Can I get to the end of the preview without saying that it’s Cheltenham Town’s cup final?

Simon Grayson is keeping his squad on their toes ahead of tomorrow’s game with Cheltenham, a match that Leeds have to win to get our play-off campaign back on track. He told the official site "Changes are a possibility.  Players who have been around the squad may have a chance to come into the fold and prove that they are there to stay until the end of the season, because the performance on Tuesday at Hereford wasn't acceptable. Players will be looking over the shoulders and those that are in there have to prove they are capable of staying there.”

 Jonathan Douglas back from suspension, but Jermaine Beckford is still banned for one more game. So it’s fortunate that Becchio is eligible to play before he has to serve a one match ban of his own against Scunthorpe next week, especially as Liam Dickinson won’t be joining us on loan as he’s now picked up an injury. Grayson has hinted that Dickinson may yet come to Elland Road at some point in the future, if and when he regains his fitness, but also said that he is now looking elsewhere for possible loan signings.

And we’ve still got to get somebody to fill in at right back, with Richardson and Hughes both still struggling for fitness. According to Simon Grayson, "Both injuries are coming along nicely, although whether the weekend comes too soon we'll have to see."  Carl Dickinson played at right back on Tuesday, but he has returned to Stoke as his loan spell has finished, so maybe Douglas will have to take his turn in that position.

Although Cheltenham have slumped to the bottom of the table after losing two games in the last week, Grayson is keen to make sure that we don’t regard the match as a foregone conclusion. "It'll be a tough battle.  If you underestimate teams like Cheltenham you can have a rude awakening. You have to be physically and mentally right because they will be well drilled and well organised, but it's what we do that counts.  If we do what we've done in the last three home games we'll get a positive result, but if we slip to the level we did on Tuesday - which I don't expect us to - we won't. We have to put that right on Saturday”.

Ian Westlake will be making his first appearance at Elland Road for over a year, and to be able to do so he’s had to leave the club and come back as an opposition player. He was a regular under Dennis Wise when Leeds started our first campain in League One, and played a part in the seven straight wins with which we began that campaign after the fifteen point deduction. He told the Western Daily Press "Under Wisey, I felt I did well for Leeds. But under McAllister, I knew I wasn't going to play for Leeds again. That happens at a lot of places and it's happened here to players, but you have to get on with it."

After a loan spell at Cheltenham he completed a permanent move in January and has made a decent start at Whaddon Road. As far as tomorrow is concerned, he is more concerned with impressing his own fans than making a point to Leeds. "I don't feel I have a point to prove with Leeds and my point to prove might actually be with Cheltenham.  It's nice to play against your old club, but I don't feel like I have anything to put right there”.

 Cheltenham have a few selection problems of their own to sort out. Striker Ashley Vincent is rated as 50/50 due to an ankle injury while defenders Shane Duff (back) and Drissa Diallo (head) are also face fitness tests before the visitors announce their starting line-up. Winger Nicholas Bignall has recovered from the eye injury that kept him out of their game on Tuesday, while Michail Antonio, 18, has arrived on a one-month loand deal from Reading. Defender Lee Ridley serves the second game of a three-match ban after being sent off against Hereford on Saturday. 

And what does legendary Cheltenham manager Martin ‘mad dog’ Allen make of it all? He told BBC Points West “I'm looking forward to going to Elland Road. It is a great stadium and they have a lot of good players, but so have we, and it should be a great occasion." So he doesn’t regard it as Cheltenham’s cup final then, absolutely not, no way. Thank the lord for that.

Photo: Action Images

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