Simon Grayson hoping for easier life with Leeds in the Championship

Leeds United v Bristol Rovers
Leeds manager Simon Grayson, left, celebrates victory and promotion at Elland Road. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images

Simon Grayson is expecting life to get slightly easier when Leeds United begin next season in the Championship. "I'm hoping the hard part is behind us now," the Leeds manager said after a 2-1 victory over Bristol Rovers secured the second automatic promotion spot before a raucous full house at Elland Road. "We do have a habit of making life hard for ourselves, and we couldn't have made it much harder than going a man down and then a goal down."

Grayson's theory is that a club of Leeds' size will not stand out so much in the Championship, where they will find themselves playing against more or less equals most of the time. "In Division One we found everyone raising their game against us, looking forward to the fixture for months," he said.

"In the Championship we will not be so much of a scalp, and hopefully things will return to normal. Not that there is ever much normal or easy about being Leeds. It's just not that sort of club."

Saturday's events certainly bore that out. With nothing to play for Rovers gamely made Leeds work for the result, though it was the home side's capacity for creating their own obstacles that made the afternoon so tense. Leeds had to play with 10 men for more than an hour after Max Gradel combusted in spectacular fashion on being shown a straight red for a retaliatory attack on Daniel Jones. The Ivorian winger refused to leave the pitch at first, fought briefly with his own captain and was eventually led away by security officials.

When Leeds went behind to a Darryl Duffy goal at the start of the second half the 38,234 crowd fell silent until an inspired substitution by the manager who got Blackpool promoted three years ago got the party started. Jon Howson hit a glorious equaliser after being on the pitch less than five minutes, before Jermaine Beckford produced the winner in possibly his last game for the club. "We always had belief," Grayson said. "Even when we went down to 10 men I still knew we had players who could get us goals."