Marcelo Bielsa permits rare treat in training to lift Leeds United mood ahead of Newcastle United clash after frustration of Brighton loss

The striker admits Saturday's Elland Road loss left the squad feeling down but a somewhat unique day of head tennis tournaments has helped lift spirits as the Whites build up to next Tuesday's visit to Newcastle United.

Losing to Brighton in the manner they did, without creating the usual high number of chances, was a source of personal and collective annoyance.

"I was so frustrated," said Bamford on the club's official podcast, addressing a rare goalscoring opportunity he was unable to take.

"In the first half I think I touched the ball four times so when it came across I wanted to leather the ball and missed it. I looked around and saw the [offside] flag for whoever crossed the ball and thought 'thank God for that.'

"I felt it was probably our worst game. Even though sometimes we've controlled possession, our actual output in terms of clear cut chances - I'm not sure how many shots we had on target - was lacking. It was a frustrating game. 0-0 was probably the right result, I don't think either team did enough to win it, even though Brighton came out the winners.

"We were frustrated after the game in the changing room, everyone was a bit down because of the performance, we were all blaming the pitch and saying how shocking it was but we knew we weren't good enough ourselves."

That mood has not carried into what is a long week of training, however.

A number of Bamford's first-team colleagues were given a run out in Monday's Under 23s clash with Stoke City, including Diego Llorente and Kalvin Phillips, and there was a change to the normal training routine.

The bigger picture is also helping to keep Bamford's chin up.

"To be fair since we came back in it's just been a steady build up to the next game," he said.

"We had a day of head tennis tournaments, which is unheard of in our training. It was trying to boost the spirits a little bit. We had some players playing in the 23s the other day but in general everyone is upbeat.

"At the start of the season if someone said you're going to be 12th with this many points at this stage everyone would have bit their hand off.

"It just shows how optimistic we are and how much we believe in ourselves, that we should be doing better."

What the club's leading goalscorer could have done without, however, was such a long time off after the Brighton game.

With 10 goals in 18 games Bamford has hit the ground running in the Premier League, but the lighter schedule is still taking some getting used to.

"It's annoying," he said.

"In the Championship you play Saturday, Tuesday most weeks whereas now sometimes it's eight days between games, 10 in this instance, it's frustrating because you want to put it right straight away.

"Even if you're tired, it is better playing games. You don't want a long week of just training, compared to games it's boring, you don't get the same adrenaline rush. You want to be playing games as much as possible."