Elliot Metcalfe, the young supporter who became Leeds United's first-ever virtual mascot against Arsenal on Sunday, has described the experience as 'amazing.'
Though Leeds are enjoying their first Premier League campaign in 16 years, it has been tinged with sadness as no supporters have been able to witness the matches live at Elland Road due to continued coronavirus restrictions.
With the stadium remaining empty it has also meant that no young fans can walk out with the side before matches as a mascot, but that changed on Sunday thanks to an ingenious solution.
Elliot, a life long Leeds fan who is bravely battling cancer, was able to join the Leeds players ahead of the match via video call to an iPad, which captain Liam Cooper held as they walked onto the pitch to face the Gunners.
Elliot and his family were also broadcast on the big screen and all of the players gave the young supporter a wave before kick-off.
When going into school the next day, Elliot soon discovered he'd become a celebrity with his class mates.
"I'm a bit shocked in a way I didn't expect all this to occur, yeah I didn't really think about it," he told LUTV.
"I got into school quite early before my class mates, I was just sat revising for a test and then when my friends came in they were showing me clips of me walking out with Liam Cooper and all the Leeds players, so I was quite amazed.
"I think they [school mates] were quite shocked as well because I didn't expect it to be where it is now with me being on some of the newspapers and being on Sky Sports, which I definitely didn't expect.
"When we started walking out of the tunnel I was very excited because I've always wanted to walk out of a professional football stadium tunnel and just seeing the pitch on the level he does is amazing."
The touching tribute was made possible thanks to the Make a Wish foundation and Elliot's mother, Sophie, explained how it all came to be.
"Well Elliot's always been a life long Leeds fan, as the rest of his family are as well," she said. "So when we've heard about Make a Wish, and the wish that they can grant, we said to Elilot: 'what would you like to do, what is the wish that money can't buy?'
"And he said: 'I'd love to be a mascot for Leeds United' and then that time obviously corona wasn't around so we thought he would be there in person and things and make a wish got in contact and said: 'would you like to do this virtually if the chance came about?'
"And we said: 'yeah, that'd be great' and we're so pleased that we did, it just made it extra special to be Leeds United's first virtual mascot, that's a claim to fame that you'll remember forever."
Marcelo Bielsa's side were held to a goalless draw against Arsenal, a match they should have won after Nicolas Pepe's red card reduced the visitors to 10 men.
Elliot also gave his verdict on the game and the season so far.
"I think we've played some good football, we've got unlucky in some results like last night," he added. "I think we could have got three points, we hit the cross-bar and the post I think twice so it just didn't go our way."
