Leeds United boss Simon Grayson admits they struggled to live with Manchester United during their Carling Cup defeat last night.

Unfortunately, the hosts were never in it once they had failed to capitalise on some early pressure.

"You have to give credit to Manchester United," he said. "They caused us a lot of problems.

"We gave the ball away too cheaply. Too many individuals over indulged themselves rather than keeping it simple.

"When you do that against top players, they will punish you and we didn't do ourselves justice."

Grayson, whose team travel to Brighton on Friday evening, may come to rue his decision to field a virtually full-strength side, although he accepts some lessons may have been learned.

"Manchester United have the strongest squad they have had for years," he said. "The whole group played with immense confidence.

"The team they put out tonight could have beaten a host of Premier League sides. It shows the gulf that is between us.

"I made a decision not to make too many changes because I wanted to give Manchester United a game. We didn't do that."