine. The substitutions were all pre-planned, including the removal of James on the half hour mark after he had scored one and set up another.

“We were just kind of looking at how many training sessions guys have had,” said the head coach.

"We're going to have a real training session tomorrow. So tomorrow, except for Pascal, he'll need a regen day, but the rest of the guys will be looking to continue to build fitness and sharpness and clarity in every way. So trying to get everybody some some time on the pitch to work tactically and fitness wise, but then make sure that we still have some good training days where we can push things, so all those guys that played 30 we're just managing them physically or they came into camp a little bit late.”

Marsch confirmed that first choice goalkeeper Illan Meslier was simply rested for the game and the French Under 21 international will return for the next two matches of the tour, starting with the Suncorp Stadium clash with Aston Villa on Sunday in Brisbane.

's not the case with alarms who just rested. Yeah, we wanted to give more 90 minutes for goalkeepers so we'll be looking at Elon for the next two matches then when we're here