BRENDEN AARONSON went some way towards healing the rift between a section of Leeds United supporters with a late equaliser in a thrilling 3-3 Championship opener with Portsmouth at Elland Road.

On his arrival as a 72nd minute substitute, the American was booed by a section of the home support unhappy at his decision to exit LS11 on loan to play in Germany last season.

Jeers turned to cheers deep into added-on time when he rescued a point by slotting home fellow sub Joel Piroe’s pass. His critics would have been even more forgiving had been buried another chance in the dying seconds after being played in by debutant Jayden Bogle.

“He was probably the most disappointed lad in the dressing room. He wants to prove his worth,” said manager Daniel Farke.

“He showed great character to fight with lots of effort and a good work-rate, scored a fantastic equaliser and could have been a hero.”

For regular Whites’ watchers the game had an all too familiar pattern. Leeds were totally dominant, missed too many chances and allowed the opposition to score with barely a handful of attacks. Thirty-nine touches in the box to Portsmouth’s six tells its own story.

League One champions Pompey should have been dead and buried in a whirlwind opening by Leeds whose Willie Gnonto, skipper Ethan Ampadu and Illia Gruev were all denied by the woodwork in a frenetic opening seven minutes.

They were rewarded when speedster Dan James was brought down by Connor Ogilvie after ten minutes, Pascal Struijk netting the resulting penalty.

The visitors dug in and midway through the half, stunned Leeds whose slack marking allowed Elias Sorensen to level with a shot through Illan Meslier.

The French goalkeeper should have done better but had no chance four minutes before half-time when Callum Lang collected a poor United clearance and thundered the ball in from 25-yards.

A minute after the interval, Gnonto dribbled into the box and shot low past Will Norris to make it 2-2. Leeds pushed hard to take the lead with Bogle feeding some good crosses in from theright, the best finding Mateo Joseph who could not deliver a goal to add to an impressive display on his Championship debut.

Two minutes into injury time, Bogle was adjudged by referee Oliver Langford to have brought down Christian Saydee and Lang slotted in the spot-kick for John Moushino’s men.

Maximum points looked as though they were heading back to the South Coast but Aaronson’s goal salvaged a point and should have completed the turn-around but shot wide at the death.

Farke, who felt the opening 20 minutes was as good as he had seen at Elland Road, said: “It’s just a point and we’re disappointed it’s not three. It’s important not to lose such a game.

"We’ve shown comeback quality two times today. We’re not overly happy but a draw is definitely better than a loss.”