There was less sideways and backwards passing than in recent games and basically the first half was the sort of entertainment you pay your money for!

Getting into the stadium itself was a bit of an ordeal with their newly erected concrete funnel and security checks and sniffer dogs making me wonder if Fort Knox might have been easier to gain access to.

However, we ourselves appeared to have struck "Gold" and sniffed out a goal barely two minutes into this contest when Will Keane pounced in the penalty area to turn in Liam Millar's low cross in the first attack of the game.

This sent the North End fans into raptures and quietened the normally partisan crowd so much that it prompted the away section to chant the "football in a library song" which bizarrely some Leeds fans decided to join in.

After they had equalised just a few minutes later they were back in voice proclaiming that they were the "Champions of Europe".

I personally did not think our task in getting a result would not be as formidable a challenge as that, viewing this game as an opportunity, which was proved at half-time when we went into the interval on level terms.

Although we had been on the ropes a bit in the closing stages of the half we had almost matched the home side attacking-wise statistically.

The team was quite rightly applauded off by the travelling faithful as we had played more on the front foot than I had expected against a side who were plying their trade in the Premier League last season.

There was less sideways and backwards passing than in recent games and basically the first half was the sort of entertainment you pay your money for which as a fan you like to see.

In the second half though we only managed an odd sporadic venture into our opponents’ penalty area and reverted to the more defensive style of football which unfortunately I am more used to seeing these days.

Whether it was because we tired or because the home side showed more of their obvious quality I do not know the reason for this.

What I did feel when we made the triple substitution15 minutes from time and reverted to a 4-1-4-1 formation was that the likelihood of us scoring was the same as me getting a chicken dinner made for me when I got back from my Sunday lunchtime trip.

It was also all hands to the pump defensively and I thought that a home goal would eventually seep through, just as sure as the water comes through sieve when you are draining the pasta.

Unfortunately for North End, my fears proved to be correct.

And instead of preserving a valuable point, we ended up with diddly squatfrom this game which, inreality, is the outcome which I had expected beforehand.