Patrick Bamford reflects on 'stupid' Aston Villa dive and reveals Leeds United's recent unsung hero

Patrick Bamford has revealed he still receives messages on social media for what he describes as a "stupid dive" against Aston Villa two years ago.

The Whites will welcome Dean Smith's side to Elland Road on Saturday evening in the Premier League for the first time since a memorable clash between the two teams in West Yorkshire back in April 2019.

Leeds and Villa came to blows during the Championship promotion run-in in LS11 at the end of the 2018-19 campaign, Marcelo Bielsa's first in charge at the club.

The fixture is best remembered for Mateusz Klich's opening goal - which caused fury with the opposition after the Polish midfielder played on after Jonathan Kodjia had gone down on the halfway line.

In the aftermath of the goal, Bamford was involved in an incident with Anwar El Ghazi that led to the visiting winger being sent off amid a fracas between the sides.

United's number nine was later handed a two-match ban for deceiving the match officials while Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa was awarded a Fifa Fair Play Award for letting Villa score an equaliser unchallenged.

“It seems like over the last couple of years we have become rivals with Villa, I don’t know why,” he told the Official Leeds United Podcast ahead of this weekend's top flight meeting.

“Maybe it’s that whole thing I did with that stupid dive and we had to give them a goal and that kicked it off.

"That was one game though, surely you let go of that? I still get sent gifs and memes of me falling on the floor from that game and I’m like ‘come on, let it go, I’m so sorry’.”

Asked about the Whites' 3-0 win over Southampton in midweek and what made the difference in the second half, he said: "I think we upped the tempo. I actually think that looking back at it, Helder Costa coming on made a massive difference. The last two games he's been brilliant.

"He kind of gave us that little bit of extra pace, so we had pace on both sides of the wings.

"I think that he didn't get spoken much about because obviously Raphinha got all the plaudits from the pundits and stuff but I think Costa made a massive difference to us in the second half."