Bamford, 25, fell clutching his face, yet replays seemed to show no contact from Villa's Anwar El Ghazi and he was suspended for two games.

Now his concern is avoiding a reputation for "milking" decisions.

"Once I've put that in people's minds it's going to be hard to change that," the former Middlesbrough striker said.

"But it's something I've got to do over the next few years. Looking back, I regret it. I maintain he touched me but I milked it and made a stupid deal of it.

"I wouldn't do it again and it's something I have to learn from."

Bamford building bridges with Leeds supporters

Although his 10 goals in 25 games helped Leeds into the play-offs last season, it was a campaign interrupted by a cruciate ligament injury, which kept him out from September to mid-December, and further knee problems that sidelined him until February.

There was also some friction between Bamford and sections of the Leeds support.

"I took a bit of stick last year from the fans," he added.

"There will always be people who like you or aren't such fans (of you), and for me it's an opportunity to prove them wrong and get them on my side.

"If we'd gone up last year I'd have said it had been a great season, missing six months and getting 10 goals I'd have been chuffed.

"But because we didn't go up, it was a nightmare season."