Graham Potter hails Ben White after his winning return to Elland Road

Brighton boss Graham Potter believes defender Ben White will have relished Saturday’s Premier League win at former club Leeds.

Neal Maupay struck the only goal in the first half, while White’s commanding display on his first return to Elland Road was instrumental in Brighton halting a nine-game winless league run.

“I think Ben’s been playing well,” said Potter after his side’s first top-flight win since November.

“He did well against Manchester City, he did well against Newport, at right-back, on a difficult pitch.

“I’m sure he’s delighted to go back to his old team and get the three points because he had a fantastic time here.”

White played all 46 Sky Bet Championship games for Leeds during his loan spell last season when helping them win promotion, mainly as a centre-half.

The versatile 23-year-old showed why Leeds had been so keen to sign him permanently in the summer with a dominant display in central midfield on Saturday.

“He speaks of nothing but respect for Leeds United and how they helped him and his career, so it’s nice for him to come back and get three points,” Potter said.

Brighton’s win was all the more impressive given they had been forced into extra time in last Sunday’s FA Cup penalty shoot-out win at Newport before losing 1-0 at Manchester City on Wednesday.

Despite having only 34 per cent of possession against lacklustre Leeds, the Seagulls created the better chances.

Leandro Trossard’s deflected cross hit the woodwork after Maupay had given them a 17th-minute lead and the Belgian fired narrowly off target in the second half.

“We had to defend,” Potter added. “We had to be quite smart in terms of what we asked the team to do because it’s our third game in six days and Leeds were fresh.

“So we had to be clever with our defensive organisation. You want to try and put a bit more possession together, but credit to Leeds, they don’t make it easy for you.

“We managed the game well and I thought had the better opportunities and attacked probably more efficiently.”

Leeds winger Jack Harrison admitted Brighton had been rewarded for doing their research.

“Our style of play is usually attacking and creating as many chances as possible and we struggled to do that today,” he told the club’s official website.
“They obviously did their homework and studied how we play.

“We struggled to create chances, fair play to them. They played the game they wanted to play and made it hard for us.

“They had a very compact defence and we struggled to break them down and get in behind them at times.”