Over 20,000 fans were in attendance as the young Whites hosted their Manchester City counterparts in an all-important Premier League 2 fixture.
Though the result of the match did not go in favour of Taylor’s side as they were humbled 3-1 by the league leaders, Taylor was overwhelmed by the assembling of such a huge crowd inside Elland Road for an Under-23 match.
Taylor took time to reveal his conversation with his Manchester City counterpart Brian Barry-Murphy, who he insists was astounded to see the fan following for an Under-23 game.
“You think you’ve seen a lot in football over the years”, Taylor was quoted as saying by Leeds Live.
“That to me is incredible, over 20,000 for an under-23 game on a Friday night.
“It epitomises this club really and since I’ve been here I’ve been astonished every other week.
“I was speaking to their manager before the game, he said, ‘why are there so many fans here, what’s the occasion?’, ‘Just because we put it out there and said come along and they come’.
“He was astounded and that’s the manager of the Man City 23s and he’s been a manager in the Football League before that and he’s coming here to Elland Road for a 23s game going ‘bloody hell, that’s amazing’.”
The Leeds Under-23s boss insists that the game provided as close to a first team experience at Elland Road as is possible.
“All credit to the fans, before the game I said to the lads, ‘look, this is going to be as close to a Premier League game without being a Premier League game that you’re going to get, you’ve got two good teams, you’re at Elland Road, you’ve got 20,000 fans and both teams need a result’.
“It’s a great experience for the lads and they sort of experience first-team football but in our control.”
The loss puts further pressure on Leeds United, who now lead relegation-threatened Chelsea by four points but have played two games more.
They play their final game of the season against Arsenal next Friday.
